An Early Bay, 1785 miles and a few push starts

[Speedman]

Hold onto your hats, its gonna be a long thread, he's the first few days, the rest will wait for a bit....

Up at 6am and after an hour of getting ready and loading the van we headed out on tour, first stop sunny Bracknell to meet up with our travel buddies for the next week and a bit in their 1976 Viking bay....

.....we headed for Dover and the ferry, in a break from the norm the M3/M25/M20 were empty and we sailed straight down to the port, through check in and into the queue to board....

....the area was crawling with Brits in classics and supercars heading for Le Mans, it was at this time that Roy let slip that despite my "have you got everything?" comment had left his race tickets at home, a problem he'd solve at the circuit with sweet talking A smooth crossing and a short wait to regroup and we hit the Autoroute south towards our first campsite, then the rain started, several Caterhams, bikers and other open toppers were huddled under bridges sheltering, but not the trusty vans, a bay camper flew past us into the distance but we kept a steady 60-65mph and ploughed on through it

After almost 12hours on the road (and sea), we arrived in the town of Beaumont Sur Sarthe, 20kms north of the circuit and very peaceful, we set up camp for the long weekend and grabbed a welcome bite to eat at a place in town

B)

 

[Speedman]

A lazy wake up was interrupted by our neighbours drying the engine of the pink Lotus out, they'd driven through the same storm we had, luckily with a V8 turbo you have a few cylinders left when they cut out in the damp....

....we drove into town and parked up to grab a breakfast of pain au chocolat and coffee in the market square, before moving off for the track.

On the outskirts of town is the "British welcome to Le Mans" a classic car show and meet with some amazing cars on display...

The cars used in the drivers parade were parked up here, I was gutted that there were no 4.5lt Blower Bentleys there, I had to make do with a group of straight 8s instead :?

Heading away from the meet we crawled through the traffic for hours and picked up our tickets, then took a blast round the track, the circuit is made up of a small private track and public roads so you get to V-Max down the Mulsanne Straight.

It was so much fun we had another go...

....turning round for a repeat session Leonard picked up his first battle scar, the carpark we were in had a very steep slope to get out and the over riders on the front got hit the deck, we couldn't back up so pushed on and took the paint off the bottom of them, at least I can say I damaged the van on a race track

:wink:

With the day coming to an end we headed back to base passing a stricken F40 on the way

and hit the R&R bed for the night. 8)

 

[Speedman]

Saturday morning and we were back at the circuit, the race started at 3pm so we walked the few kms from the camper parking area to the pits and with British cheek Roy forced our way to the front complete with pushchair and seats, you can't get much closer to the action without a pass

...but don't forget you ear defenders, 55 cars with at least 500hp each is very noisy for young ears

Just for Mr Ratbark, the flying lizards with a flashy new paint job

The hour approached and the flag dropped and they were away (catch fencing is a pain to shot through

After watching for a few hours we wandered round the shopping village to grab some goodies, I picked up a LM t-shirt to wear but decided to stay one step behind, so saved it till Camberg and kept a VW one on for the race


Theres a loads to do as well as the race, we looked round the museum

and listened to a few seconds of cheesy French rock grabbing a view of the race all the time

The atmosphere is electrifying, with thousands of people there, the sounds and sights are difficult to put into words, you really had to be there

With the day getting late for Oscar we went back to the vans and headed to bed once more at the campsite, the race was only 5 hours old but we were shattered

 

[Speedman]

Another earlyish start and a stop in Arnage for breakfast, the street cafes do a roaring trade as the supercars cruise past....

....we headed back to the track once more and picked a new spot to watch the race

thats when it began to rain and rain and rain

We took shelter in the vans and tuned into race radio for a bit before deciding to call it a day, the race was 23hours old now and the safety car was called out for the duration, so we began the crawl out, it felt like an anti climax really but then they announced the SC was heading in with 15mins left, real racing to the end (not that real as the lead Audi had a 10 lap lead) the walkie talkie burst into life and Roy and i lept from the vans and made for the start finish straight, being more cheeky than last time we got ourselves on the line for the end to witness the monsoon like conditions at the end of the 75th 24 hour race, Audi won by miles, but a Brit made 4th overall and all 6 Aston Martins finished.

Wet and weary but buzzing after the finish we cruised to the campsite and dried off, the evening turned out beautiful in the end and we took a last look at Beaumont before heading off towards Camberg

B) 8)

 

[Speedman]

Part 2 here we go.....

Monday morning and the convoy was all set for the off once more, the vans were loaded up and we set off towards Paris...

...taking the back roads we motored on stopping for a snack before arriving in Versailles and the most amzing campsite ever, right in the middle of town was a little piece of the New Forest, an eco friendly site under the trees a chance to rest up for the night, Oscar had a splash in the pool and we all relaxed after a hectic few days

The following day we were aiming for Reims to wander the city and see the old race track, the sun was shining and the temperature was a scorching 30c as we arrived and parked up

lunch in a square a sip of the local Champagne filled us up for a shopping session and then it was on to the old track, closed in 1970 the old pits and grandstands still sit alongside the main road, freshly painted ready for a demo race later in the year it was very spooky walking round the place, it wasn't fenced off at all and apart from being asked to respect the site we were free to explore

The Grandstands

The BP building

The timing board

The tower

The pits

just in for a quick tyre change and fill up

we moved on and made for the campsite and some grub before the mother of all storms rolled in, rain, thunder, lightening and we slept right through :roll:

 

[Speedman]

The next morning was an odd one, a couple of hours, four countries

France 11.19am

Belgium 11.32am

Luxembourg 1.34pm

Germany 1.51pm

we camped at the bottom of the Mosel Valley and ate sausage and drank beer

We were in Germany for sure
8)

 

[Speedman]

The next day we cruised up the Mosel Valley, never more than a few feet from the river we crossed back and forth stopping in a few towns before getting to Cochem, after the cab bunk that Oscar used had ripped through Roy and Laura headed for a hotel for the night as sleeping would be difficult enough in the van, as the place looked so nice we parked the vans up and all booked in for the night, the van was great to sleep in and all the campsite we really nice, but we fancied a bit of luxury for the night........

you can just see the vans in the pic

The town was picture postcard as well

The next morning we carried on up the valley to Burg Eltz, a castle hidden in the forest

after a good look round and more local grub for lunch we drove back to a nearby garage to see if the vans starter could be sorted, it was still playing up and it looked like the connection to the solenoid was the cause, but we struggled to get under and investigate it, luck was with us and we found a helpful classic car mechanic who put us on the 4 post ramp and confirmed our thoughts

it would still fail a few times more but a wiggle of the cable sorted it out, its on my list of things to check this week, splitting up we made our separate ways to Limberg

8)

 

[Speedman]

Part 3 Bad Camberg

Up early and a convoy to the show, Pete led the way and Leonard did his best to keep up <_<

Once in the town it was Volkswagen heaven, every street had dubs parked up, every corner revealed another classic, we grabbed lunch with the whole LTV gang before splitting up to explore, this is a really small selection of the highlights, there loads more pics, nothing is older than the late1950s a lot of very rare old metal

Enzmann 506

Hebmuller

Dannenhauer + Stauss

Rometsch

Best queue I've ever seen

Up in the old town square

There was a chap with a split ladder truck as well taking cameras up to the dizzy heights for aerial snaps

8)

 

[Speedman]

The next day we left the van on site and walked into the town of Limberg, the show is only on till lunch time sunday and we'd seen enough on saturday, the lack of driving was a great relief, fun as it is we'd been really racking the miles up and the walk did us good. We made for the old town and the Cathedral

and then wandered round looking for lunch, the ladies always smiling despite Jo's headache :hug:

another day another town square

We drifted back to camp where I entertained Jack and Charlie while Jo grabbed "10mins" (more like an hours) shut eye and emerged refreshed and ready for a pint or two, with lots of people leaving space was available near the tent so with my co pilot Jack in the hot seat we rumbled down the road

Pete took Hector for a walk and we headed to the BeerGarten

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm

 

[Speedman]

The next morning we awoke to celebrate our 2nd wedding anniversary with the crew before hugs all round and farewells, we were heading for a date with the Nurburgring, a present from Kim, on arrival at 10am they told us that the track isn't open till 5.15pm for laps, 7 hours to kill, so we toured the musuem and chilled in the camper

Yes thats a go-kart, yes thats 8 wheels and yes thats 4 engines :dev:

with the hour approaching we hunted out the toll booth at the start of the track, I wandered in to see the guy on the gate and asked if the van would be allowed.......his response

Is it legal to drive it on the road in Germany? does it leak? does anything fall off?

With a yes, no, no I handed over 20Euros and got my ticket, with roofrack straps tightened and everything bolted down we made for the gate, like a carpark barrier we slipped the ticket in and the barrier rose, to the astonished looks of all the super car drivers and bikers and gathered crowd we edged on circuit B)

One of many hanglooses we got

The Dodge Viper Taxi heading into the Karussell, we couldn't get in being a bit too low at the front

V-Max up the straight almost 80mph, the big boys were hitting 150+

I was careful to keep right all the time and slowed to let a few Porsches past so my time was a little slower than possible....

Radical SR8 6mins 55sec (360hp V8)

Porsche GT3 7mins 47sec (400hp flat six)

Dodge Viper 8mins 10sec (460hp V10)

1971 Early Bay Camper van 19min 45sec(50hp flat four)

What a rush, an amazing experience and now Leonard wears his new sticker with pride

:bluebay:

 

[Speedman]

With the day almost gone and us about 6 hours behind we pointed the van (brakes cooled after the run) towards the port and headed off, through the forest for a few hours before reaching the autoroute we put some big miles and long runs on the van, hitting Dunkerque at about 1am and crashed in a hotel by the harbour as we couldn't find a campsite

We stopped in the hypermarket to grab plenty of goodies and then hopped on a ferry for the crossing, the happy campers still smiling

landing in Dover at 5.30pm we hit the motorway remembering to drive on the left and by 8pm parked up, Leonard covered 1785 almost fault free miles and didn't grumble, we had the most amazing time, saw some amazing sights and met up with some great friends. 8)

 

[Speedman]

Theres loads of pics here from our trip here 8)

 

[Justin &amp; Muttley]

What a great thread - it looks like you had an amazing time!
Some cool VW's, Le Mans, and a drive around the Nurburgring - brilliant!

Some brilliant photo's too, I'm glad you had such a great time - thanks for posting a great thread 8)

 

[Grazy]

excellent work mate , glad Leonard served you well and that you all had a fun and safe time .welcome back mate i havent forgotten who you are tho as every v dub mag i pick up has your van in 8)

 

[Speedman]

:lol: :lol: :lol: I'm just a big media whore

 

[Ands1]

Absalute quality post, loved the pictures & found all the text interesting, think I,m gonna hit France in the Bay next year..Nice 1

 

[Snakey]

Awesome post.
An early bay on the nurburgring 8) 8) 8)

 

[Guest]

^^WHS^^

class pictures, id love to go on an adventure like that

 

[Anonymous]

Fantastic thread Speedman - thanks for sharing the trip with us with so many great pics ... (I ll have to get to Le Mans year ..) ... I can feel an EarlyBay trip coming on - EB parade to Le Mans 2008 !!

 

[Speedman]

It was a blast, but there was loads of driving, we did 60-65mph down to Le Mans and it still took us 12 hours with the crossing and a couple of stops, its also really difficult to keep in a convoy even when there was only two of us.

If i did it again i'd take a a couple of days to get there, we were camped 20km from the track, a bit of a trek to get in but the site was soooo much nicer than the circuit ones, after getting soaked on saturday we went back to the site and got a decent bit of grub, few beers and a warm shower, the camper van area at the circuit had a tree to pi$$ behind and a puddle to wash in I know its half the fun to rough it but i like a few luxuries.

Might go again in a couple of years, got a few more trips planned for the van before repeating this one 8)