Club Arnage

I was thinking on the amount of time I have spent on getting my car ready for Le Mans this year and also prompted by DeanoX and his midget and the thought crossed my mind that Le Mans has a possible claim to be the biggest single british/european sporting event considering the number of people and level of commitment of those who attend to watch an event live as against armchair veiwing on the TV.

Consider the number of days being spent by people across the country preparing their vehicles , completing rebuilds, doing all those jobs that need sorting, cleaning , polishing and stickering up to give the individual look that each of us want for our cars.

The amount of time spent travelling and camping and large distances travelled.

The amount of money spent on vehicles, fuel, ferry, tickets and beer etc

The amount of enjoyment we all get from our different experiences

Factor all that lot above by the number of people travelling and the outcome is huge if you consider a similar comparison of the above above for spectators at the British Grand Prix or Cup final or Wimbledon.  Maybe the TT races are similar to Le Mans??

Though LM is an enigma because conversely the vast majority of people (including many car enthusiasts and motorsort fans) are not aware of any of the above.  I for one quite like that fact since it means that we can escape to the Sarthe each year leaving everything else behind for 5 or 6 days. 

For me ...seven days to go

I think that as a "British" event it may well be the "Biggest" evnet. 

I would think that in miles traveled to get there it's bound to win.   
Time spent perpareing and and going yep I think that my well come out tops too. 

I'm not sure about the cost side though.  Some of the Ferry cost are stupid these days.  But the Race tickets are a bargain.  (OK some fools pay vast sums on Ebay and to Ticket Agents)
But if you bide your time you can normaly get somthing at the right price.

IMNVHO  ;D Le Mans is more a "Way of Life" than an event.     Show me a sane person and I' cure them.  ;D

t.

Well Lawnmower Man you must come to Cheshire as there are loads of "sane" people because when I say I am going to LeMans again this year they say "where? what for?" I then have to explain it all to them and then they looked shocked that a woman (I use the term loosely) is interested in racing!

If they don't understand your need to go they are obviously insane.   Anyway bring them along I'll give them the treatment. 

t.

P.S.  I don't do home visits.

It certainly has an element of religious fervour about it.
The Lombard RAC used to claim to be Britains biggest sporting event with an optimistic estimate of 2 million peeps in attendance. Certainly had a great feeling to the event just like LM, I followed it  every year from '78 to '01. But the powers that be decided to change it into a bland glorified autotest in an unattractive part of Wales and the magic (and spectators) have gone. We decided to give Lm a try and it has the same feel but nicer weather

Biggest 1 day crowd has been the World Superbikes round.

When Foggy was riding, 125,000 was an average crowd. I know that Foggy used to attract a huge Northern following, being a fine Blackburn lad. The column of bikes travelling south to Brands was a sight to behold.

This was all for a single day event.

I agree with most of this apart from one thing. Le Mans is a French event. Held in France, organised by the French. And although very well attended by us Brits, it will be for me, forever unashamedly French.

Monkeys right- for all the french love of red tape and gallic shruggery, it couldn't happen here, they'd never get past the Health and Safety risk assessment. And can you imagine what the logo would look like?

Sorry monkey, 

It's a "British" motor race.  I't just that we hold it in France and let the French think they oganise it.

t.

Yep its a French event of course,  and we are forever grateful to them for organising it and letting us visit every year  ;D ;D ;D

 :laugh:

If it really was British, like we all know F1 to be even though we sometimes allow the Italians to win, that wee jakie Ecclestone and his pal Moseley would have muscled in, regulated and priced it out of most fans' reach, and probably decided that 24h is a bit too long for the TV audience and shrunk the race. And probably reduced it to one class, so the leading drivers don't have to deal with all those bothersome backmarkers in 911s.

Say what you like about the ACO rule changes and the track layout tinkering, but thank the big man that the French can't even be bothered to bugger it up good & proper...

Can anyone think of anything bigger.  I thought the gate was about 350,000, compared to Indy's 400,000, and Reading (soon to be enlarged) FCs 22,000.  The Olympics might have 3 x 80,000 stadiums on the go, so we beat them, the Isle of Man is only big enough for about 20,000 and cricket grounds are tiny.

Weird, isn't it.  10,000 people turn up to see some football/cricket/golf/horseracing, and its prime time television.  60,000 Brits go to another country and its not even on Channel 5.

Weird, isn't it.  10,000 people turn up to see some football/cricket/golf/horseracing, and its prime time television.  60,000 Brits go to another country and its not even on Channel 5.
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I have to say that I am not sure it makes great TV. I remember the BBC carrying coverage of a 1000K back in the 1980's when the Jags were doing so well and they really did not have a clue what to do with it! The commentary went off at normal F1 speed and began to flag after about half an hour when they realised there was about another five and a half hours to go.

Having said all of that, the thing that has never ever failed to amaze me is the pitiful coverage the Worlds Greatest Motor Race gets in the print media. Check out any UK paper on the Monday after the race, and if you find more than a couple of paragraphs I would be amazed.

The Times report after last years race went something like

KRISTENSEN SETS RECORD
Tom Kristensen won his seventh Le mas 24 Hour race in France on June 16th.

The british sports media have always been disinterested in motor racing, look at the Sunday times- page after page of rugby coverage (a game that involves men groping each other covered in mud for gods sake), motor racing only gets a look in when some brit has a good run in F1. It hardly covered rallying when we had 2 of the best drivers in the world. The so called specialist press doesn't fare much better when it comes to Lm- the motoring news has had about 5 paragraphs in the last month- and thats it. 

It's not good TV.   I've seen some good Documentaries on the race.    But as an ratings booster it's hopless.    Being first in to the first corner or leading the First lap doesn't really mean anything.    The chances are your not going to see some one make heroic out braking manouver going it to some corner to snatch the lead.   Any overtaking is likley to happen along Mulsanne or on the drag down to Indianapolis.   So it's not exciting in that way.   

Not the short lived instant stuff that get TV folk so excited.     

t.

Bit of a random football club's gate size to choose Lorry ???

Or are you a Royal? ;)

The Tour de France claims 15 million but thats over 22 days...
    * Tour de France (France and neighbouring countries) the organisers claim 15 million spectators every year [32], with the Guinness Book of Records claiming a more modest 10 million [33]. This is the highest total for any single sporting event; it should be pointed out, however, that attendance is entirely free and not closely monitored.

So, maybe any resident of any town/city that the tour visits, is actually attending the race?

Sneaky way of counting folk.

I assume that is a joke?  If not it is a crazy thing to say  ???

I'm not bothered that it's not well covered by the press or TV - It's OUR race and I don't want anyone else to know about it!

Selfish Steve

You've got a good point there Steve.
A few years back a car journo described the ritual of attending Le Mans as 'what a tribal gathering or rave must be like, the feeling that we are right and the rest of the world is slightly out of step. Not that you'd want the rest of the world to turn up and spoil it' That sums it up pretty well don't you think?

I must admit, Steve I share your views to an extent. Le Mans is a participation sport, and one of the finest. And to participate all you have to do is be there. And while it does draw 60K plus from the UK every year you will most probably find that number represents a large proportion of the total 'interested public'. Even if for example it represents just 10% (and I suspect it is more like 40%) of those with a passion for the Worlds Greatest Motor Race then that makes a total audience in the UK of around 600K. Which when compared to most sport is tiny.

Well I'm a saddo because I've watched last year's race (22 hours once you take the ads out) twice.

Not sad at all Termi, you just like to participate a lot. But work out the maths, there probably are not many who - like you, have watched last years TV coverage twice. Nor like me who has watched the Le Mans movie three times in the last week! ;D

It's definately a Brit race.

Reason:-  Us Brits are reportadly the drinkers of the world.

What a better way of proving this, some of us spend 7 days drinking 24hrspd and then watch a very long race!

It's a Brit race and we allow the French to host it for us.

This year is my 15th.  (15x7x24 = 2520 hours of binge drinking!!!!!).

Jerry

365x24=8760

8760-168=8592

Therefore 8592 hours of training this year!

The stats known to me are:

133 TV channels
TV feed to 25 countries
228 million viewers
1.9 million visitors on the official website doing 45 million page views
670 media outlets worldwide (tv, radio, print media and news agencies) represented at the race
1600 accredited journalists

WOW

Yes, you must be very proud...

I'm cutting down this year as I have the 'Purrple Peril' with me.

Jerry

:D This year has been exceptional - but Le Mans has given me a real reason to push to get my MG finished. Without it, I would have taken a lot longer to finish. I've had that Midget since I was a student (several!) years ago. Then it fell into occasional use, then it just never made it for an MOT. It was off the road for about 5 years. I Spent a long time in late 05 and early 06 getting it back to full health with MOT at then end of Feb 06. I was then taking it to a Midget Rolling road day (dont laugh!) when some tw*t reversed into it at the dartford tolls. Pics Here (http://www.eatworms.org.uk/album/Accident-13-05-2006) I was kind of dispirited for a while - but its now back and I'm happy I've pushed to get it finished.

Slightly added significance for LM because as a student my mate had a Spitfire and we drove them everywhere. Le Mans in the classics was always "pub talk". Well we've done the last 5/6 years in Moderns (Impreza's for me) and this year we have the same Spitfire and the Midget finally (about 15 years after the 1st suggested LM trip) going to France for the pilgrimage. An MGB along for the ride aswell :)

Just hoping for more luck than last year.....Impreza lunched a big end bearing just south of Rouen and I did the weekend in a C4 hire car  :'(

LM does consume a lot of planning/anticpation each year though :D shame its only a few days ;)

I think your getting the hang of it oldtimer.

t.