The drive down to the legendary 24 Heures du Mans is arguably as much a part of the weekend as the race itself. Aside from dodging the Gendarmerie and the inevitable battle through Rouen, the French autoroutes are pretty painless and the seemingly endless array of exotic cars on their way to La Sarthe makes for quite the spectacle... Especially when you're in the tunnels! This year, however, we've teamed up with the nice people at Zuto car finance and organised something to make your journey even more exciting.
Like a Le Mans race pit stop, but slower
During our journey down to Le Mans last year we were chatting amongst ourselves, and decided it's a bit of a shame that there isn't a single meeting place where like minded PHers can regroup, relax and get ready for the final stint to the finish line. We felt it was so much of a shame that this year we have partnered with Zuto to put together exactly that!
It is with great pleasure therefore that we can announce 2016 will see us running the inaugural 'PistonHeads Le Mans Pit Stop' in association with Zuto.
In short, we've taken over the 'Aire De Repos Joel Boisgard', about halfway between Alencon and Le Mans. We'll be open on Thursday June 16 from 11am until about 5pm (TBC), and the PH crew along with our trusty fleet of long term press cars will be on hand to give out lots of free stuff. We're talking stickers, T-shirts, goodie bags, sweets, drinks and anything else that we can lay our hands on and cram into the cars!
As well as collecting your loot, the location we've chosen is also the ideal place to stop, regroup with your convoy and refresh yourself before the last push onward to Le Mans. And on top of all of this, it is completely FREE!
We're only on during the day - sorry!
The services we'll be using is between Junctions 20 and 21 on the A28, about half way between Alencon and Le Mans. It will be signposted too, so keep your eyes peeled for some PH smileys!
Is there anything else I need to know?
Yes! First up, please do take it steady on your journey down. We can tell you through personal experience that the Gendarmerie are extremely hot on speeding. We're not saying that they like to target exotic UK-registered cars, but last year only one car in our convoy got pulled over (despite all travelling at the same speed) and it was an Aston Martin. The fine was large and they only accept cash. We're not joking.
Secondly, there is still a bit of space on our Friday Service at the Classic British Welcome, so if you would like to come along but haven't signed up yet then you can do so here.
Finally, we wish you all a pleasant journey to Le Mans and we hope to see as many of you as possible over the weekend be it at the Pit Stop, the Friday Service or at the bar in either of our campsites. Salut!
