[LM24] Addicted, How Many of You?

[Gilles lives!]

I had a friend tell me that he might give it a miss this year...........I'm still in shock four days later !
We've been going since '83, visits were sketchy at first whilst we were racing ourselves, but became annual in the mid nineties onwards.
Often check in here once the New Year has passed and the event approaches.

[Gingers4Justice]

Been addicted ever since I accidentally put my old mans's 1990 Le Mans review into the VHS instead of Thomas the Tank Engine. It was further cemented when my dad took me to qualifying in 1998 and I saw the Panoz coupe spitting flames in the dark at Indianapolis.

13 Le Mans later and I can say I'm pretty taken by the whole thing!

I think I knew it was a true addiction when I went to Le Mans at the weekend and came back for my Economics A-level exam on the Tuesday last year. I was thought to be mad by my peers. They're probably right.

[vincegail]

Originally Posted by Gingers4Justice

I think I knew it was a true addiction when I went to Le Mans at the weekend and came back for my Economics A-level exam on the Tuesday last year. I was thought to be mad by my peers. They're probably right.

Don't matter what your friends think of you. The most important thing is: did you pass?

[Gingers4Justice]

Originally Posted by vincegail

Don't matter what your friends think of you. The most important thing is: did you pass?

Curiously, I got a higher grade in that paper than the one I took before the race. I'm currently typing away from my university so as far as I'm aware, I passed

[whitemr2]

So many posts at this moment, I can hardly keep up with
LOVE IT

[GT6]

It is very strange that for some reason the volume of posting always goes up in the first half of June

[whitemr2]

Strange isn't it

[Peat]

Le Mans is my secret shame.

I'm not going this year, but I actually turned down social invitations so that i can stay in and watch the race. I have to just say, 'sorry, i'm busy'. They just wouldn't understand.......

[GT6]

Originally Posted by Peat

Le Mans is my secret shame.

I'm not going this year, but I actually turned down social invitations so that i can stay in and watch the race. I have to just say, 'sorry, i'm busy'. They just wouldn't understand.......

why are you not going? still plenty of time to organise or sort out a lift in someone else's car if they have room

[Aysedasi]

28th Le Mans in a row starts tomorrow.

Addicted - moi?

[chunder]

I never will and never have understood the addiction to this race from any real RACING fan.

For me it is the most over hyped, over stated motor race in the history of motorsport. Even Monaco has the glitz and glamour to overcome the fact it's usually dull as dishwater, Indy has great racing and a superb venue. Le Mans is dusty, dirty and not a hugely attractive placea dn the arce is basically an economy run for 95% of runners.

It used to be a great event when cars were largely unreliable and they were harder to drive.

Say, up until the late 80's when they changed the track around.

But nowadays, cars are so much more reliable and drivers have it so much more comparatively easy with flappy paddle gears, comfy seats, drinks bottles, physio etc etc. OK I can see that driving a car flat out for 24 hours is some achievement, but let's face it only a few teams can do this and they have unobtanium budgets, for the rest it's survival at a huge expense.

It isn't even the greatest 24 hour race! That award goes to the Nurburgring, harder track, far harder traffic management, tougher conditions, less lit track.

For some reason the hype just gets more and more every year as if this is the only motorsport event in most peoples lives.

There are plenty of cool things to watch, not just endurance racing, it does seem to attract a certain sort of fan, not wishing to generalise, but they seem to be a bit trainspotty!!

Of course, millions of people can't be wrong. I must be missing something. A bit like NASCAR, I have tried, but I just dont get it.

But I am addicted to one part of it, and that is why you guys are so addicted to possibly the dullest race event you could ever watch!!

And keep it up Ayes, awarding rep points just ebcaise I hate Le Mans is rather tiresome. There are constructive reasons for disliking it that are never answered. Need I say more

[Aysedasi]

Your weather-thread comments were not constructive and were merely intended to ridicule - in much the same way as your last post. You'll be very lucky if you only get negged by me for it.... It amuses me how you postulate a view on an event many of us have been to repeatedly - and you haven't. Your qualifications to comment as you do are pretty dubious.

And no you definitely don't need to say any more.

And you KNOW that.

You've proved rather a lot of points to us already - none of which have anything to do with Le Mans.

And I advise you quite openly, any more trolling in the subforum will be rewarded in accordance with the forum rules.

[GT6]

Chunder rather than just post this sort of thing why don't you actually go to le mans and try it for yourself, once you have done that perhaps you will change your mind or not either way you will then have at least something to base your opinions on

[vincegail]

Originally Posted by GT6

It is very strange that for some reason the volume of posting always goes up in the first half of June

Expect to see my posting rate plummet to absolutely zero come tuesday morning

[GT6]

like wise but Wednesday morning for me

[Truckosaurus]

Originally Posted by chunder

But I am addicted to one part of it, and that is why you guys are so addicted to possibly the dullest race event you could ever watch!!

I do hope Chunder isn't modded out of the forum as his trolling rants do bring a smile, and he is so far from the mark it is not offensive.

I'd take his 'trainspotter' remark as a complement too, there's much more to think about and Analyse in a longer race than a quick 10-min sprint.

Also, the event is more than just the race, another reason we all look forward to it. I'm sure if Chunder came along he would enjoy himself if he could be open minded about his dislike of endurance events.

[Peat]

Don't take chunder's comments too personally. He's been on a massive LM downer since i have frequented these fora.

All i would say is, Le Mans is so much more than just a race.

And crucially, why it is revered so is because it's a chance for many men to have a week away form their spouses and behave like children. It's a beautiful thing.

Oh, and GT6 - My monetary/annual leave budget was mainly consumed by a trip to Indy this year. I'm spreading my love globally.

[Mal]

Our opinion is shared by more than a few trainspotters:

http://travel.nationalgeographic.co....orting-events/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/...t-special.html

To quote that telegraph article:

Today's lap is about 8.5 miles which the fastest cars take about 3 minutes and 25 seconds, or less, to complete. The fastest ever lap average is almost exactly 156mph, and straight-line speeds have topped 250mph.
To win Le Mans, you'd need to do close to 400 of those eight-and-a-half-mile, three-and-a-half-minute laps before this time tomorrow – day and night, rain or shine.
The distance record, from 2010, is 3,362 miles – the equivalent of 17 Formula One grands prix, back to back. A 24-hour average of more than 140mph would beat the lap record at most GP circuits.
That is why National Geographic declared Le Mans as the greatest must-see sporting event in the world – Olympics, World Cups, World Series et al. Full stop. And they're right.

[GT6]

Originally Posted by Peat

Don't take chunder's comments too personally. He's been on a massive LM downer since i have frequented these fora.

All i would say is, Le Mans is so much more than just a race.

And crucially, why it is revered so is because it's a chance for many men to have a week away form their spouses and behave like children. It's a beautiful thing.

Oh, and GT6 - My monetary/annual leave budget was mainly consumed by a trip to Indy this year. I'm spreading my love globally.

point taken, now days I have more leave but less cash, but planning a Spa trip for the classic endurance race then later in the year to spread things out to add to this years silverstone and lemans (got to keep level with Ayse's 28)

[vincegail]

Originally Posted by Peat

All i would say is, Le Mans is so much more than just a race.

No, it's a livestyle for me!

[chunder]

In reply to some people who don't just take umbridge at everything I say rather than reading it. I have been to a few endurance events actually. So I have given it a go. And sorry but unless you are driving or in the pitlane I struggle to understand the appeal.

And I guess part of the reason it frustrates me so, is that this forum is just taken over while there are other good things on at the same time.

I do resent the gang up mentality of Le Mans fans, the defensive element. But I can understand it, it's your baby and the main thing you look forward to. I am lucky I have variety in my motorsport life.

Enjoy the rain and the race and drive home safely.

All part of the game show dont you know x

Been repped out of the house lol.

[Peat]

I respect (maybe too strong a word) your opinion. But if it annoys you so much, why do you even click on the threads, let alone post "I don't like it!" all the time? It's trolling, plain a simple.

"It's my right to be outraged!"

[Mal]

Originally Posted by chunder

I have been to a few endurance events actually. So I have given it a go.

If you are judging it by other endurance events then you really have no grounds to judge. The only other endurance events that can even be compared to Le Mans would be Sebring and PLM but even those are very different.

If you dont get it - fine - but then why waste your time coming on here ridiculing those that do.

[kdr]

I'm vaguely addicted...i think so as despite it occasionally seeming like a wonderful nightmare, by Sunday night i'm already thinking "i wonder if i should have done this, or gone there, i'll do it next year for sure..." doh!

I'd like to try the Nurburgring 24 for sure, but nothing i've seen so far at other top level motorsport events comes close to Le Mans.

[racerkeke]

Chunder, I hear what you say about Le Mans. Before I went I would have said very much the same. I never used to like endurance racing. It was cold and usually wet, and I didn't get why it was so interesting. If you gave me 20-some-odd open wheelers fighting it out for an hour and a half or so, I was thrilled.

I found as I got older I had more patience. I started going to more endurance races almost by default when CART, and then Champ Car, imploded. But the nuances captured me. Keeping a lap chart in my head for 26 cars is one thing. For 50, in multiple classes, with different pit stop windows? Whoa.

I went to Le Mans for the first time in 2004, auditioning for a spot on the commissaire crew at poste 61. Sure, I'd seen "that movie." I'd grown up on stories of my dad going to Sebring in the '50s as a mechanic for a works team. I'd been a marshal for more than 20 years. I thought I knew what it would be like.

I was incredibly wrong.

The first time I stood at the braking point for the second chicane with a flag in my hand, watching the prototypes come over the humps on Le Hunaudières in the early-evening sunshine, it all changed. Now my year goes "from June to June," and I don't even mind the outrageous amount of money it costs me to get myself from the west coast of Canada to France, just to stand in the rain and shiver in the cold in the middle of the night with a flag in my hand. Well, I don't mind much.

The one thing I've noticed about Le Mans, though, is that people either LOVE it or HATE it if they go. No in-betweens. But please don't deny the people who love it the opportunity to do just that. Some people don't enjoy Christmas all that much, either!
keke