Le Mans - How was it?

Post by **Bushy** » Mon Mar 29, 2004 5:43 pm

Any pictures?

Any reports?

Gutted I missed out so need some info on how everyone got on

Bushy

Post by **fatcat** » Mon Mar 29, 2004 9:36 pm

Blimey, I'm first on - not bad for the Tdi driver (dig dig).....

First off, I'd like to say a big THANKYOU to RS246 for organising this trip, the best track weekend I have ever had.........

Big thanks to Eric, Phil & to John and all the others who helped make this weekend work the way it did - you all did a great job, in addition a megga big bugger off thanks to all who went and made the weekend the great event it was.
Lastly guys (and Heather) thanks for making me welcome and not taking the p1ss out of me tooooooooo much.........

Where do you begin..... for me the weekend started at Dover on a shitty cold and wet Saturday morning - enjoying a nice coffee in the 1st class lounge - pity not all of us were there to share it, but some of us had to get there on time (another dig).
Hoverspeed had over booked the crossing so a few of the guys had to take a later 'slower' ferry, we all caught up with each other in France after giving the cars a wipe down with a damp cloth.

On the way down we stopped at Bernay and instead of sampling some French cuisine we opted for some McDonalds...... their quarter pounders have been renamed 280 gram burgers (bless the EU)!!

After some spirited driving, we found ourselves at the Hotel in LeMans, the place was heaving with Audi's and we quickly settled into the bar...

...................... someone needs to fill in the blanks at this stage...

The next morning, bright eyed and bushy tailed we headed off to the track, just above freezing with a beautiful blue sky, the sight of approaching the track in the morning light was stunning.

After settling in the paddock, we generally buzzed about the place, taking stock of the Audi's, Porche's, BMW's, Scoobys, etc etc etc, there were some fine machines.....
After the safety briefing, we sorted ourselves out and headed out for a few sighting laps.......

This track was the best I've ever driven on, nice new tarmac, flat as a pancake, great lines and more than enough run off (but thats another story)

Lunch was served on th top floor of the tower with a 360 degree view of the circuit, after lunch we hit the track - again.

A few offs closed the track for some time, but someone else can desribe them.

The day ended about 6pm, we headed back to the hotel and started drinking.........
We nipped out for dinner to a place that served buffalo wings and things, Heather did a dance on the tables and a number of unnamed persons carried on at a local 'club'........

Somehow we all 'just' made it in the morning, a couple of us forgetting to check out and pay their bill............ c'mon own up.

Another spirited drive back, stopping for a some French food on the way back, Phil made friends with a lovely old frence women in the resaurant, who kept showering him with gifts, but he can explain that one.

We all made it back to Sea Cat, 1st class all the way.... and here we are..... I'm shagged out.

A brief outline of what was a 1st class weekend.

I'm sure others will tell their stories and make a bigger and clearer picture.......

Thanks, for a great time.....

Cheers

Pete

anybody now wanna buy a diesel............

Post by **Thorney** » Tue Mar 30, 2004 7:10 am

Thought it would be a laugh.........damn house hunting.

WE NEED PICS

Post by **DaveP** » Tue Mar 30, 2004 8:52 am

Pics will be coming...there should be plenty between us all !

Yep, awesome time...fantastic weather, great people and driving through France in a convoy of RS4's (plus a few others) is something I'll never forget.

Thanks to everyone who went for making it a superb weekend....I'll definately be attending again !!

Two words....."Carbon Moustache"

Post by **kcsun** » Tue Mar 30, 2004 8:53 am

Good write up Pete
You forgot to mention the French gendames on the bridge and the English on the M2

Great weekend, great company, great track - MEGA thanks to Eric for organising it - when can we do it again

ken

Post by **fatcat** » Tue Mar 30, 2004 9:43 am

I forgot about the police on the motorway - gave me sweaty armpits.....

also forgot about the french moustache episode in the restaurant......

a few other reminders were, on the way home with me leading the pack and having to slam on the anchors whilst trying to avoid running into the back of a truck doing 20mph ..... that was hairy !!
Ken dumping his clutch and stinking up the french countryside...... that arse of a german BMW driver who should have been black flagged in the morning session..... and the sight and sound of you big boys showing me what RS4's in anger can really do...... and the awesome exhaust note of the CSL going down to le Mans through that tunnel..... and me still returning an average of 34mpg !!!
Feeling the frustration of closing the track while they cleared the gravel after a number of 'offs'....

Being surprised when told that I was on 2 wheels going through the chicane at the top of the straight (bit too quick and too much of a 'striaght line')........ must learn not to do that again.

I'm sure more will come back....

Big thanks to Joshie & DavidT for the passenger rides,

Pete

Post by **Joshie** » Tue Mar 30, 2004 12:44 pm

Just wanted to echo what Fatcat said about the organisation – both from our side and by Eric and everyone at AudiPassion.com – couldn’t have met a more friendly & helpful bunch of guys (and gals

).

My memorable moments were:

As we sat in the Burger King waiting for the ferry Phil came out with the first of the weekends funnies as he did an impression of the Hover-tosser-Speed woman “er, sorry chaps, we’ve overbooked - I know you’re first class but tough sh*t – here is the ticket for the ferry, please bend over and receive it”

A line of RS4’s, CSL and a tractor (sorry Pete) belting down the motorway to Rouen.

Sacrilegiously having a Macdonald’s in the country of gourmet food.

The BMW sat nav system and my crap sense of direction.

The fact that John P always took the right road (even though he had the handicap of a female navigator – sorry Heather)

Me getting bollocked (deservedly so) for leaving Ken without a helmet while I went for fuel - sorry again Ken

JR deciding the he was going to overtake – the fact that I was already coming through didn’t seem to worry him

TimJMS dancing (10/10 for style)

The mad old lady that took a shine to Phil – didn’t realise Phil was such a pussy magnet

Getting instruction from Jean Bernard Bouvet– Le Mans 24 hour driver with Durango-MG – thanks Taipan.

My tussle with Taipan – didn’t have the “legs” to get ahead on the straights.

How we seemed unable to leave Fatcats “racing TDI” on the N138 to Le Mans or on any other road for that matter

The poor sod who rolled his Scooby

- couldn’t help feeling sorry for him – thank God it was none of us

TimJMS classic one liner analogy when talking about hammering the engine into the red line (“spanked it harder than a ginger haired stepchild”)

Phil’s firm belief that a hose had blown off – “oh, it seems OK how but I’ll try and keep it under 100 on the way back – er that’s Kms not MPH)”

Gav and my near miss with radar trap.

DavidP, DavidT, Craig, Peter and Biturbo – one helluva laugh

James total inability to score – “it wasn’t a snog – just a kiss”

Finally all credit to Heather – one of the boys – well done for putting up with all of us.

I’ll upload all the pics I took soon.

can't wait for the next one - Nurburgring JR

Post by **PhilT** » Tue Mar 30, 2004 12:53 pm

Indeed a HUGE thank you to everyone both from RS246 and Audi Passion. Still feel rough, hopefully will feel better by the end of the week.

My appologies for being far too sensible at points, but needed to make sure that I made it back to the UK..... Looks like the car will be going back to Audi to fix this boost leak, had to tootle home finally arrived at about 11:30 last night after a couple of stops on the way. Thanks to Dave for sticking close by for the majority of the trip home. To my surprise Dickie (My best man) came hooning it up beside me in his S4 (Dave's old one) and we had a cuppa at the sevices.

Not even going to attempt to describe the course of events as there were so many.... You just had to be there.

Finally a huge thank you to Peter for keeping me company on the to and from legs of the journey.

Yet another fantastic RS246 weekend, when's the next one

Post by **wazza** » Tue Mar 30, 2004 12:58 pm

What a great weekend

Thanks to all that came along - that's what made it soooo good

What else can I say that Pete hasn't?
Eric's ice cream van
Tim's ginger stepson
DaveP's stig impression on track
DavidT in the car on track talking on a mobile phone

Sunday night

Thanks to all those I got a lift with - I'll treasure some moments in all the cars I went in.
John - that conversion is just incredible. So much torque in any gear, at any speed. Shame I only got six laps in three sessions

Tim - Noise, balance and grip. I don't need to say any more

Gav - The movit's make such a difference and you took some good lines.
Ian - I'd only just got into the car with you when you wanted to try out the speed limiter - It worked in 6th, but not in 5th

Ken - well balanced car with a great driver.
Pete - how you managed to keep up was amazing: that Oettinger remap is so good

Phil - You'll be back up to speed soon

Worst thing about the weekend was getting back into my car at Ken's and driving home.
I felt like I was in a bloody Mondeo

Post by **TarmacTerrorist** » Tue Mar 30, 2004 2:17 pm

Another absoluetley fantastic weekend, thanks to all concerned from rs246 for making it something special, and a big thanks to eric for ogananising everything for us and AP for letting us attend, My head is still swimming after only getting back home this morning (1550 miles in total). I was suppose to be in work today but said bugger it.

The circuit was absolutely gorgeous, could have stayed there and played for a couple of days, best track day I have done so far! Great to see everyone from our gang behaving themselves as usual and giving our community a good name both on and off the track, and of course we all came back in one peice with our licenses in tact (nearly though hey joshie?). It was also a nice suprise for everyone to see our friends from Brazil, Jose and Junior in attendance again, I managed to take them both out for a spin which I think they enjoyed. Only thing that reallly let the day down for everyone I think was the few wanky bmw drivers (we know which ones they were) that were more intersted in powersliding the curcuit that actually trying to get nice clean fast lines, this ultimately resulted in off's and either downtime or a nice covering of gravel for the rest of us. Tw@ts.

When can we go again??

Post by **johneroberts** » Tue Mar 30, 2004 2:42 pm

Firstly what a great bunch of people
secondly what an awesome place
thirdly great weather.
So on and so forth blah blah

all started on friday with a reet gud piss up in the pub (Phil felt bad)

met DaveP for the first time and what top chap, then Vinny and tim arrived, talked bollox all night about cars and stuff, set off (in my usual vein ) to clean the car, only then to find out at the Hoverport that half of us were not being allowed on the Seacat

Hoverspeed you spoilt that for us, anyway managed to ave a word and they said FULL REFUND and Free crossing next time, and told the guys to get your arses over to Sea France Ferry, on the other side we decided to stop at the first services and clean the cars some more, by then the others had caught up and we were on our merry way, over the course of the journey certain parties were givin it large, and even Pete had a head rubbin session (Phew)
Joshie was King of Bling and had some spirited moments, but some were sensible and kept the speed down (i was a naughty boy once or twice)
Arrived at the 1st pit stop MacDonalds for the burger of Joy, and about 50 screeming french kids

God how loud were they?
Got to LeMans about 7ish and staight to the bar for beers, and we then took over the bar area for the rest of the night, meeting all the french guys from Audi Passion and Jose and Junior (of course

)
Also went outside to see the doberman guard dogs (oooo nasty doggie)
Decided that it was a good idea not watch the England vs France match, and by the sounds of things we didnt miss much anyway.
Next morning up bright and early as they are 1 hour ahead and there summer time was starting so a 7am start was 5am to us (was this planned?) We then followed Taipan in convoy to the track , the weather was tip top and a sense of joy decended upon me as i went under the LeMans enterance and through the tunnel into Parque Ferme, then into the paddock, upon our enterance all eyes were upon our convoy as it was a mighty presence

Got straight into changing the wheels (thanx DavidT/Sam)
Briefing consisted of a couple of guys from the French Audi Quattro centre and Taipan did some translating .
But soon we were on the track .........
WOW
The best surface ive have ever driven and just a sense of awesome greatness going down the start/finish line, after a few warm up laps started to open it up a bit and really got into the groove quite quickly, then the arseholes started to get on the track, what is it about BMW and Subaru drivers (see the film) within moments the track was closed and for the next couple of hours this was par for the course. I decided to have lunch (very nice too for a circuit) went over to a a chat with the Subaru driver who rolled, and then he flipped at me thinking i was the driver who caused the problem, only then to be told that the guy to his right was driving the Red Beetle (who was totally not to blame) so made a quick exit there.
After lunch thought things might get better so went out with Biturbo, managed about one and a half laps, due to more sillyness, after this i mentioned to Taipan that the Guy in the BMW M5 was being a real <beep>, and he started to look into it, within minutes the guy had caused another accident and at that point got marched off the track forthwith never to return.
The day got better and better after that had a great tumble with a VX220T, and a Mistubishi EVO VII , both drivers came over and said how they were astonished by the cars ability to go around corners and it straight line power.
By this time the temp was getting too hot for a 500 BHP RS4 and for a 44yr old fart like me and decided to call it a day.
Phew im fecked by now and had to take all the wheels off and put my road wheels back on (thanks again for the help guys)
Got back to le hotel
BEER BEER and more BEER
Then off to the Buffalo Grill for meat and Champagne, and also the funniest evening ive had for ages, my sides still aching.
Vinny and his Marshmelow story, Heather and the Dancing and cork moment, DavidT face when being asked to don the soot moustache

Tims Burberry jumper and the things we were gonna do it, and last but no means the 47 cromazoners behind us

At this point the olds went back to the hotel(me included) and more beer followed by an aniseed drink which was revolting (cheers pete).
The others came back at 4.30 and considering they all had to be up at 9.00 and ready to drive 500mls.
, im glad i didnt go, Tims face was a picture and Phil was walking strangely.
We said our goodbyes and set off rather slower this time and took time for the others to re adjust to be in charge of a moving vehicle.
Lunch
now lunch was a bit funny to as we found this 1970s hoar house/restaraunt which was decorated appropriately in pink and purple lace,fortwith Vinny decides im off to the Macdonalds, and PhilT gets some crazy woman who decides to befriend him by bringing gifts and tasty morcels to eat, displayed in a mucho suggestive way

Honest we got the pictures to proove it.
After that a quick exit and another photo oppotunity and on our way again, this time at pace, lots of lazers, Gendarmes and payages later we then decide to miss the turning for the ferry port and almost go to belgium,get to the Hover port and get a few goodies, and a leisurely paddle home, with some good banter and reflections on the weekend.
Quote of the day " Smack it like you would smack a ginger haired stepchild" LOL thats sooooo funny.
Said our goodbyes and off we all trotted.
Nice one lads and lass
jr

ps decided to take it easy on the last part of the journey, and managed to get done for 45mph in a 30 at 10pm 2 mls from home, and guess what he was really impressed with my driving and the cars stabillity on the road.
Can you believe it!

Post by **TarmacTerrorist** » Tue Mar 30, 2004 2:55 pm

Ok nearly all got home with our licences! Bugger.

Post by **wazza** » Tue Mar 30, 2004 3:56 pm

I'm sure your car is immensly stable at speeds of 45mph John

shame mate.

Post by **Joshie** » Tue Mar 30, 2004 7:25 pm

Nice write up JR - reminded me of some of the moments I forgot.

Sorry about the speeding ticket - but hell, it could have been soooo much worse

Post by **TimJMS** » Tue Mar 30, 2004 9:17 pm

Excellent write - ups boys.

Fantastic few days, and lets not forget it was all thanks to Erics very knid and considerate invitation on behalf of Audipassion.com. Seriously big "up" to you

That new surface is absolutely the best of any circuit that any of us will have driven on. Certainly me. I would like to echo the general sentiment that we need to organise another ASAP.

The day almost ended for me before it had begun. Must have been a diesel spill on the exit to the hotel??

Not easy learning a new circuit and car at the same time. Deffo can confirm that the CSL is exactly the same as the RS - when the conditions are great, like they were, then traction control must be switched off

All safely home as well. Sweet

Nothing more to add that hasnt been said. Just a couple of my favourite pictures from what must be the best day I have ever been on. You are all a really great bunch of people. Nice to meet some new and familiar faces and get to know them on AND off track. Blooooooody marvellous.

The advance party

Millteks, Audi and BMW's filling the freezing morning air. Pollution and noise. Hmmmm. Grunty!

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Le Mans - How was it?

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