Club Arnage

Does anyone know if the proposed re-work of the village area is going ahead for this year's race?

Has it started?

Will it be completed on time?

Any pics so far?

Errr, we didn't leave it like this did we?
There's also a thread somewhere called 'earthworks', or something similar, full of informed debate and heated discussions.
I think this pic is about 4 weeks old....
H

Here is the current info from the le mans site
http://www.lemans.org/sport/sport/dossiers/travaux/index_gb.html

Click on what you want to know. Can't see the Tarteflette stall on anything. Funny f**ckers the french. When F1 is going to fast, the governing body slow the cars down. When the bikes are going to quick they change the circuit. And another old building knocked down. Another few years and it'll look like Sepang and us non VIP camping toe rags can get lost. Stuff the track changes, put some U-bends in the toilet blocks to stop them smelling like a turkish taxi drives underkegs.

Dont worry Stu, pretty soon you'll be able to stay in a luxury 5 star hotel on a campsite for only €35 per night...................yer right ::) l often think back to the first time l went and sit in the pit balcony above the Jaguar pit back in 87........................sometimes change is not such a good thing ???

Can anyone lip-read (no - not mumblers)? What's the 'sort' in Stu's avatar saying?

Christ, Matt - my eyes havn't got that far up yet.  With mammeries bouncing like that, she can say what she wants  ;D ;D ;D

Del

yeah, but I love...

i know a few people that would like to kneel at the church's altar or drink from the church's holy font.

I think you hit it right on the screws Paddy!

It is in reverse! I can't tell but I like Paddy's idea

Why couldnt they just leave it alonew, grrrrrrrrrrrrrr for gods sake  ???

The circuit has been modified for a different kind of racing, and the secret can now be revealed http://www.arserace.com/

How the hell did you find out about that??????

One of the wifes 4 year olds typed "Arse" into Google whilst nobody was looking, and was 300 Groats up by the time anyone found out. 

The schools must be improving as I couldn't spell arse when I was 4.

Where are the Astons? I only caught the end of the radio, with both diesels on the front row

I was playing that arse race game a couple of weeks ago, its really quite tricky... you cant trust a smiling trainer thats for sure....  :-\

Do you think they will have a more globalised food selection in the new village ?  Macdonalds perhaps ?

lts going to be situated between phones4u and Starbucks ::)

Actually, a McDonalds will be at Le Mans, down near the Decathlon I believe near the Mulsanne ropundabout, which makes you wonder if it will be open during the race and if it will allow people to get down near the Mulsanne?

I forsee a publicity shot for McDonalds here. One of their drive-throughs and an LMP1 at speed in the same shot.

I doubt it will be open duing the race, can't imagine the ACO agreeing to anything that will give the paying punter a better view.

Will they have the payment booth up by the Stella Bar and the collection point down near the Chinese?

Now that's what you call Fast Food!  :-X

Please, no McD there! >:(
Haven't we got enough of those sh1tty restaurants already? :-\

(http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/images/19/ronald1.jpg)

Being escorted from MB by the size police for occupying more than 7X5!

lucky those coppers weren't at our pitch last year then ::)

What....they knocked down the Motel / ACO tower building thing.

The roof was always a good place to watch from.

They've knocked EVERYTHING down except for the ACO clubhouse (the old museum.  Even the old tunnel by the main entrance has been filled in - probably with the rubble from the ACO tower!!

Del

yes, it looks very knocked down indeed :-\

(http://premium1.uploadit.org/paddyNL//1.jpg)

(http://premium1.uploadit.org/paddyNL//10.jpg)

Here's a plan showing the true extent of the new sanitised Village, with a tendency towards "VIP" facilities.  A great deal of this will not be ready until 2007, including the construction of 9 additional pits - 55 starters in 2007.
http://tinyurl.com/hlpoy
more architects' drawings here: http://tinyurl.com/z99os click on  + de plans

KPY, first drawings that I've seen.  As you say much will be complete by 2007, any ideas if there will be "temporary" facilities for food and drink, I guess there must be!  Quite like the look of the restaurant overlooking the curve up to the Dunlop area, I guess that replaces the dust bowl of seating that use to be there.

Will the Poo Bar still be in this area?  Where can a chap get a chip baquette, kebab and bottle of poo!!

Too right! Get the riff-raff out.

And while they're at it why don't they build a massive 5 star hotel complex on maison blanche, houx, houx annexe and karting nord and charge £500 a night, that should get the corporate punters pouring in. Bleu can become an extended helicopter landing site.

Any of you commoners who insist on going can camp in Beausejour which by then will have extended down past Tanzania, as long as you agree not to actually visit the track, in fact General Adminssion will no longer be available unless you have purchased a corporate package.

Another added benefit is that corporate clients won't want to stay up all night so the racing could stop around 9pm to allow them to get some sleep and then restart around 9am (subject to approval - that might be too early). This would shorten the race to 12 hours and bring it in line with our American cousins idea of Le Mans because they have trouble concentrating for more than 12 hours in one go.

Purely for Health & Safety reasons this would be a winner because the drivers wouldn't have to negotiate the course in the dark (which must be very difficult) and it would allow them to get a sound nights sleep instead of grabbing a few hours here and there.

The deranged residents of Tertre Rouge and Musee can stay there as no-one from the ACO is actually brave enough to ask them to move.

Any other suggestions on how to disssuade motor racing fans from visiting Le Mans? We could send them to the ACO and help speed up the process.

If its anything like Wembley Stadium, there will be much poo and no bar

The ACO says the Village - minus the Welcome Center, whatever that is, will be ready for this year's race.
The area to the north of the new permanent Village buildings is reserved for food/drink and sales stands. No reason to think that there won't be a Poo Bar - all the catering, apart from the  restos at the paddock end of the old Village (ie the good ones),  is sub-contracted to a big outside caterer. They operated the old Poo Bar.

Latest photos on the ACO website show that they have pulled their digits out.
Landscaping being done , roads going in, gravel put down.
Obviously not Aussie contractors.

With respect Barry, I think Multiplex could have done better with one arm tied behind it's back. OK, yes, the track looks more or less done, and absolute rubbish it is too! There's one photo of the tractor grading the kitty litter at the Dunlop chicane. It's like a scene from the prairies of Canada. The tribune looks about a mile away in the distance.

Also the new tunnel looks spiffing on the surface, but pedestrians will be walking on the raised paths and that handrail doesn't look very strong, so expect some broken bones. Oh and there's one shot which shows the tarmac is less than an inch thick...

With regard to the Village, words fail me. The Moto 24hrs is in a few weeks and there's nothing but a ruddy great mess. It would have looked no worse if the UXB had exploded. I can't imagine the lovely new building will be ready for June, unless they are total lash-ups. And God forbid that any Frenchman be allowed to work for longer than 35 hours a week...

As Kpy says, new welcome/restaurant building not due till 2007.
As most of the facilities I use are of  tempoary nature, ie poo bar, bars, food outlets, I don't think there will be to much of a problem for June, as it looks like the areas for them are going in now.
 

Having looked at the lastest villages photos, most of the new buildings look to be prefabed galvanised steel / precast concrete construction.  This type of building can be erected and fitted out in a jiffy.

There appears to be a fair bit of new landscaping going on, with young tree planting and hard landscaping being carried out.

Steve, is there a Charlie Dymock trying to get out there 8)  Doesn't seem much alteration around the ACO welcome centre, the roads look the same layout, nice fresh granite chippings, just waiting for 1,000,000 smashed green bottles dropping from the wall ;D

The new buildings that back onto the track look quite nice, I wonder if the pompier bar will be reinstalled. ;D

This is just the usual chaos.  None of it ever looked finished, and I'm tired of lectures about air bubbles in the concrete and exposed Re bar, and how it would all be condemned in the UK.

If necessary they'll tie together some pallets to make the poo bar