My Le Mans photo report (picture heavy!!)
06-19-2017, 12:24 PM
#1
Racer
Thread Starter
My Le Mans photo report (picture heavy!!)
One of the best "car related" weekend of my life...I'm just blown away by the whole thing, such an unforgettable event, without even taking into account Porsche's victory and how crazy and rich of great motoring moments the whole race have been! Great to see a lot of old and new friends there as well, some from RL/918 Group and other from different part of the world!
Here a (long) photo report of the whole trip, which started on Thursday at 5.30pm from London after what seemed like the longest day in the office I could remember in years!
The first hour of the trip, the "let's get the f**k out of London" has been as predictable the worst, so not many pictures other than the delivery of the car from the great Topaz Detailing guys who worked around the clock to make sure the car was adequately protected for its first road trip:
Arrived at the Eurotunnel, around 2hrs after leaving the City, ready to cross!
A rather nice DB5 on the parking of the Eurotunnel
In France, perfect trip, very few people on the road, and an incredible sunset!
Was supposed to spend the night in Rouen but while on my I found out way a friend was in Paris for the weekend so I thought it would have been a better idea to join him there for few drinks and a nice chat, not before a touristic tour of an empty city!
Early start the following day from Paris, again, no one on the road, was able to get out of the city in a very little time, never happened before!!
First stop was in the outskirt of Le Mans, in a splendid Chateau that the great guys of Club Mulholland (http://www.clubmulholland.com/) rented for the whole weekend.
Fuel stop on our way to the Hotel de France for lunch:
A chap attending the event with Club Mulholland was a very interesting fellow Porsche nut South African, he's on Instagram under the name of @frisco911, if you are not following him already you definitely should, he's driving his 911 T/R around the globe (currently in New Zealand) and his trip reports are fantastic. He owns some other very tasty Porsche, like the 911 S/T with period Le Mans competition history that he generously let me drive on the way to the Hotel de France...one of the highest moments of my aircooled life...still have goosebumps thinking at that 2.5lt revving to 9200rpms! Such an amazing car, I'm so grateful to having been allowed to drive a real piece of Porsche history. I was pleased enough to hear that he enjoyed a lot his drive in the Singer, mentioning it exceeded by far his high expectations on that car!!
After a rather good drive, we arrived at the Hotel de France, where Paul, the mastermind of Club Mulholland, arranged not only the best table of the whole restaurant, but also parking spaces in front of the most iconic hotel of the area for his guests/club members.
After lunch we drove back to the circuit to take some pictures at the Porsche Curves:
In a happy place
After that, straight to check in at the Porsche Hotel, a temporary hotel built at the Exposition Centre, a short walk to the track and perfectly located for access without too much queue from the back roads:
Funnily enough, the Singer has been the only car together with a 918 to be allowed to park in front of the Hotel, not sure they knew exactly what it was!
The pitlane was open so went for a quick walk to start getting into the race mood
Just some time for unpacking and a quick shower and I was on my way back to the Club Mulholland chaps for a tasty barbecue, the road to get there, at sunset, was magic...
Back at the hotel for the night:
The following morning, up early to see the warm up and the Carrera Supercup race. The main hospitality was at the Porsche Experience Centre, the food was amazing and the service absolutely impeccable.
In the afternoon Porsche organized Helicopter tours of the track, seeing the cars racing from above was a personal first and absolutely mind blowing, amazing experience!!
Back at the Experience Centre, there was a real Porsche Cup car simulator with real pedal box, steering, seat etc where you could drive the Weissach test track together with one of the instructors used by their drivers to test and get confidence in new tracks, car setting etc...absolutely incredible experience, think I would have done around 500k GBP in damages if the car was real!!
In the late afternoon it was time for a tour in the pit suite overlooking the pit lane and in the LMP1 Porsche box, clearly one of the highlight of the day as in the middle of the real action
Then came the night, as I never witnessed a 24h race, this was the part I was waiting for, seeing the cars flying by in the darkness is absolutely unforgettable, I moved in various parts of the track during the night and I was blown away, literally!
The lounge bar of the hospitality has been that busy during the whole night, great mood especially after the 2 Toyota broke down in quick succession
Went to bed around 2.30am, I was quite satisfied with all that I had experienced during the day and night and proper shattered after a long day under the sun and plenty of food/drinks/chats etc
The following morning I was set to leave quite early (around 10am) as I didn't want to hit too much traffic on the way home...a shame really as I missed all the action from the last bits of the race but all in it was by far the best racing weekend I ever had so I was quite satisfied and happy to leave it as it was.
Last stop at the Porsche Curves where I spent quite some time the night before but I wanted to see as well during the day, setup there for Porsche was amazing as well with a bar serving german food and loads of beer!
The drive home has been quite cool as well, together with a friend who wrapped his 918 in a suitable livery for the event!
Obvious picture inside the Eurotunnel
Can't clearly wait for next year...I think I'm hooked now, can totally see why there is people going there 10, 20, 30 years in a row!!
See you in 2018 Le Mans!!
Here a (long) photo report of the whole trip, which started on Thursday at 5.30pm from London after what seemed like the longest day in the office I could remember in years!
The first hour of the trip, the "let's get the f**k out of London" has been as predictable the worst, so not many pictures other than the delivery of the car from the great Topaz Detailing guys who worked around the clock to make sure the car was adequately protected for its first road trip:
Arrived at the Eurotunnel, around 2hrs after leaving the City, ready to cross!
A rather nice DB5 on the parking of the Eurotunnel
In France, perfect trip, very few people on the road, and an incredible sunset!
Was supposed to spend the night in Rouen but while on my I found out way a friend was in Paris for the weekend so I thought it would have been a better idea to join him there for few drinks and a nice chat, not before a touristic tour of an empty city!
Early start the following day from Paris, again, no one on the road, was able to get out of the city in a very little time, never happened before!!
First stop was in the outskirt of Le Mans, in a splendid Chateau that the great guys of Club Mulholland (http://www.clubmulholland.com/) rented for the whole weekend.
Fuel stop on our way to the Hotel de France for lunch:
A chap attending the event with Club Mulholland was a very interesting fellow Porsche nut South African, he's on Instagram under the name of @frisco911, if you are not following him already you definitely should, he's driving his 911 T/R around the globe (currently in New Zealand) and his trip reports are fantastic. He owns some other very tasty Porsche, like the 911 S/T with period Le Mans competition history that he generously let me drive on the way to the Hotel de France...one of the highest moments of my aircooled life...still have goosebumps thinking at that 2.5lt revving to 9200rpms! Such an amazing car, I'm so grateful to having been allowed to drive a real piece of Porsche history. I was pleased enough to hear that he enjoyed a lot his drive in the Singer, mentioning it exceeded by far his high expectations on that car!!
After a rather good drive, we arrived at the Hotel de France, where Paul, the mastermind of Club Mulholland, arranged not only the best table of the whole restaurant, but also parking spaces in front of the most iconic hotel of the area for his guests/club members.
After lunch we drove back to the circuit to take some pictures at the Porsche Curves:
In a happy place
After that, straight to check in at the Porsche Hotel, a temporary hotel built at the Exposition Centre, a short walk to the track and perfectly located for access without too much queue from the back roads:
Funnily enough, the Singer has been the only car together with a 918 to be allowed to park in front of the Hotel, not sure they knew exactly what it was!
The pitlane was open so went for a quick walk to start getting into the race mood
Just some time for unpacking and a quick shower and I was on my way back to the Club Mulholland chaps for a tasty barbecue, the road to get there, at sunset, was magic...
Back at the hotel for the night:
The following morning, up early to see the warm up and the Carrera Supercup race. The main hospitality was at the Porsche Experience Centre, the food was amazing and the service absolutely impeccable.
In the afternoon Porsche organized Helicopter tours of the track, seeing the cars racing from above was a personal first and absolutely mind blowing, amazing experience!!
Back at the Experience Centre, there was a real Porsche Cup car simulator with real pedal box, steering, seat etc where you could drive the Weissach test track together with one of the instructors used by their drivers to test and get confidence in new tracks, car setting etc...absolutely incredible experience, think I would have done around 500k GBP in damages if the car was real!!
In the late afternoon it was time for a tour in the pit suite overlooking the pit lane and in the LMP1 Porsche box, clearly one of the highlight of the day as in the middle of the real action
Then came the night, as I never witnessed a 24h race, this was the part I was waiting for, seeing the cars flying by in the darkness is absolutely unforgettable, I moved in various parts of the track during the night and I was blown away, literally!
The lounge bar of the hospitality has been that busy during the whole night, great mood especially after the 2 Toyota broke down in quick succession
Went to bed around 2.30am, I was quite satisfied with all that I had experienced during the day and night and proper shattered after a long day under the sun and plenty of food/drinks/chats etc
The following morning I was set to leave quite early (around 10am) as I didn't want to hit too much traffic on the way home...a shame really as I missed all the action from the last bits of the race but all in it was by far the best racing weekend I ever had so I was quite satisfied and happy to leave it as it was.
Last stop at the Porsche Curves where I spent quite some time the night before but I wanted to see as well during the day, setup there for Porsche was amazing as well with a bar serving german food and loads of beer!
The drive home has been quite cool as well, together with a friend who wrapped his 918 in a suitable livery for the event!
Obvious picture inside the Eurotunnel
Can't clearly wait for next year...I think I'm hooked now, can totally see why there is people going there 10, 20, 30 years in a row!!
See you in 2018 Le Mans!!
06-19-2017, 12:35 PM
#2
Drifting
Really nice post, felt like I was there. Never been. 2 questions:
1) Why did you decide to leave early?
2) Can you give us an idea how you arranged this?
1) Why did you decide to leave early?
2) Can you give us an idea how you arranged this?
06-19-2017, 01:03 PM
#4
uninformed gas bag
(contemplating on whether gas bag is one or two words)
Rennlist Member
(contemplating on whether gas bag is one or two words)
Rennlist Member
That looks to be at least a two soul sell to the devil excursion. Where'd you get the extra one?
06-19-2017, 01:11 PM
#6
Rennlist Member
That looks like one hell of a trip. Really nice photos.
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06-19-2017, 01:18 PM
#9
Rennlist
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Fantastic! Thank you for sharing!
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www.peterkrause.net
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"Combining the Art and Science of Driving Fast!"
Specializing in Professional, Private Driver Performance Evaluation and Optimization
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-Peter Krause
www.peterkrause.net
www.gofasternow.com
"Combining the Art and Science of Driving Fast!"
Specializing in Professional, Private Driver Performance Evaluation and Optimization
Consultation Available Remotely and at VIRginia International Raceway
