Club Arnage

Here is one for the veterans amongst us: In which exactly did Radio Le Mans start?

The first time I became aware was 1986 though it may have been 1987.  I'm basing that on I remeber an interview with Tom Wilkinshaw when he said it would be a three year job to win Le Mans I'm sure that was on RLM.  For sure it was around in 1988 when the Jag won.

t.  

Well , that doesn't answer my question exactly...

1987 - according to an article about Radio Le Mans

I thought it was 87.
Whatever happened to the playing of 'When the going gets tough the tough get going' for the most deserving pit crew?

yes, 1987 is correct. And I hope they will still be on air in 2087.

Cheers

Werner

Will you still be listening Werner???

Definitely 1987!  ;D

I think it was 1986. I was there with a small team and went to the station with a little fun story, and without telling me, Neville Hay switched on the microphone, said I had something a story to tell and left me to get on with it! Some introduction to radio work - must have done OK, they asked me back next year to do the pitlane, and somehow I lasted 12 years, which still amazes me. And my first year in the pits was the one BEFORE Jaguar won, as they had the 'we'll be back' banner in the pitlane, which must be 1987. Here's one for all of you - a bit of a mystery. A group of regular Le Mans fans decided they wanted to 'adopt' me as their teeshirt theme one year. They came to see me at the station before the race, but at the time I was translating for Joe Bradley in the medical centre to have his twisted knee strapped up. Such was the welcome they received at Radio Le Mans, that no-one bothered to ring me, no-one got a name or number, and no-one took a picture of their teeshirts with the theme on ... so, sorry guys, don't know who you are and now I'm being asked for a picture of you for a book on 'Brits at Le Mans'. Can anyone give me the details and a pic? Reply here.

Auntie, this book sounds interesting and I'd love to know who's writing it. There are members here on Club Arnage who have been going for donkey's years, one even goes back to the GT40 days. If you hadn't guessed it, this site is pretty much devoted to "Brits at Le Mans" and no book on the subject could possibly be complete without reference to Club Arnage. There are some extremely accomplished wordsmiths on here and some amazing and hilarious stories buried in the detritus that makes up CA. Put them in touch and I'm sure we'd all be delighted to help.

I think that most aged CAers would be willing to chip in.  I go back to 1986, and have photos of the cars, with negatives! 

Lorry, we are very disimilar. I go back to 1988 and have various photos of drinks, drunkards doing drunken things (i.e. vomitting, falling over, breaking bones etc), chicken fights, strippers,  Noel Edmonds, goats, campsites, fans, ferries, flags, field fires, French food, French policemen and fine-feathered fools of all other descriptions. But I have no photos of any race cars as such...

I only take pictures when I'm sober, and no way am I going to take pictures of Noel Edmunds.

Curses! I've often thought a book of Le Mans anecdotes would make an amusing read - particularly if it focused more on the antics of the audience than of the artistes themselves. Sure, there would be a summary of each years track action, but the main jist would be what happens on the northern approaches to Le Mans itself, and then in the tribunes and campgrounds and general environs.
I'm envisaging a casebound coffee-table book with lots of colour plates, depicting today's antics, preceded by sepia-tinted shots of folks in straw boaters and stripey blazers. It'd be a NYT best seller, I'm tellin' yous!

Hang on a sec - maybe we're onto something here. Seriously - how many of you would be interested in contributing to a book about the fans?
Not some shitty softback now - I'm talking about the full ming here. I have some publishing connections - and as Andrew points out, there are some very accomplished writers on this forum. We've all got a handful of really good people oriented shots from down the years that tell a story in themselves. I could get all giddy about this idea......

Matt, count me in I've been involved in book production of varies sorts and writting articles for magazines.  Would be keen to get involved so count me in even if it is to pull shots together and speak to people and get their memories.

Be happy to contribute in any way.

All the best Peter

I have photos availabe from 1980 (my first year ;D) to 86 when I got fed up with carrying a camera everywhere.

Mostly of the cars but a few of other things, little mini, drag racing in Houx etc.

Amazing that my one year old thread got restarted...
Anyway, the subject has changed, may we we should continue this discussion in a new thread. The idea of a book is very interesting. On www.lemanszone.de are more than 400 pics from the years 1985 - 2004, for most pics I still have the negatives and would provide them

Cheers

Werner

The book sounds a first class idea.  As a great deal of those at the race don't actually see much of the racing, there must be scores of amusing anecdotes and photos floating around.

My crew have their share of stories and photos.

I'm a relative newbie with only five years under my belt, but I already have a few stories to tell. Abs and Ballast (aka The Fat Lad) have 14 years behind them now so I'm sure they'll be able to contribute as well.

I only just realised... whow, Auntie J did some good digging.

I think it's encouraging to see that there is some interest in a project like this.
Firstly, I must point out that I am not a professional writer and I've personally never published anything more involved than a service engineers newsletter. That said, I know a few people (and now Peter too, of course) who could give help and guidance.
Two books precipitated this (I'm not claiming this as my idea - I merely hijacked someone else's idea on this thread). The first is called "A Day In The Life Of A Nation", which is a large format book full of colour DPS images of life in the USA all taken on one particular day. There is only minimal copy, basically describing when and where the shot was taken. It's a compelling album, which I found hard to put down ("A rip-roaring pot-boiler that has the reader spell-bound from first page to last" - Charlie Bloggs, Cleckhuddersfax Chronicle).
The second is another hardback, large format book called "The Long, Long Day" This is a photo-record of the 1986 24 Hour Race, produced by Nissan Motorsports Europe. Not sure if it was ever offered to the general public (I used to do some marketing work for Nissan and they gave me a copy). It is somewhat biased, in that it focusses on the two Nissamax Group C cars, that were pretty mediochre, but it is beautifully presented and very atmospheric. Again, it's light on copy, but a nice thing to browse.
I would be very keen to see images of both the race and the 'side-show' from the last 30 years or so - but I'm based in the USA - not UK, so mailing them could be troublesome and expensive. Is it possible to post onto a picture hosting site, so that editing could become a group effort? What I'd be looking for are images that tell a story, or are unusual or emotional. How do we progress this, I wonder?     

Matt, I've a subscription to the Webshots photo hosting service that allows unlimited files of any size.
http://community.webshots.com/user/route66weasel

I would happily receive and upload photos to this central repository from any interested participant.

Matt, i like the ideas that you have suggested.  The most important thing is to decide what the book is to be about.  You have already said that it should be about the fans, would this be all fans or the various groups that make up club arnage?
Would it be about just LM or do you think we should now include ALMES ?

I like the day in the life but it could be extended to the whole year from coming back from one year and all the intermediate to the next year.

Also don't get hung up a book theme, we could do an e-book either paid for as a download or sell the actual disc.  The disc could also have moving images as well, i'm sure there must some good footage out there.

Anyway there are a few thoughts, lets throw it open and see what other suggestions come forward.

Peter

Over the last few years I have been trying to find the time to get my self started with a book of stories about British at Le Mans from the fans point of view.

My plan was/is to start with first races and work forward decade by decade with photos and stories, how they traveld there what the entertainment was like camping and facilties etc.

The hardest will be the first races as the people who were there will now be late in years or, unfortunatly, not with us any more. But I am sure that the many car clubs and the likes of the Brooklands Socitey could help.

If a project like this comes off. I agree that it should be a high quality production. But I know the cost of producing such an item - I worked in the printing world for a quite few years, working on top end print works (still have a few contacts, might be able to help there) - also it will be a very specilised book, with a limeted readership. I suggest it is done by subscription. With the subscribes names in the back of the book.

OK - it will be easy to let this kind of whither on the vine - so here's a thought. I've been going to Le Mans since 1983 and probably have about 500 photographs (other than the regulation half-a-car and blurred fairground shots, which might make an amusing book in their own right). I go to Le Mans with 15 other dudes, who also have the same quantity of celluloid and digital gems/rocks. If you have a collection of Le Mans snaps that 'say something', email the 5 best ones to me at mharper6@cfl.rr.com and let's see if we can get this thing off the ground.

Hi, sorry it's taken me a while to respond. The Brits at Le Mans book is a racing one with some anecdotes, a chapter on each 'era', and if you'd like to contribute some stories I am sure they would be given consideration. I think they'd like to include one or two. At the moment the author wishes to remain anonymous but I'll alert him to anything here. HOWEVER, it strikes me that there is indeed room for another book about the Le Mans Experience, as there must be 10,000 different 'Le Mans' in people's heads. Still no sign of the group who came to Radio Le Mans that I missed?

I've found an old interview about Radio Le Mans and it looks as though my first year was 1988, so it did start in 1987, to confirm. A company called Personal PA came up with the idea, then Harry Turner and the late Jim Tanner had the licence, later bought by Haymarket, publishers of Autosport. Harry, where are you now? Edinburgh last I heard, but we've all lost you ... Hindhaugh's trying to find you!