Club Arnage

If so, I have just updated our Porsche to Le Mans Smartgroup - www.smartgroups.com/groups/pcgblm (http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/pcgblm) ready for 2004.  Do join us for a message  board, photo galleries, trip registers, surveys etc. etc.  You do need to register to see all the areas.
Cheers,
John
(http://www.porsche964.co.uk/images/External%20Parking/lemans03_7286_smart.jpg)

I thought i would tell the world i am taking my MG,

100% British


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I'll be taking my Alfasud... ;D  MOT permitting  :-[

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And I will be in my MG Midget, Lara, again.  8)

(Have to URL it 'cos the picture is too big for attaching, sorry)

http://www.mgcars.org.uk/midgetspriteclub/birmingham/images/lemans2003/lemans2003116big.jpg

Well we will be going down in the other alternative to the Commer ................this!!!!.......that is if survives another Sparkford track day!!!!!

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Have a couple of dates for 2004 already if anyone is interested?

Feb 8th is the first - waiting on a March confirmation yet.

Got a Jap Car Owners Club in on the 7th Feb, Skylines, RX-7s, Celicas and the like, it should be fun....

Have taken this Porsche 944S2 to Le Mans for the past couple of years but alas my daughter has out grown the back seats so have had to buy a proper family car, Passat estate  :'(

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Shado 1 will be making the trip for me again this year.

 ;D


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It is of course obvious what I will be going down in.

Good to see the pic of the Commer in the back window Rick. You've saved me having to post one myself.

The Liverpool boys transport is sorted

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And the sort of parking you display Robbo is the thing that campsite disputes are made of!!! Or maybe I'm wrong and the white lines are there for us to park over like a taxiing aircraft ..... are you a secret wannabe pilot Robbo??  ;D

Good for you Robbo - I'll be there in mine too

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Reminds me of when I got pulled for speeding just after I past my test.  Flat out in a Mini down the centre of the road.  

Copper said to me "what do you think you were doing sir?" I replied: "just like it said with my licence officer - 'tear down dotted line'"

It was a  14 day old car, so didnt want to get car park dents ,so used both spaces. Although there wasnt anyone else in there at the time.

I have treid on many occasions to get my cars flying, but i cant get enough jump speed on...

Mark - Thats a fantastic MG . Nuff Said.  Bravo  :)

Jap cars eh.

A little off thread, but...
Last year I was forced to buy MrsH a new car, there was no way I could get around the comprehensive failure ticket from the local MOT shop. I can't remember what I'd been up to, but it couldn't have been good, as I dug very deeply for the damn thing, I obviously needed browny points badly. Anyway, she got a Honda (I know, I know...) but with one of these VTEC widgets. It's a maniacs car. Just when you think it's about to start wheezing it goes mental, I've had it past 9k on the revs, it's only a matter of time before she kills herself or takes out a row of pensioners at the bus stop.
If I took it on the race track I'm sure it would be a hoot, my browny account however would be totally ransacked, so I'll have to pass.
Talk about turning Japanese..... which brings me back to 'going down' in a Porsche.
H

One option is the E type,

But I expect to be driving one of the 'support cars', I think it may be needed.

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Quite so H.  I wouldn't have thought there was enough room  :o

This year, ah will be mostly driving the growling beast  ;D



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Ooh she's a beauty .. how fast she go mister???

 ;D

oh yes.........

who needs an RS2 when you've got a neds.......(see the message "its good to be back" in the "Just to Say Hi" area)

Too fast for me to keep my underpants unsoiled - I must be getting old  ;)

Drool......

Had a chap come along on the last one in his wifes Focus ST170, she watched...   Check out his front wheel in this - needed some air me thinx (http://oddsnsods.dreamracers.net/track/200310/16s.jpg)

hi Bill
Found you at last, great pic of Lara can not wait to get behind the wheel again of your princess.
Nick   :)

Thanks BigH and gibberish I was beginning to think I was the only one wondering who was going down on whom?
Canada Phil

Pleasure to be of service Phil.................Oh no!  I really didn't mean that   :o           did I?

Maybe Andy  Z will be racing his Commer on the way down . I thought a good bit of competition may come from The POPE MOBILE.

 :D

or the imfamous Felix's chippy!

infamous just because they spoilt MB pitches ?  ;)

Gilles, correct what a cad.

Guys, dont think I should be posting under going down in a porsche, but i need to say never mind Felix, what happened to all the visits you guys promised us last year.
Apart from a few that we did meet we missed a lot of you. So this year shampoo bar on the Saturday or else.
Paulaxxxxxxxx

Returning on the Pride of Le Havre on the Monday night, Nick (andynick) and I were parked alongside this in the hold. A wonderful noise when she started up to drive out.

Bill   8)

http://www.mgcars.org.uk/midgetspriteclub/birmingham/images/lemans2003/lemans2003157big.jpg

(am I trying too hard to put pictures in here?)

This is one of the things I miss about not going via Pompey anymore. Just don't get the quantity and rarely the quality via Dover!!

Whilst queueing to get through passport control one year on the Tuesday morning after the Monday overnighter, in fact it was 1992 I've just remembered, we were sat next to Mr. Needell (who had been driving the ADA 962 with Dinger) and him and his missus/girlfriend/partner were having a right barney! Superb entertainment!!

If you're booked on the P&O 10:00 Wednesday 9th June Dover - Calais ferry, you may catch a glimpse - or hear 10 V8 engine's 'performing' when we pull onto the ferry  ;D

Hellfire....that could be worth a special trip just ot listen to  :D

Smarmy g*t aren't I ::)

Otherwise known as having a Tiff!!??   :D (sorry, couldn't resist it!!)

a cad? like the car?  ???  ???  ???

Mr Needell went to the same school as I did (Ottershaw), we only overlapped a year though, he's a bit older than me poor chap (sorry Tiff). :o)

Would that be the one not too far from Weybridge?

Steve - I shall look forward to meeting you there  ;D and hearing the veritable cacophony of noise - I'm booked on the same ferry.   However, you may have to excuse me from competing against 10xV8s with just the might of an MGA's 1622cc four-pot.......  ;D ;D ;D

Excellent, are you driving down to LM in one stint?
Our encampment will be in Houx Annexe from Wednesday early evening.  

What is the form about camping at Houx Annexe? Our group have booked spaces for five Spridgets and a Volvo Amazon. Are they kept reserved or do you have to get there early and fight off allcomers and the fearsome "pikeys"?
We will be there on Friday early afternoon I expect. Last time I just chucked up a tent on the grass at Antares before the race on the Saturday, only "lost" one tent peg while away watching the noisy motorcars until the early hours.

Houx Annexe is basically a huge 'L' shaped field with a lake on the side.
There were originally marked pitches but the markings have eroded with time.

Most large groups (those arrving early) tend to take posts and fencing tape to 'rope off' their area otherwise you may return back to your pitch to find a stranger sleeping next to your car.
The ACO have previously patrolled sites attempting to get people to pitch closer together so that they could get more in - I witnessed this at our pitch in Karting Nord a few years ago.

Basically, the earlier you can get there, the better choice of good pitch, especially if there are a number of you.  Having said that, regulars in Houx Annexe seem to grab the same pitch each year.

However, 2003 was fairly quiet in the Annexe and there was a fair bit of space on the far side towards Tetre Rouge.

If you know of any early arrivers, see if you can get them to hold a pitch for you.
There will be 20 of us (probably 10 tents and a 'marquee' plus 10 cars) over on the southern side of the site near to the road and concrete wall to Houx site so you could slum it near to us if you fancy it.

ps. the pikeys seem to keep a low profile until Monday

Hi Steve, that must be the area that a couple of ACO stewards let Nick and I into on the Saturday to see if we could find a spot for the Midget and the tent. Every thing was taped and fenced off up in that corner near the roadway, track by Houx so we came out and stopped on Antares. They didn't seem very fussed about us going in there, but obviously there wasn't any room by then. Would you mind watching over a space for us, we do have them booked after all.
Next daft question, sorry! Do you park cars between, or in front of the tents? How do you keep the places, just with the fences? When you jet off to other bits of the circuit... :)

Sorry if I'm being a pain, but if it was just Nick and I alone I wouldn't be as concerned. Just having others tagging along on the strength of just how much we liked last year is a bit of a liability. ::)

We'll be heading down in one stint, allowing for suitable refreshment stops for the "A" + drivers, aiming to get to Le Mans and the joys of Karting Nord on Wednesday evening.   Probably do the scenic route rather than just rushing down the autoroute.   Did it one year and seem to remember that heading south for a bit out of Calais then spearing off south-west through the likes of Mantes and Dreux was a pleasant trip.  

Perdu, yes no probs, you may need to remind me nearer to June.
We tape off our entire pitch and lift the tape to slot the cars in and out.  You can get this sort of stuff from hire shops or B&Q etc.

Mark, I would be interested in your route as we've used the Calais / Rouen and then N138 route in the past and it's getting a bit busy / familiar.

 :) :) :)

Thanks Steve, I will, remind me if I forget willya? ;D

Bill

"Aha, I just spotted the little icon for insert image, is that where I do it then? Thick idiot ain't I?"

Perdu / Bill

If you are ordering  a  t shirt i can throw in some "tape" for taping off your pitch, Free of charge. I have rolls of the stuff, which my company supply to me. I have red and white or blue and white. Then just get some old copper tubing or a little 1 x 1 wooden battons , cut them down , and hey presto , cheap fencing.

You can then fence off your garage area.
I think you can just about make out what i am saying in this picture. The space next to the van had a TVR in later on Friday.
Photo taken on arrival on Thursday lunch time.  

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Steve,
Before autoroute days we used to go cross country from Calais, mainly to avoid Rouen, and some lovely French driving was to be had. I can forward the route on to you if you want, but you'd need to allow 6 hours or so to get there.
H

Yes please H, we land in Calais about 12:30 and don't anticipate arriving in LM before 19:00.
A route national run would be a good bimble for a 10 car convoy!

After having stuggled through Rouen's road works / traffic / tunnel / rain with raised temperatures for the engine and for me for the last 5 years, I fancy a bit of a change.
Thanks.

Robbo, I have been thinking of having a shirt too, but I'll wait a day or so to see if Nick wants one too. I am making two for us of the car we are going in as well.

Thought we would go down in the Mark, 4 special rocket assisted tandem, note that the force of this projectile has ripped off the front of the tandem.

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Steve - can't remember the road numbers without looking at a road atlas, but it goes:

Calais - St Omer - Beauval - Amien - Beauvais - Mantes-La-Joile - Dreux, and then you have a choice of Dreux - Alencon - Le Mans, or dreux - Nogent-Le-Rotrou - Le Mans

From memory, good roads with a lot of nice open sweeping bends - 'twas a good fun drive, by as H says, as it is A/B roads, its a 6-hour run, but IMHO much nicer than the autoroute via Rouen

Excellent, thanks Mark.  I'll have a look at the France road atlas whilst Coronation Streets on !!

Steve - No sweat - best thing you can do when that sort of thing is on the telly.....

I didn't notice BSA was also a bicycle manufacturer...

... an another British myth whih disappear !!!  :'(

Gilles, you would be amazed how many of them started out as bicycle manufacturers, like Peugeot etc!!

BSA first stood for British Small Arms, a manufacturer of rifles etc.

Have a look at the badge........2 crossed rifles.

It really is quite amazing when you look at some of todays companies and then you look at how they started.

Many companies still have many outlets. Daewoo for instance. Cars (if you can call them that) TV's, Microwaves and Super Tankers!!!

Mitsubishi. Cars, Home Electronics and Banking!!

Also fighter planes during WW2

Fuji Heavy Industries: Aerospace, Industrial machinery, SUBARUS and of course the Fuji Mighty dustcart - the finest refuse collection vehicle there is :)

Vauxhall - cars........and a bridge over the River Thames

Ford - cars........and NOT a bridge over a river

Rover - cars........and a large Spaniel

Triumph - cars, motorcycles and womens bras

Lotus - cars......and Japanese flowers


(or am I missing the point here)  ;)

Citroen - Cars and French lemons??

lemon is "citron" and not "citroen" but it's "citroen" in the Netherlands...

I know Gilles......just messing around, that's all!!

Kawasaki Heavy Industries - Boats , Fast Craft things , Motorbikes , Engines, and Jet Boats. and fantastic Moto Gp bikes

Kawasaki made some of the tunnel boring machines that excavated the Channel Tunnel an'all. Their jet-ski's are piss poor however, compared to Bombardier SeaDoo (awesome Rotax engine) and even Honda's new 4 stroke ski.

Matt , i will take you word on that. ( hoping to add water sports to my toy collection very soon )

can you not replace your avatar photo of the exhaust pipes. Top part as apposed to what seems like a plastic covered engine.

Fair cop with the avatar, Robbo - it does look a bit 'plastic shrouded'. Apparently there's a 350ci LT1 under there somewhere. I'll swap it for a more flattering shot (I know how you admire these cars so).
If your interested in a Jetski a mate of mine has a Yamaha Wave Raider inc. trailer for sale. It's up in Bradford, but worth going and fetching. He only wants 3 1/2 grand for it and you can water ski off the back of it. It's a proper beast.

Hate to admit this out in the open - But i am coming out -

I quite like the C5 and the  racing C5R , looked better in Yellow . Makes great power.

But..

My verdict is out regarding the handling  , until i have driven one.

I didn't realise Sinclair bought out a racing version of the C5. And I only ever saw them in white!!   ;D

They were a nightmare!

It was at the time that I was running a courier business down in Holland Park and you just couldn't see the little blighters. They would hug a line of parked cars and because they were below the roofline, didn't get to see them until the very last knockings.

Was tempted to get a batch of C5 stickers made a la WWII planes and have one put on each of the vans/cars/bikes when they had a close call!! I would have had about 40.

 ;D

An old neighbour of mine actually bought one of those, and I sat in it, once, out of curiosity...............I've never felt so unsafe in my life. :o  How there wern't loads of fatalities I'll never know.

Probably because, like you, they were scared sh*tless of using it on the road so they all ended up in the back of peoples garages.

There's a 'never been out of the box' Sinclair C5 for sale  here http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2980143533&category=1467 (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2980143533&category=1467) if you've got a grand !

Best place for 'em ;)

And 11 people have bid for it!!!!!   :o

There was a guy in Farnham who lived near the 6th Form College when I went there many beers ago.

He used to ride down the hill and around the town in it but never had enough poser left at the end of the day so was always seen pedalling it back up the hill. Defeated the object somewhat I always thought!!

its probably still worth what he paid for it (taking inflation into account).  The only one one I have seen in reality is one at the Haynes museum!