DDK to LeMans ....

[hot66]

As you know, a few ddkers made a last minute decision to blast down to LeMans to hopefully experience a Porsche win

So there we were .... Myself, and sjm73 in my 964 , and JohnM and a caterham owning interloper, Paul in Johns 2.2E ......all getting up at 4am to travel from just outside Cambridge with the plan of arriving in LeMans mid afternoon.




.... And as can always be expected with these trips, I started my car, drove it on to the road to wait for Simon to get in and the engine promptly died and wouldn't re start ! It was at this point I had decided me and LeMans is jinxed

So , quick panic fiddle about with the relays and she fired back up .... And luckily she continued to be fine for the rest of the 1000 miles + trip .

[hot66]

Onwards to the tunnel, ..... Was amazed though at how busy the roads are in the south at 5am



The intrepid travellers .... Feeling slightly weary having already been up for 3.5 hours



We were expecting heavy rain for the drive down, but things were on our side . We took the motorways down towards Rouen then a new route I'd planned taking us cross country and travelling east of Rouen to cross the seine without having to drive through the city ..... Turned out to be a superb option, which led us to accidentally stumble across an amazing little restaurant where we had the most amazing 3 course meal incl a drink for 16 euros each

[DustyM]

So , quick panic fiddle about with the relays and she fired back up ....

Hope you have the obligatory spare DME relay in the glovebox?

Looking forward to the rest of the report.

[johnM]

Looking forward to the rest of the report.

Me too, wonder how they get on.

[hot66]

We'd decided to camp at LeMans away from the more traditional and rowdy sites and instead camp at Mulsanne Corner, knowing we had one of the best viewing points and for old boys like us less of the chav crowd banging on all night

To be honest, we'd expected it to be heaving but it turned out to be just right with plenty of space in the trees .



View from our tent ... Nice and close to the action .... But had forgotten just how much he trees deflect the sound back at you .....



Track getting prepped ready for action



The more lively end of he campsite right on the corner facing the big screen





Don't ask

[hot66]

Now it was at this point car problem no 2 occurred ..... One of JohnM s fancy sticky tyres decided to go flat, the offside rear. No problem you'd have thought, so john gently drove it up onto the Tarmac track so he could jack it up and swap on the spare .....which would have been fine if john hadn't brought a jack that worked perfectly when there are no oil cooler pipes fitted.... Unfortunately John had fitted a front oil cooler ! I could remind john at this point the exact words of advice I gave .... But let's just say johns idea of loosening the oils pipe clamps on the sill so he could get the jack on worked fine to allow the wheel to be changed .... Flat tyre sorted , massive oil leak from the thermostat area now problem no 3

Unfortunately the slight movement of the return pipe had highlighted a weak area where the pipe olive / flange had split. Not good and looking like game over for the 2.2e

[DustyM]

I bet the air was blue!

[hot66]

So, Saturday morning came and so did the crowds



We watched some of the support races, The Aston Martin race and the classic race

Video here of the astons

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/hot66/m ... k.mp4.html

The it was time to jump on the free bus and head into the circuit for the start of the race

Bumper crowd this year, and you could tell

[hot66]

And in all the crowds , I heard a voice I recognised , and there was Alan and his wife from Scotland ( Alan with the 964RUF that joined us all for the Scottish Ddk trip)


Were Audi going to win again ?



Girls



More girls



Superb Lego RSR



Meat for breakfast, meat for lunch , meat for tea .... The LeMans diet



Back Mulsanne and back to the racing .... Was convinced this wasn't going to be the winning car



thought Webber had it in car 17

[hot66]

Some of us managed to stay up later than others , but to be fair by sat night tiredness was starting to catch up with us all .

Appolgies for photo quality, hope they shows the atmosphere though





Photobomb by a strange woman

[dean1057]

Great report James, any more to come?

[hot66]

Unlike the classic, the noise is relentless .... Which from my point of view actually made it easier to sleep , .... Which was useful as Sunday we were leaving before the end of the race to make it up to the tunnel for 16:30. It did mean though that conversation was nigh on impossible whilst sat watching and ear plugs were needed . He big screen was superb and unlike the classic you could actually follow the race

So what about johns car ... John and Paul headed into Mulsanne and found a friendly garage that repaired the puncture in johns tyre and then tried to seal the oil leak using a jubilee clip and some rubber , unfortunately this didn't work

Back at the campsite, a few beers in and armed with he old inner tube and a pair of scissors john fashioned and array of rubber strips and managed to come up with a nifty modded version of what the garage man had tried to do ... And this time it was successful

The big test was going to be Sunday on the 6 hour cross country drive up to the tunnel .... We drove a short way and checked all was fine, then continued on with a couple of extra stops making sure all was well .... And it was

Only issue we had was my attempt at ordering some food at a local patisserie where we ended up with a weird folded pizza thing to share between us all and then discovered it had anchovies init .... And I hate fish !



So they we are, set off from Cambridge 4am fri, back in the UK 5:30 on Sunday, with both me and John having another 5hours driving ahead of us

I got home just as the sun was setting



Amazing weekend with great friends.... 2000 Km's in total for me door to door, a bit of oil used , a bit of petrol used and some great French roads and another great bonding road trip for me and the 964. It has really got under my skin and the perfect car for his kind of road trip ....... Next year the Classic again

[Darren65]

..... Next year the Classic again

.....and very much looking forward to that.

Great report James........happy days

[Burma-Shave]

Brilliant stuff, 964 looking good, great news that John's car got fixed.
I had no idea you could just camp in the woods at Mulsanne..
As John would put it..well jel. Def up for the classic again too.

[hot66]

To answer questions .... John, yes I have a spare dme in the glove box, not fitted it though. Only had that problem once before , exactly the same weather, early morning fresh yet damp ... Rennlist reckon it could be the dme playing up I those conditions. Also had a slight hot,start issue exactly when the car needed to start as it was in the que to get on the train but again seems a common thing.

Johnny , don't tell too many, it was superb camping at Mulsanne as it was quiet on the Friday, and on the Saturday / Sunday you were right there in the action. Lots of spectators coming and going of course , but as there were not that ,any campers the toilets and showers were clean and no ques. Downside was the distance to the centre of the track, but there is a free bus service, although the ques for that were huge at certain times

For the classic, it's not really given as an option as there is no bus service running although I do remember a few campers there last time

Darren, the classic in the Mongral ..... I might even see if I can break my run of CLM bad luck and take the S again