August 14, 2025 • 31 mins
Jon Summers is the Motoring Historian. He was a company car thrashing technology sales rep that turned into a fairly inept sports bike rider. On his show he gets together with various co-hosts to talk about new and old cars, driving, motorbikes, motor racing, motoring travel.
Jon returns with co-host Mark Gammie to shares their adventures and tips for visiting Le Mans. The episode includes humorous stories from Jon's past experiences, detailed insights into camping options, practical travel advice, and highlights from attending the famous 24-hour car (and Motorcycle) race. Mark provides additional commentary, discussing travel logistics, camping hacks, and the unique culture of Le Mans. Both emphasize the significance of driving through France, exploring small towns, and soaking in the local atmosphere, all while sharing personal anecdotes and travel recommendations for motorsport enthusiasts.
==================== 00:00 A Themed Episode Begins 01:25 Le Mans Stories and Anecdotes 04:02 Camping and Accommodation Tips 08:44 Driving to Le Mans 23:22 Music and Entertainment at Le Mans 24:02 Travel Tips and Road Experiences 30:16 Conclusion and Future Episodes===== (Oo---x---oO) =====
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Copyright Jon Summers, The Motoring Historian. This content is also available via jonsummers.net. This episode is part of the Motoring Podcast Network and has been republished with permission.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
John Summers is the motoring historian.
He was a company car thrashing technologysales rep that turned into a fairly inept
sports bike rider hailing from California.
He collects cars and bikesbuilt with plenty of cheap and
fast and not much reliable.
On his show, he gets together withvarious co-hosts to talk about new
and old cars driving motorbikes,motor racing, and motoring travel.
(00:35):
Good day.
Good morning, good afternoon.
It is John Summers the motoringhistorian with Mark Gamy.
And unusually for us, we have athemed episode today, mark, don't we?
You're nodding.
We do.
Yeah.
We, we do.
We put minutes of research in.
Say what?
We might not stop talkingover each other in a moment.
We might break.
We, we, we've put minutesof research into this.
(00:55):
Yeah.
Fully.
Yeah.
You described it as 10 earlier, which,uh, but the producer was saying to me
as we were joking about in the last pod,the Ronnie Corbert and the producer,
the producer, Eric was saying to methat they, he prefers us off the cuff.
He thinks we're better off the cuff.
He probably means just ramble lessand stay on the point, doesn't he?
(01:16):
Not off the wrist, off the cuff.
Yeah.
No, no, no.
At least I think that's, I I thinkthat's, uh, what, what he meant.
Yeah.
I, I hope that's what he meant.
But look, I am really gonna, there'sa serious point here, and that serious
point is, is that instead of rattlingon about irrelevant stuff like music and
things in the episode, which you can do.
We should at least give thelistener some of what they came
(01:38):
for, which is they came for Lamore.
So we, you and I have both been to Lamore.
I'm gonna begin, and this is astorytelling podcast, so I'm gonna
begin with a Lemore story, or moreor less a story, more an anecdote.
I went one year and for separatereasons that we may talk about further
into the pod, the rest of my group,the, the other three guys I went
(02:01):
with decided they would leave early.
Just to do with some rain and so on.
Exactly right.
I'm just wussies, right?
Just absolute bloody, you know?
Now feeding into my decision to do whatI did was the fact that I had taken the
not great decision to camp in a bivy bag.
Which listeners you may not know islike an army thing where it's like
(02:25):
a large canvas bag where you canput your sleeping, where you can
put your backpack and your shoes andyour clothes and all of your other
camping kit at the bottom of it.
And then you can have your sleepingbag inside it, and then you can
zip it up above your head and youcan sleep anywhere and stay warm.
And it's really a quite a coolthing and, and really a, you
know, minimalist cool way of.
(02:46):
Traveling, especially for peoplewho can't be asked or aren't
very good at putting out tents.
So anyway, I was in the bivy bag, itfucking rained and when it rained,
it rained, rained and there was likean inch of water in in the campsite.
So I was just like, you know, this is not.
Bloody cricket, is it?
So, uh, well, it's not cricket,it's mo Anyway, whatever.
So the others were like, wewe're going, and I was like, man,
(03:08):
well, I, I don't want to do that.
And they were like, well,where you want to go?
You know, you know, and I was like,all right, well I'm gonna have to
make the most of it whilst I can.
So I walked from the campsite,which was inside the Bugatti
circuit up past White House.
To our March now, this must havebeen, I went like the three years,
like, I don't know, like 2000,2001, 2002, something like that.
(03:32):
Or 99, 2002 there that itsomewhere in, in that era.
And I went I think three times.
And they all sort of merged together.
In my mind, I've just thoughtof another amusing, uh, anecdote
to do with a moped and going andgetting beer and a counter with aba.
But that took place in our NIJ villageand uh, there is a top tip there.
(03:53):
Stay in our Nij village people.
It's conveniently placed and you canwalk everywhere and if you've got a
bike, that is a good place to neverdone it myself, but should have done it.
Point of this.
Early vignette in, in our podtoday is I walk down to Iage in the
middle of the night in the rain.
And uh, when the cars come, they,you can hear the cars coming
around Indianapolis and then they,Indianapolis is a righty, isn't it?
(04:15):
Where you're break in and thenthey stop and there's that little
bus stop, lefthander, and then theshort, straight, and a right hand.
Before they go off, down towards WhiteHouse and, and, uh, I was stood there,
you could see the brake discs glowing.
And I stood there for ages,hypnotized, and it was one of the
single most enjoyable things thatI've ever done in Motorsport.
(04:38):
It really was, uh, the fact thatit goes on and on and on and on.
Is really what sets it apart andsets it apart as visual and ordinary
and you know, spectator experience.
Yeah, no, that's fair comment mate.
I mean, I enjoyed it when we went,we stayed at a little place outside
(05:00):
that a bunch of my mates who go everyyear, but there's aji or a gentleman
who has a chateau outside who sort ofputs up people camping in his grounds.
So there are.
I mean, they were cold by the time wegot there, but there were, there were
showers and the Ls were quite nice.
And you know, you camped thereand you could park your car
next to your tent and so forth.
And he did a little car show after acouple of days where he came, he wandered
(05:20):
around and if you had a nice car, he said,oh, we're gonna tap you on the shoulder.
Would you like to be in the car show?
And so forth.
Which was good and itwas a nice place to stay.
Very civilized, but it was too far away.
It was too annoying to get there and back.
Well, can be, my question is howfar away was it and where was
it in relation to the circuit?
Because we've jumped, I'llthink of details out, we, we've
jumped right in here folks intolike a travel experience here.
(05:41):
But you gotta understand is Lamar, thestart finish is like race circuit, right?
But the Moza Strait is a main roadbetween some cities in France.
So where you are.
In relation to the circuit isimportant because you can get to the
circuit on public rows just about,or at least you could years ago.
They're moving the go postson all of that, aren't they?
(06:02):
The other thing is, is ZA is so muchmore built up now than it used to be, but
your chateau, where was it in relation?
I think it was like Southeast, sort of alittle bit southeast of the um, or well
sorry, west Southwest or West Southwestkind of direction from the circuit.
So it wasn't too bad to get there.
It was like a 10 or 15 minute drive,assuming that you were gonna be doing
30 miles an hour only kind of thing.
It wasn't, you know, yeah, itwas no sort of like nudgey bits.
(06:24):
Of course, there's nowhere to park there.
So getting there, you know, you wouldeither get one of you to drop you
over, or you'd try and get a coach, abus or mini bus or something over, and
there'd be a couple in the morning cup.
So it was doable.
But once you're there, it was afaf to get back there and back.
I mean I looked and if you prepare to plansort of a year plus in advance, you can
Airbnb a very nice sleeps 10 people insidethe circuit and merely quite a lot of
(06:48):
money a night, like 1500 euros, somethinglike that a night, which is a lot of
money, but not between 10 of you it isn't.
So, you know, you are then a hundredyards, walk from the marathon straight.
That sort of difference, you know.
So you are gonna be probably blockedoff, you aren't gonna be driving around,
but you could get there in advance.
And then add your electric scooteror Brompton or whatever to get
(07:09):
around the place and you've gotinside access to the circuit.
I think that's the way Iwould like to do it next time.
But this chat was nice.
It was just a bit of afaff getting in and out.
It's editor John interrupting with abrief road test report on the Brompton.
John's selling a Brompton right now.
I'll post a picture of me riding it.
I think you'll agree.
I look ridiculous.
(07:30):
Maybe partly to do with the factthat it's me, mostly to do with the
fact that the Brompton is ridiculous.
It's also the same price.
It was a proper jigsaw.
John and I discussed it and he said,I'm not sure if this is the right thing
to say, but I feel like it's kind of,
and I went, well, it's for commutingand being in the corner of your flat in
(07:53):
London if you've got no parking and so on.
Then I rode it and I got off itand I said to him, it's kind of.
I mean that in an pejorative kind of way.
You know, it just, it's like a kind of a,you know, it's got a pedal assist, it's
got three gears, you thumb the gears.
It's really quite an interesting,nice piece of kit in Brompton
(08:13):
and revolving with the times.
But camping inside the circuit is whatmost people do camping in and around.
The start finish is what most peopledo and the French loves to camp and
it is a bit of a camping themed.
Right now after my experiences ofcamping, we did pivot into a camper
van at one point, and I wouldsay fucking never again on that.
(08:37):
And the reason for that is that thedrive down there is a big part of Lamar.
For your Englishman.
Now we're gonna talk about that separatelybecause there is a heritage of the
Bentley and Jaguar teams driving to Lamar.
So when you drive like a hooligancross France and nearly get
arrested, which has happened to manyEnglishmen, not you or I. No, no.
(09:02):
What you or.
I've never actually beenpulled over in France.
I would just say, no, I haven't.
I, I hesitate to say that though, 'causeit's gonna fucking happen, isn't it?
Mm. But the, the point is that the drivedown there was not fun in the camper van.
So, however great the campingexperience was because it spoiled a
major element of the experience just.
Fuck on that.
(09:23):
It was like sitting down at a rock show.
Now your shadow thing, youget the, you, you forget.
Of course, the most important thingis, is when you are leaving, there's
all families on the overpasses, onthe triage, waving at the cool cars.
Yeah, the little kids and stuff.
Waving at the cool cars.
Yes.
You don't wanna be there likethe doers and the camper van.
Not getting no going slowly.
(09:43):
You definitely don't.
You definitely do not, I, I, I gottasay Gary, I, I think, I feel like
now I'm thinking about it again.
I, I'd fly and buy like the cheapest Kfive jigs of hour I could find in England.
That's how I'd wanna do it.
Now, I think I'd probablyfall off riding up the metal
ramp of the ferry, wouldn't I?
(10:04):
Right.
But again, you, you sort ofwant someone who's got a boot.
Just riding convoy with someone.
Let's, but I'm trying to, I'm trying toimagine our fictitious listener wanting
to 'cause, ironically enough, right?
The producer Eric, is actually atLamar as we're recording this for
the Lamore Classic, as is the othermotoring podcast network personality.
William Ross, the, uh, Ferrari guy.
(10:25):
They're together.
I, I, I'm not, I think he's doing Goodwoodas well, so I'd be interested to know what
they, uh, think of it when we get back.
We may even do it.
Crossover episode.
I may even invite you,mark, to do the Cross.
Cross.
There's 80 F1 cars, 80 historicF1 cars at the festival of
speed this week, this time.
Yeah.
Let's stay on track.
Rarely as I, as I dothat with Lamar, right?
'cause the point you made was it's betterto camp inside the circuit in a house.
(10:49):
It's best to be in a house.
The Chateau was good, but it was amotherfuck getting to and from correct.
'cause even when the traffic flows,there's nowhere to park nearby.
And the solution to that is very Frenchsolution, which is the bicy, isn't it?
If, uh, my pronunciation,uh, serves there.
Especially these electric ones, whichleads me onto that little anecdote
(11:11):
of where one of those years I went,one of the guys I went with had
rehabilitated like his grandmother'sHonda 50 shopping trolley moped, right?
It was not like your like C 90.
This guy had like littler wheels, like,and was a step through like a full on
step little white basket at the back.
(11:32):
Don't remember the details,but I do remember drawing the
short straw, having to go.
Into our NA to buy beer forthe four of us at that time.
And it was the camper van.
It was the year of the camper van,and I don't remember exactly how
it happened, but I do remembera very large French genre who
(11:53):
looked like, do you remember that?
You will remember this.
Hello?
Hello?
The, the British TV show, which, whichlisteners really an amusing premise.
It, it's a classic English fast, butit's set where it's Englishman speaking
with fake French accents is a resistanceworker who runs a cafe in France.
(12:16):
It's like Nazi occupied.
France.
Yeah.
His name is Renee, and he's havingan affair with his two waitresses
as well as trying to keep his very,this is very misogynistic, actually.
Usually.
Oh, was xenophobic.
Misogynistic like I was, and racist andfully racist against the German and, yeah.
Yeah.
(12:37):
Yeah, it was, and, and so it picked alot of boxes and so obviously all young
eng, all English people of a certain agela this shit up and all of us understand
the cultural reference of Alo Lo.
And why the, how was I talking aboutthe John looked like Rene presumably.
No, he looked like the English airmen.
They did the, the one that has theterrible accent that is the policeman.
(13:00):
He is an English man.
Oh, good moaning.
Good moaning.
That one.
Yeah, exactly like that.
Well, anyway, but he wasn't good moaning.
He was like, 'cause I triedthe whole Oh, non, non.
Yeah, I, I, I tried that and,and he was having none of that.
(13:20):
And tr and uh, and you know, we, we,I can't remember where he was cross
about, I can't remember what I'd done.
I was, I remember the moped wasloaded with beer, and I remember
that when I resisted the mopedor the beer being impounded,
that it was like me or the beer.
And I remember thatwhen I got back to camp.
(13:41):
I was like amazed that I'd escaped, notarrested, and with the moped, and they
were pissed off that there wasn't beer.
All the money had gone.
I was like, I bought the beer, but thepolicemen confiscated and they were
letting you were supposed to believethat, like you've stolen the money.
And I remember being like, youfucking idiots, which they were.
In fairness, I, that year I went withone guy who was a friend of to you.
(14:03):
Seems a bit harsh.
Sorry, doubting you seems pretty harsh.
Yeah, but this was the same guythat rode away from me when I
fell off in Germany on the jigsaw.
Oh, that prick.
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
Him and another guy, the guy whoencourages to do the camper van,
he worked for a large oil company.
I can't remember yourname if you listening, but
you'll remember who you are.
(14:24):
And he recently received a job offer.
You'll be able to guess the oilcompany now, based upon the fact that
he'd received a job offer to go andwork for a very well known Italian
firm in their motor racing team.
And do you know what he'd said?
No.
He wanted to stay in like Macclesfieldor Ham or whatever, horrific northern
(14:46):
British town, beginning with M andhe didn't wanna move to Italy and
he didn't wanna, and I was like.
Weren't you interested in workingfor, you know, that company with the
Yellow Shield and the black horse?
You know, weren't you kindof interested in that?
And he went, you know, no.
I was like, oh dear.
Oh dear.
So, so I remember thatshow, all that a touch.
That was the year of the heat stroke.
(15:07):
I walked the circuit and I got all theworst heat stroke I've ever gotten.
I passed out in the bushes justsomewhere on the approach to sza.
(15:27):
I am gonna give you my selmo story.
It's with Nick, the lad that left mein, uh, in Germany, his mate, Ian.
Who was a bit like Greek andnice guy, huge, big personality.
A little irritating in, in a way thatgrief isn't, you know, Greek's mellow.
Ian was a bit like, listen to me, butyou know, nice enough guy, Nick knew
(15:50):
him through, he was like a distributor.
When Nick like it, distributor, thisis how we, we all, uh, we all knew
each other, but Ian was a Ford guy, so,you know, I had a bit of like bonding.
He was from Essex, you know, so abit of bonding with him around that.
Ian really appreciated the learning.
Really appreciated seeing your IRS2000 that day at at your house.
Thank you for your time.
(16:11):
I hope Nick didn't treat youthe way that he treated me.
Unfortunately, I feel like Nickjust doesn't understand how
to make friends with people.
Nick, if you're listening.
I forgive you 'cause you're probablya, you were a miserable person then and
you're probably still miserable now.
And I don't wish any moremisery on you by hating on you.
I don't hate on you.
You gave me a really,really good story to tell.
Had you come back and picked me up andnever would've won the Suzuki G six R and
(16:34):
maybe I never would've filled my garage.
So your asshole actuallyhelped me out, Nick.
But Ian, you were a great guyand I really enjoyed doing them
on with you and that suggestion.
Late at night when we were walkingback from the Chinese mailer in and
air to be like, you know, the carson Za, they're just down there.
We could just like walk down thatperson's driveway and into their
(16:55):
back garden and probably see 'em.
And I was young enough and foolish enoughto be like, fuck yeah, let's do it.
So we did.
You could lie on the bank.
We were lying on the bank lookingthrough the bushes, and I remember
watching the Corvettes passwith flames outta the exhausts.
The road must have been probably threefeet from the hedge, and we were like
(17:16):
lying, looking under the pritt hedge.
The following year, the guyhad like closed his gate and we
weren't able to do that anymore.
And, and looking online now, it seemsthat all of that land use in that part
of the circuit has changed In the what?
25, 20, 25 years Since I did that.
That's my best of my memoryto be like lying looking.
(17:39):
I feel it's like a NASCAR driver.
Oh, I knew I wanted tobe a racing car driver.
I climbed up the fence and lookedin and saw the cars racing.
It's almost like that.
So, yeah, so the Corvettes particularlya wonderful piece of theater.
And in that moment I was, I couldn'tbelieve how close they were.
I couldn't believe how loud it was.
It, it, it was, was a mixture ofhigh end Formula one bra, haha.
(18:02):
And the island man tt and rallying.
You know, it's a little lane and it'sreally fast and it's in your face.
That's.
Fire and breaks and potential death.
Yeah.
And the callbacks are typically, well,at least traditionally, were the loudest.
So, you know, it's not asurprise that you pick them out.
Um, story if you have one.
I mean, I dunno, I, I'vegot a specific one really.
I mean, I, I will say that, youknow, we touched on it briefly.
(18:25):
The drive down for Englishfolks is often a tradition.
I know a guy, you know,good mayor of mine.
I haven't spoken to Rages,but I, he's still great guy.
Stu goes down every year with hisbuddies and he drives his TVR down
and various other things, and they'vegot a little crew of them that go, you
know, the, the, the whole, they, theydeliberately drive quite a long way east
so they're not on the direct route tohave more fun on the roads on the way
(18:47):
down, so they're not getting drivingthrough, you know, a speed trap every 15.
We stopped in a really nice little French,one of the classics at a little French
town squares with a bistro sort of thing,and, you know, rocked up and had a really
quite nice and cost-effective, you know,sausage baguette with havoc, fruit, and,
uh, a beer, and then carried on the dry.
It's, it's a really delightful drive.
(19:08):
You're lucky with the weather that year.
It can be really nice,pleasant way to get down there.
This is why the openingsequence of Lamar with McQueen
driving there is so important.
The drive.
To the circuit, theconcept, they call it laer.
It's important to understandthe context of it.
The other thing is it's importantto understand that the town is
(19:28):
actually not conveniently placed foryou to access the circuit remotely.
There's no nearby anynearby, any hotels nearby.
They'll all be booked up withthe 24 hour bike grand pri.
Bike race, like Moto 24.
Did that with my familya couple of years ago.
I think I mentioned it on a separatepod, but we stayed at an Ibis
hotel right by the train station.
It took us more than two hours to walk.
(19:50):
Yeah, I mean that's, that's fine.
Unusual.
I mean, it's a big circuit.
It's a really big circuit,and it's France, not England.
So.
Things can be spread out'cause there's enough room.
So it is more like Americandistances in between things.
So, and you know, if it's a hotday, it's hot and dusty and there's
a lot of people there and youknow, there's not a lot of shade.
So you, you do want to be careful of takea hat, you know, have plenty of water.
(20:16):
If you're gonna buy a t-shirt, takeout a small mortgage before you go
because it's gonna be 120 quid forwhatever the shitty t-shirt is.
That is too busy.
The Moto ones weren'tthat expensive, I guess.
Motos not LA more, is it?
Yeah, and we were, I, I've allowed forestimated inflation there, but I remember
the t-shirts when I went there, whichit must have been 10, 15, 20 years ago.
(20:38):
What, 85 quid.
So before we talk about thedrive down, let's talk about
any other like, tips around.
So, so we're saying camping, we'resaying drive something decent down there.
'cause that's part of it.
What else are we saying?
We're saying that pro, if youdon't like camping, it's fine.
Just plan ahead and doing it.
B or something like that.
If you're a pedal cyclist, that's good.
(20:58):
If you're a lazy mf, get an e-bike and,and that's probably gonna help you.
Yeah.
The only challenge for any ofthose things is where do you leave
them if you want to leave them.
Do you even do that?
Do you just like sit with itlike on the bank somewhere?
Yeah, you can do, but again, andthat would be probably a pretty
way, pretty good way to do it.
But I mean, it's all the bitsaround the circuit are several
(21:19):
deep around every fence.
You've gotta mooch out a ways aroundor be later, much later in the evening
or the following morning in order to beable to get to the fence unless you get
there early, early and have your chairand stake out your, uh, square footage.
Yeah.
Fuck that.
I'm not German, youknow, I'm not doing that.
This is the thing with it.
Some people like to have thechair and sit in one place.
(21:41):
I like to be a walkie all around.
Yeah.
I mean, it's a long time, you know.
It is a long time.
It is.
And you are also doing yourself agrave disservice if you don't walk.
All around the pits in practice andyou don't do the fun fare at night
and you don't walk the whole circuit.
You know there's a lot to doin that 24 hours, isn't there?
(22:02):
It's like rock shows andstuff around the start.
There's a firework display in the night.
I should mention thisFrench band called As.
Who myself, Ollie and Dana watchedsome of, and Ollie cites them as being
the worst band he's ever seen live.
He's like, we're Ashand worse than crowbar.
And I'm like, dude, Idon't like to be negative.
(22:23):
You know, there may be Ash anduh, I don't like to be negative,
but possibly they even were.
I mean mean crowbar worth shit though.
I should just say listeners, that bothyour hosts have seen crowbar at least
four times together and probably, and I'veseen crowbar six times I think altogether
and, and I wish never having gone tosee Crowbar, never having gone to see
(22:46):
Crowbar and never having enjoyed them.
The fact that they're still, just to beclear here, they were always the support.
We only ever saw themsupporting somebody else.
What I don't like, crowbar notknocking the car don't like us.
If you're even, I mean, I'msure they probably don't like
us and fair play to them.
I would back them intheir right to do that.
(23:06):
But yeah, I mean that is a dedicationto providing pretty poor rock.
Over a lot of time.
Don't they call it metal core now?
Isn't it like a style of metalthat you and I never got into?
What shit?
Moving on.
Moving on.
Um, music.
What music should we do in this episode?
Tradition would suggest we should dothat sort of weird French pop that is
(23:31):
being played at 14-year-old discos,which has often got English lyrics in it
that are deeply oversexualized for theage group that they're being played to.
That would be a traditional thing to do.
I can't pretend to know thatgenre well enough, if I'm honest.
Yeah, we, we'll have to make do withthat air sexy boy track, won't we?
(23:51):
We just have to do, yeah.
I mean, that is a good track there.
There's a lot of that sort ofthing, uh, I played in France
and, um, fair play to them.
Uh, and look, I mean, I, I always saythis about any travel, have the radio on.
Conflict through radios is ifyou're traveling through countries
in a car especially, gives youa real flavor of the country.
You're going through it.
It adds value to the reason whyyou're not flying over that country.
(24:12):
You're driving through it.
You get a real, you have toget out and fill up the car.
You have to, you know, you stopand get food, you know, you
get a flavor of the country.
Anyway, the same thing with the radio.
To that end, and thisties completely to Lamar.
It's an important thing to understandif you've not been to France before,
if you don't know France, is that theyhave toll roads and non toll roads.
And toll roads are like American highways.
(24:32):
They're perfectly maintained and so on.
And you always see a lot of carson fire in France for some reason.
You notice that always a lot of cars on.
Whatever.
Maybe they just, I don't know what,why the call, what the call, so
they don't drive that fast, do they?
And, and they do like police crazily.
But isn't it like 130 Ks?
Isn't that the, the limit on the, yeah.
Anyway, the, the shtick I'm talking aboutis that thing in your Google Maps app
(24:56):
where you can be like, avoid highways.
Because if you avoid highways as I'vebeen doing, I've been doing this in
England recently, my word drivingEngland on the A roads, it's slow.
In every town it's like a huge bottleneck.
But in between the towns, it'sthe green and pleasant land.
How it's road about and Americansand other people from around
the world travel to sea.
You know, it's really there.
(25:17):
Like the cots worlds is really, if you.
Ignore all the traffic and the newugly houses on the edge of town.
Cotswolds are exactly as youwould imagine them to be if
you were like a reader of Yeah.
Yeah.
If you watch Miss Marple Mysteriesmade in I, if you ride a motorbike,
the traffic isn't even that bad.
If you ride a motorbike, thetraffic isn't even that bad.
(25:38):
I fully agree.
The point is that Franceis the same, right?
That if you stay off those mainroads and if you go through the small
towns and villages, oh my word, itis a rewarding travel experience
and uh, yeah, I encourage visitorsdoing them off, do it that way.
The flip side of that is if youneed to make quick progress.
And if you are doing a fly in andout, it can be very useful depending
(26:00):
on where you're coming in and out of.
I'll give you the example.
If you fly into, um, burgundy, sorry.
No, the, uh, yeah.
Um, what's the, uh, place at the bottom?
Bordeaux?
Yeah, Bordeaux.
If you plan to Bordeaux, rent acar, and then you're flying and
you're driving down to the Pyrenees.
That section of Poage there, it's justabout the least used section of Poage.
But if you just want to thrash down tothe mountains, I think I saw four cars
(26:23):
on it, and we arrived at sort of eight15 guy in the car, in the rental car
blasted down to um PO for the PO GP.
And it took about an hour and 15 minutes,about 95 miles, something like that.
Hardly any other cars, no speed cameras.
And when I spoke to the hostabout it and he said, yeah, the
French don't sort of resented themoney it got spent to build it.
(26:43):
So they don't use it andthey don't want to pay.
They'd rather just drive.
And I am, and I can,you know, respect that.
Yeah.
Doesn't mean you can really blastdown there in northern Spain.
I did a trip to Northern Spain withDana years ago when at that time the.
EU had recently paid for loads of likepayout of highway toll roads to be built,
but the trucks didn't wanna pay thetolls, so they stayed on the a. On what?
(27:07):
On what In England would be like theA roads, you know, driving through the
tows and you'd, you'd see, you'd be onthe toll road and you'd see the trucks
driving slowly on the, a roads betweenthe towns, like running parallels.
So I don't know why this,what the situation was there,
why they didn't want to use.
The main roads didn't wanna pay, didn'twanna, because the motorway services
there were absolutely deserted.
You'd like stop at motorwayservices in the middle of the day.
(27:30):
And if it was like one in England,it'd be like rammed with people.
They'd be like hundreds of cars thereand there'd be like three cars there
and you'd go in the dining area andthey'd be like all the staff there,
but nobody actually eaten any food.
It was really peculiar.
I mean that was, this waswhat, 20 years ago now?
So it's maybe, uh, maybe different now.
The point is that you can really.
(27:51):
Cover some ground.
I mean, I set the, we had a BMW, likean F 93 2 8 BMW is the rental car,
which is our new car then, so it showshow long ago it was, and I remember
setting the crews at a speed that beganin miles an hour with a one and a two.
I mean, that is our, like I also beingasked by a Passat turbo diesel with German
(28:15):
number plates on it, and I was like,oh, that'll be the sales rep, won't it?
That'll be a sales rep on theway to meet somebody in the south
of the country kind of thing.
You gotta make progress.
I, I will say in the summer,be real careful because the,
the, the end roads are fine.
But the poage does get jammed.
This is, isn't it?
We're now stepping away from myexperiences in Northern Spain and
(28:38):
stepping, yeah, this is back in France,but in the pay is, you know, France is
the most visited country in the world.
It's a big country.
It's got a pretty good road networkand it's well maintained and it's
a decent speed of throughput.
But you will get traffic, you know,you will get, and as the further south
you go, the worse the traffic will get.
So, be clever, set off early, or don'tmind driving in the night, you know, and
(28:59):
you can make some really good progress.
But that's the way to do it because that'sthe way that you'll, you can use the road
effectively and cover some serious milesand you know, if you've got a family,
plug 'em in in the back and let 'em sleep.
You know, if, if you drive, drive iton on a bank holiday or a weekend, you
know it's gonna be heaving and you'regonna spend ages and ages and traffic.
There's a movie, isn't there?
I can't remember the nameof it, with a Mustang.
(29:21):
He's got a Mustang and a GT 40 andit set in France and there's a scene
where he has to drive elo, winsthe Monte Carlo rally or something.
He has to drive through the nightfrom the south of France up to Paris.
I vaguely remember.
It's black and white.
I can't remember the name of it.
It's not very good for the pod, is it?
My God.
Not all the detail we give, isn't it?
(29:41):
It's all the detail we give.
I know, I know.
But the beauty with it is, is I amgonna be able to edit myself in.
And it sounds unnatural becauseI always take up the time to
set up the microphone again.
I don't just hit record on the pc, sowhen I interrupt myself, it goes like,
and it sounds like completely different.
So it's gonna, it'll be fine.
It'll be just perfect, smooth.
(30:04):
The movie is a norm atun, A Man and a Woman.
It's 1966.
It's slow, but it's worthwatching for the cast.
Alright here, endeth part one.
Of this series on Lamar, and this is theend of our thoughts on accommodations,
(30:24):
logistics, and, and practical stuff.
The future episodes arearound history more.
If I can be coherent.
(30:48):
This episode has been brought to youby Grand Touring Motorsports as part
of our Motoring Podcast network.
For more episodes like this, tune in eachweek for more exciting and educational
content from organizations like TheExotic Car Marketplace, the Motoring
Historian, break Fix, and many others.
If you'd like to support GrandTouring Motorsports and the Motoring
Podcast Network, sign up for oneof our many sponsorship tiers at
(31:10):
www.patreon.com/gt Motorsports.
Please note that the content,opinions and materials presented and
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If you have any inquiries about thisprogram, please contact the creators
of this episode via email or socialmedia as mentioned in the episode.
John Summers is the motoring historian.
He was a company car thrashing technologysales rep that turned into a fairly inept
sports bike rider hailing from California.
He collects cars and bikesbuilt with plenty of cheap and
fast and not much reliable.
On his show, he gets together withvarious co-hosts to talk about new
and old cars driving motorbikes,motor racing, and motoring travel.
(00:35):
Good day.
Good morning, good afternoon.
It is John Summers the motoringhistorian with Mark Gamy.
And unusually for us, we have athemed episode today, mark, don't we?
You're nodding.
We do.
Yeah.
We, we do.
We put minutes of research in.
Say what?
We might not stop talkingover each other in a moment.
We might break.
We, we, we've put minutesof research into this.
(00:55):
Yeah.
Fully.
Yeah.
You described it as 10 earlier, which,uh, but the producer was saying to me
as we were joking about in the last pod,the Ronnie Corbert and the producer,
the producer, Eric was saying to methat they, he prefers us off the cuff.
He thinks we're better off the cuff.
He probably means just ramble lessand stay on the point, doesn't he?
(01:16):
Not off the wrist, off the cuff.
Yeah.
No, no, no.
At least I think that's, I I thinkthat's, uh, what, what he meant.
Yeah.
I, I hope that's what he meant.
But look, I am really gonna, there'sa serious point here, and that serious
point is, is that instead of rattlingon about irrelevant stuff like music and
things in the episode, which you can do.
We should at least give thelistener some of what they came
(01:38):
for, which is they came for Lamore.
So we, you and I have both been to Lamore.
I'm gonna begin, and this is astorytelling podcast, so I'm gonna
begin with a Lemore story, or moreor less a story, more an anecdote.
I went one year and for separatereasons that we may talk about further
into the pod, the rest of my group,the, the other three guys I went
(02:01):
with decided they would leave early.
Just to do with some rain and so on.
Exactly right.
I'm just wussies, right?
Just absolute bloody, you know?
Now feeding into my decision to do whatI did was the fact that I had taken the
not great decision to camp in a bivy bag.
Which listeners you may not know islike an army thing where it's like
(02:25):
a large canvas bag where you canput your sleeping, where you can
put your backpack and your shoes andyour clothes and all of your other
camping kit at the bottom of it.
And then you can have your sleepingbag inside it, and then you can
zip it up above your head and youcan sleep anywhere and stay warm.
And it's really a quite a coolthing and, and really a, you
know, minimalist cool way of.
(02:46):
Traveling, especially for peoplewho can't be asked or aren't
very good at putting out tents.
So anyway, I was in the bivy bag, itfucking rained and when it rained,
it rained, rained and there was likean inch of water in in the campsite.
So I was just like, you know, this is not.
Bloody cricket, is it?
So, uh, well, it's not cricket,it's mo Anyway, whatever.
So the others were like, wewe're going, and I was like, man,
(03:08):
well, I, I don't want to do that.
And they were like, well,where you want to go?
You know, you know, and I was like,all right, well I'm gonna have to
make the most of it whilst I can.
So I walked from the campsite,which was inside the Bugatti
circuit up past White House.
To our March now, this must havebeen, I went like the three years,
like, I don't know, like 2000,2001, 2002, something like that.
(03:32):
Or 99, 2002 there that itsomewhere in, in that era.
And I went I think three times.
And they all sort of merged together.
In my mind, I've just thoughtof another amusing, uh, anecdote
to do with a moped and going andgetting beer and a counter with aba.
But that took place in our NIJ villageand uh, there is a top tip there.
(03:53):
Stay in our Nij village people.
It's conveniently placed and you canwalk everywhere and if you've got a
bike, that is a good place to neverdone it myself, but should have done it.
Point of this.
Early vignette in, in our podtoday is I walk down to Iage in the
middle of the night in the rain.
And uh, when the cars come, they,you can hear the cars coming
around Indianapolis and then they,Indianapolis is a righty, isn't it?
(04:15):
Where you're break in and thenthey stop and there's that little
bus stop, lefthander, and then theshort, straight, and a right hand.
Before they go off, down towards WhiteHouse and, and, uh, I was stood there,
you could see the brake discs glowing.
And I stood there for ages,hypnotized, and it was one of the
single most enjoyable things thatI've ever done in Motorsport.
(04:38):
It really was, uh, the fact thatit goes on and on and on and on.
Is really what sets it apart andsets it apart as visual and ordinary
and you know, spectator experience.
Yeah, no, that's fair comment mate.
I mean, I enjoyed it when we went,we stayed at a little place outside
(05:00):
that a bunch of my mates who go everyyear, but there's aji or a gentleman
who has a chateau outside who sort ofputs up people camping in his grounds.
So there are.
I mean, they were cold by the time wegot there, but there were, there were
showers and the Ls were quite nice.
And you know, you camped thereand you could park your car
next to your tent and so forth.
And he did a little car show after acouple of days where he came, he wandered
(05:20):
around and if you had a nice car, he said,oh, we're gonna tap you on the shoulder.
Would you like to be in the car show?
And so forth.
Which was good and itwas a nice place to stay.
Very civilized, but it was too far away.
It was too annoying to get there and back.
Well, can be, my question is howfar away was it and where was
it in relation to the circuit?
Because we've jumped, I'llthink of details out, we, we've
jumped right in here folks intolike a travel experience here.
(05:41):
But you gotta understand is Lamar, thestart finish is like race circuit, right?
But the Moza Strait is a main roadbetween some cities in France.
So where you are.
In relation to the circuit isimportant because you can get to the
circuit on public rows just about,or at least you could years ago.
They're moving the go postson all of that, aren't they?
(06:02):
The other thing is, is ZA is so muchmore built up now than it used to be, but
your chateau, where was it in relation?
I think it was like Southeast, sort of alittle bit southeast of the um, or well
sorry, west Southwest or West Southwestkind of direction from the circuit.
So it wasn't too bad to get there.
It was like a 10 or 15 minute drive,assuming that you were gonna be doing
30 miles an hour only kind of thing.
It wasn't, you know, yeah, itwas no sort of like nudgey bits.
(06:24):
Of course, there's nowhere to park there.
So getting there, you know, you wouldeither get one of you to drop you
over, or you'd try and get a coach, abus or mini bus or something over, and
there'd be a couple in the morning cup.
So it was doable.
But once you're there, it was afaf to get back there and back.
I mean I looked and if you prepare to plansort of a year plus in advance, you can
Airbnb a very nice sleeps 10 people insidethe circuit and merely quite a lot of
(06:48):
money a night, like 1500 euros, somethinglike that a night, which is a lot of
money, but not between 10 of you it isn't.
So, you know, you are then a hundredyards, walk from the marathon straight.
That sort of difference, you know.
So you are gonna be probably blockedoff, you aren't gonna be driving around,
but you could get there in advance.
And then add your electric scooteror Brompton or whatever to get
(07:09):
around the place and you've gotinside access to the circuit.
I think that's the way Iwould like to do it next time.
But this chat was nice.
It was just a bit of afaff getting in and out.
It's editor John interrupting with abrief road test report on the Brompton.
John's selling a Brompton right now.
I'll post a picture of me riding it.
I think you'll agree.
I look ridiculous.
(07:30):
Maybe partly to do with the factthat it's me, mostly to do with the
fact that the Brompton is ridiculous.
It's also the same price.
It was a proper jigsaw.
John and I discussed it and he said,I'm not sure if this is the right thing
to say, but I feel like it's kind of,
and I went, well, it's for commutingand being in the corner of your flat in
(07:53):
London if you've got no parking and so on.
Then I rode it and I got off itand I said to him, it's kind of.
I mean that in an pejorative kind of way.
You know, it just, it's like a kind of a,you know, it's got a pedal assist, it's
got three gears, you thumb the gears.
It's really quite an interesting,nice piece of kit in Brompton
(08:13):
and revolving with the times.
But camping inside the circuit is whatmost people do camping in and around.
The start finish is what most peopledo and the French loves to camp and
it is a bit of a camping themed.
Right now after my experiences ofcamping, we did pivot into a camper
van at one point, and I wouldsay fucking never again on that.
(08:37):
And the reason for that is that thedrive down there is a big part of Lamar.
For your Englishman.
Now we're gonna talk about that separatelybecause there is a heritage of the
Bentley and Jaguar teams driving to Lamar.
So when you drive like a hooligancross France and nearly get
arrested, which has happened to manyEnglishmen, not you or I. No, no.
(09:02):
What you or.
I've never actually beenpulled over in France.
I would just say, no, I haven't.
I, I hesitate to say that though, 'causeit's gonna fucking happen, isn't it?
Mm. But the, the point is that the drivedown there was not fun in the camper van.
So, however great the campingexperience was because it spoiled a
major element of the experience just.
Fuck on that.
(09:23):
It was like sitting down at a rock show.
Now your shadow thing, youget the, you, you forget.
Of course, the most important thingis, is when you are leaving, there's
all families on the overpasses, onthe triage, waving at the cool cars.
Yeah, the little kids and stuff.
Waving at the cool cars.
Yes.
You don't wanna be there likethe doers and the camper van.
Not getting no going slowly.
(09:43):
You definitely don't.
You definitely do not, I, I, I gottasay Gary, I, I think, I feel like
now I'm thinking about it again.
I, I'd fly and buy like the cheapest Kfive jigs of hour I could find in England.
That's how I'd wanna do it.
Now, I think I'd probablyfall off riding up the metal
ramp of the ferry, wouldn't I?
(10:04):
Right.
But again, you, you sort ofwant someone who's got a boot.
Just riding convoy with someone.
Let's, but I'm trying to, I'm trying toimagine our fictitious listener wanting
to 'cause, ironically enough, right?
The producer Eric, is actually atLamar as we're recording this for
the Lamore Classic, as is the othermotoring podcast network personality.
William Ross, the, uh, Ferrari guy.
(10:25):
They're together.
I, I, I'm not, I think he's doing Goodwoodas well, so I'd be interested to know what
they, uh, think of it when we get back.
We may even do it.
Crossover episode.
I may even invite you,mark, to do the Cross.
Cross.
There's 80 F1 cars, 80 historicF1 cars at the festival of
speed this week, this time.
Yeah.
Let's stay on track.
Rarely as I, as I dothat with Lamar, right?
'cause the point you made was it's betterto camp inside the circuit in a house.
(10:49):
It's best to be in a house.
The Chateau was good, but it was amotherfuck getting to and from correct.
'cause even when the traffic flows,there's nowhere to park nearby.
And the solution to that is very Frenchsolution, which is the bicy, isn't it?
If, uh, my pronunciation,uh, serves there.
Especially these electric ones, whichleads me onto that little anecdote
(11:11):
of where one of those years I went,one of the guys I went with had
rehabilitated like his grandmother'sHonda 50 shopping trolley moped, right?
It was not like your like C 90.
This guy had like littler wheels, like,and was a step through like a full on
step little white basket at the back.
(11:32):
Don't remember the details,but I do remember drawing the
short straw, having to go.
Into our NA to buy beer forthe four of us at that time.
And it was the camper van.
It was the year of the camper van,and I don't remember exactly how
it happened, but I do remembera very large French genre who
(11:53):
looked like, do you remember that?
You will remember this.
Hello?
Hello?
The, the British TV show, which, whichlisteners really an amusing premise.
It, it's a classic English fast, butit's set where it's Englishman speaking
with fake French accents is a resistanceworker who runs a cafe in France.
(12:16):
It's like Nazi occupied.
France.
Yeah.
His name is Renee, and he's havingan affair with his two waitresses
as well as trying to keep his very,this is very misogynistic, actually.
Usually.
Oh, was xenophobic.
Misogynistic like I was, and racist andfully racist against the German and, yeah.
Yeah.
(12:37):
Yeah, it was, and, and so it picked alot of boxes and so obviously all young
eng, all English people of a certain agela this shit up and all of us understand
the cultural reference of Alo Lo.
And why the, how was I talking aboutthe John looked like Rene presumably.
No, he looked like the English airmen.
They did the, the one that has theterrible accent that is the policeman.
(13:00):
He is an English man.
Oh, good moaning.
Good moaning.
That one.
Yeah, exactly like that.
Well, anyway, but he wasn't good moaning.
He was like, 'cause I triedthe whole Oh, non, non.
Yeah, I, I, I tried that and,and he was having none of that.
(13:20):
And tr and uh, and you know, we, we,I can't remember where he was cross
about, I can't remember what I'd done.
I was, I remember the moped wasloaded with beer, and I remember
that when I resisted the mopedor the beer being impounded,
that it was like me or the beer.
And I remember thatwhen I got back to camp.
(13:41):
I was like amazed that I'd escaped, notarrested, and with the moped, and they
were pissed off that there wasn't beer.
All the money had gone.
I was like, I bought the beer, but thepolicemen confiscated and they were
letting you were supposed to believethat, like you've stolen the money.
And I remember being like, youfucking idiots, which they were.
In fairness, I, that year I went withone guy who was a friend of to you.
(14:03):
Seems a bit harsh.
Sorry, doubting you seems pretty harsh.
Yeah, but this was the same guythat rode away from me when I
fell off in Germany on the jigsaw.
Oh, that prick.
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
Him and another guy, the guy whoencourages to do the camper van,
he worked for a large oil company.
I can't remember yourname if you listening, but
you'll remember who you are.
(14:24):
And he recently received a job offer.
You'll be able to guess the oilcompany now, based upon the fact that
he'd received a job offer to go andwork for a very well known Italian
firm in their motor racing team.
And do you know what he'd said?
No.
He wanted to stay in like Macclesfieldor Ham or whatever, horrific northern
(14:46):
British town, beginning with M andhe didn't wanna move to Italy and
he didn't wanna, and I was like.
Weren't you interested in workingfor, you know, that company with the
Yellow Shield and the black horse?
You know, weren't you kindof interested in that?
And he went, you know, no.
I was like, oh dear.
Oh dear.
So, so I remember thatshow, all that a touch.
That was the year of the heat stroke.
(15:07):
I walked the circuit and I got all theworst heat stroke I've ever gotten.
I passed out in the bushes justsomewhere on the approach to sza.
(15:27):
I am gonna give you my selmo story.
It's with Nick, the lad that left mein, uh, in Germany, his mate, Ian.
Who was a bit like Greek andnice guy, huge, big personality.
A little irritating in, in a way thatgrief isn't, you know, Greek's mellow.
Ian was a bit like, listen to me, butyou know, nice enough guy, Nick knew
(15:50):
him through, he was like a distributor.
When Nick like it, distributor, thisis how we, we all, uh, we all knew
each other, but Ian was a Ford guy, so,you know, I had a bit of like bonding.
He was from Essex, you know, so abit of bonding with him around that.
Ian really appreciated the learning.
Really appreciated seeing your IRS2000 that day at at your house.
Thank you for your time.
(16:11):
I hope Nick didn't treat youthe way that he treated me.
Unfortunately, I feel like Nickjust doesn't understand how
to make friends with people.
Nick, if you're listening.
I forgive you 'cause you're probablya, you were a miserable person then and
you're probably still miserable now.
And I don't wish any moremisery on you by hating on you.
I don't hate on you.
You gave me a really,really good story to tell.
Had you come back and picked me up andnever would've won the Suzuki G six R and
(16:34):
maybe I never would've filled my garage.
So your asshole actuallyhelped me out, Nick.
But Ian, you were a great guyand I really enjoyed doing them
on with you and that suggestion.
Late at night when we were walkingback from the Chinese mailer in and
air to be like, you know, the carson Za, they're just down there.
We could just like walk down thatperson's driveway and into their
(16:55):
back garden and probably see 'em.
And I was young enough and foolish enoughto be like, fuck yeah, let's do it.
So we did.
You could lie on the bank.
We were lying on the bank lookingthrough the bushes, and I remember
watching the Corvettes passwith flames outta the exhausts.
The road must have been probably threefeet from the hedge, and we were like
(17:16):
lying, looking under the pritt hedge.
The following year, the guyhad like closed his gate and we
weren't able to do that anymore.
And, and looking online now, it seemsthat all of that land use in that part
of the circuit has changed In the what?
25, 20, 25 years Since I did that.
That's my best of my memoryto be like lying looking.
(17:39):
I feel it's like a NASCAR driver.
Oh, I knew I wanted tobe a racing car driver.
I climbed up the fence and lookedin and saw the cars racing.
It's almost like that.
So, yeah, so the Corvettes particularlya wonderful piece of theater.
And in that moment I was, I couldn'tbelieve how close they were.
I couldn't believe how loud it was.
It, it, it was, was a mixture ofhigh end Formula one bra, haha.
(18:02):
And the island man tt and rallying.
You know, it's a little lane and it'sreally fast and it's in your face.
That's.
Fire and breaks and potential death.
Yeah.
And the callbacks are typically, well,at least traditionally, were the loudest.
So, you know, it's not asurprise that you pick them out.
Um, story if you have one.
I mean, I dunno, I, I'vegot a specific one really.
I mean, I, I will say that, youknow, we touched on it briefly.
(18:25):
The drive down for Englishfolks is often a tradition.
I know a guy, you know,good mayor of mine.
I haven't spoken to Rages,but I, he's still great guy.
Stu goes down every year with hisbuddies and he drives his TVR down
and various other things, and they'vegot a little crew of them that go, you
know, the, the, the whole, they, theydeliberately drive quite a long way east
so they're not on the direct route tohave more fun on the roads on the way
(18:47):
down, so they're not getting drivingthrough, you know, a speed trap every 15.
We stopped in a really nice little French,one of the classics at a little French
town squares with a bistro sort of thing,and, you know, rocked up and had a really
quite nice and cost-effective, you know,sausage baguette with havoc, fruit, and,
uh, a beer, and then carried on the dry.
It's, it's a really delightful drive.
(19:08):
You're lucky with the weather that year.
It can be really nice,pleasant way to get down there.
This is why the openingsequence of Lamar with McQueen
driving there is so important.
The drive.
To the circuit, theconcept, they call it laer.
It's important to understandthe context of it.
The other thing is it's importantto understand that the town is
(19:28):
actually not conveniently placed foryou to access the circuit remotely.
There's no nearby anynearby, any hotels nearby.
They'll all be booked up withthe 24 hour bike grand pri.
Bike race, like Moto 24.
Did that with my familya couple of years ago.
I think I mentioned it on a separatepod, but we stayed at an Ibis
hotel right by the train station.
It took us more than two hours to walk.
(19:50):
Yeah, I mean that's, that's fine.
Unusual.
I mean, it's a big circuit.
It's a really big circuit,and it's France, not England.
So.
Things can be spread out'cause there's enough room.
So it is more like Americandistances in between things.
So, and you know, if it's a hotday, it's hot and dusty and there's
a lot of people there and youknow, there's not a lot of shade.
So you, you do want to be careful of takea hat, you know, have plenty of water.
(20:16):
If you're gonna buy a t-shirt, takeout a small mortgage before you go
because it's gonna be 120 quid forwhatever the shitty t-shirt is.
That is too busy.
The Moto ones weren'tthat expensive, I guess.
Motos not LA more, is it?
Yeah, and we were, I, I've allowed forestimated inflation there, but I remember
the t-shirts when I went there, whichit must have been 10, 15, 20 years ago.
(20:38):
What, 85 quid.
So before we talk about thedrive down, let's talk about
any other like, tips around.
So, so we're saying camping, we'resaying drive something decent down there.
'cause that's part of it.
What else are we saying?
We're saying that pro, if youdon't like camping, it's fine.
Just plan ahead and doing it.
B or something like that.
If you're a pedal cyclist, that's good.
(20:58):
If you're a lazy mf, get an e-bike and,and that's probably gonna help you.
Yeah.
The only challenge for any ofthose things is where do you leave
them if you want to leave them.
Do you even do that?
Do you just like sit with itlike on the bank somewhere?
Yeah, you can do, but again, andthat would be probably a pretty
way, pretty good way to do it.
But I mean, it's all the bitsaround the circuit are several
(21:19):
deep around every fence.
You've gotta mooch out a ways aroundor be later, much later in the evening
or the following morning in order to beable to get to the fence unless you get
there early, early and have your chairand stake out your, uh, square footage.
Yeah.
Fuck that.
I'm not German, youknow, I'm not doing that.
This is the thing with it.
Some people like to have thechair and sit in one place.
(21:41):
I like to be a walkie all around.
Yeah.
I mean, it's a long time, you know.
It is a long time.
It is.
And you are also doing yourself agrave disservice if you don't walk.
All around the pits in practice andyou don't do the fun fare at night
and you don't walk the whole circuit.
You know there's a lot to doin that 24 hours, isn't there?
(22:02):
It's like rock shows andstuff around the start.
There's a firework display in the night.
I should mention thisFrench band called As.
Who myself, Ollie and Dana watchedsome of, and Ollie cites them as being
the worst band he's ever seen live.
He's like, we're Ashand worse than crowbar.
And I'm like, dude, Idon't like to be negative.
(22:23):
You know, there may be Ash anduh, I don't like to be negative,
but possibly they even were.
I mean mean crowbar worth shit though.
I should just say listeners, that bothyour hosts have seen crowbar at least
four times together and probably, and I'veseen crowbar six times I think altogether
and, and I wish never having gone tosee Crowbar, never having gone to see
(22:46):
Crowbar and never having enjoyed them.
The fact that they're still, just to beclear here, they were always the support.
We only ever saw themsupporting somebody else.
What I don't like, crowbar notknocking the car don't like us.
If you're even, I mean, I'msure they probably don't like
us and fair play to them.
I would back them intheir right to do that.
(23:06):
But yeah, I mean that is a dedicationto providing pretty poor rock.
Over a lot of time.
Don't they call it metal core now?
Isn't it like a style of metalthat you and I never got into?
What shit?
Moving on.
Moving on.
Um, music.
What music should we do in this episode?
Tradition would suggest we should dothat sort of weird French pop that is
(23:31):
being played at 14-year-old discos,which has often got English lyrics in it
that are deeply oversexualized for theage group that they're being played to.
That would be a traditional thing to do.
I can't pretend to know thatgenre well enough, if I'm honest.
Yeah, we, we'll have to make do withthat air sexy boy track, won't we?
(23:51):
We just have to do, yeah.
I mean, that is a good track there.
There's a lot of that sort ofthing, uh, I played in France
and, um, fair play to them.
Uh, and look, I mean, I, I always saythis about any travel, have the radio on.
Conflict through radios is ifyou're traveling through countries
in a car especially, gives youa real flavor of the country.
You're going through it.
It adds value to the reason whyyou're not flying over that country.
(24:12):
You're driving through it.
You get a real, you have toget out and fill up the car.
You have to, you know, you stopand get food, you know, you
get a flavor of the country.
Anyway, the same thing with the radio.
To that end, and thisties completely to Lamar.
It's an important thing to understandif you've not been to France before,
if you don't know France, is that theyhave toll roads and non toll roads.
And toll roads are like American highways.
(24:32):
They're perfectly maintained and so on.
And you always see a lot of carson fire in France for some reason.
You notice that always a lot of cars on.
Whatever.
Maybe they just, I don't know what,why the call, what the call, so
they don't drive that fast, do they?
And, and they do like police crazily.
But isn't it like 130 Ks?
Isn't that the, the limit on the, yeah.
Anyway, the, the shtick I'm talking aboutis that thing in your Google Maps app
(24:56):
where you can be like, avoid highways.
Because if you avoid highways as I'vebeen doing, I've been doing this in
England recently, my word drivingEngland on the A roads, it's slow.
In every town it's like a huge bottleneck.
But in between the towns, it'sthe green and pleasant land.
How it's road about and Americansand other people from around
the world travel to sea.
You know, it's really there.
(25:17):
Like the cots worlds is really, if you.
Ignore all the traffic and the newugly houses on the edge of town.
Cotswolds are exactly as youwould imagine them to be if
you were like a reader of Yeah.
Yeah.
If you watch Miss Marple Mysteriesmade in I, if you ride a motorbike,
the traffic isn't even that bad.
If you ride a motorbike, thetraffic isn't even that bad.
(25:38):
I fully agree.
The point is that Franceis the same, right?
That if you stay off those mainroads and if you go through the small
towns and villages, oh my word, itis a rewarding travel experience
and uh, yeah, I encourage visitorsdoing them off, do it that way.
The flip side of that is if youneed to make quick progress.
And if you are doing a fly in andout, it can be very useful depending
(26:00):
on where you're coming in and out of.
I'll give you the example.
If you fly into, um, burgundy, sorry.
No, the, uh, yeah.
Um, what's the, uh, place at the bottom?
Bordeaux?
Yeah, Bordeaux.
If you plan to Bordeaux, rent acar, and then you're flying and
you're driving down to the Pyrenees.
That section of Poage there, it's justabout the least used section of Poage.
But if you just want to thrash down tothe mountains, I think I saw four cars
(26:23):
on it, and we arrived at sort of eight15 guy in the car, in the rental car
blasted down to um PO for the PO GP.
And it took about an hour and 15 minutes,about 95 miles, something like that.
Hardly any other cars, no speed cameras.
And when I spoke to the hostabout it and he said, yeah, the
French don't sort of resented themoney it got spent to build it.
(26:43):
So they don't use it andthey don't want to pay.
They'd rather just drive.
And I am, and I can,you know, respect that.
Yeah.
Doesn't mean you can really blastdown there in northern Spain.
I did a trip to Northern Spain withDana years ago when at that time the.
EU had recently paid for loads of likepayout of highway toll roads to be built,
but the trucks didn't wanna pay thetolls, so they stayed on the a. On what?
(27:07):
On what In England would be like theA roads, you know, driving through the
tows and you'd, you'd see, you'd be onthe toll road and you'd see the trucks
driving slowly on the, a roads betweenthe towns, like running parallels.
So I don't know why this,what the situation was there,
why they didn't want to use.
The main roads didn't wanna pay, didn'twanna, because the motorway services
there were absolutely deserted.
You'd like stop at motorwayservices in the middle of the day.
(27:30):
And if it was like one in England,it'd be like rammed with people.
They'd be like hundreds of cars thereand there'd be like three cars there
and you'd go in the dining area andthey'd be like all the staff there,
but nobody actually eaten any food.
It was really peculiar.
I mean that was, this waswhat, 20 years ago now?
So it's maybe, uh, maybe different now.
The point is that you can really.
(27:51):
Cover some ground.
I mean, I set the, we had a BMW, likean F 93 2 8 BMW is the rental car,
which is our new car then, so it showshow long ago it was, and I remember
setting the crews at a speed that beganin miles an hour with a one and a two.
I mean, that is our, like I also beingasked by a Passat turbo diesel with German
(28:15):
number plates on it, and I was like,oh, that'll be the sales rep, won't it?
That'll be a sales rep on theway to meet somebody in the south
of the country kind of thing.
You gotta make progress.
I, I will say in the summer,be real careful because the,
the, the end roads are fine.
But the poage does get jammed.
This is, isn't it?
We're now stepping away from myexperiences in Northern Spain and
(28:38):
stepping, yeah, this is back in France,but in the pay is, you know, France is
the most visited country in the world.
It's a big country.
It's got a pretty good road networkand it's well maintained and it's
a decent speed of throughput.
But you will get traffic, you know,you will get, and as the further south
you go, the worse the traffic will get.
So, be clever, set off early, or don'tmind driving in the night, you know, and
(28:59):
you can make some really good progress.
But that's the way to do it because that'sthe way that you'll, you can use the road
effectively and cover some serious milesand you know, if you've got a family,
plug 'em in in the back and let 'em sleep.
You know, if, if you drive, drive iton on a bank holiday or a weekend, you
know it's gonna be heaving and you'regonna spend ages and ages and traffic.
There's a movie, isn't there?
I can't remember the nameof it, with a Mustang.
(29:21):
He's got a Mustang and a GT 40 andit set in France and there's a scene
where he has to drive elo, winsthe Monte Carlo rally or something.
He has to drive through the nightfrom the south of France up to Paris.
I vaguely remember.
It's black and white.
I can't remember the name of it.
It's not very good for the pod, is it?
My God.
Not all the detail we give, isn't it?
(29:41):
It's all the detail we give.
I know, I know.
But the beauty with it is, is I amgonna be able to edit myself in.
And it sounds unnatural becauseI always take up the time to
set up the microphone again.
I don't just hit record on the pc, sowhen I interrupt myself, it goes like,
and it sounds like completely different.
So it's gonna, it'll be fine.
It'll be just perfect, smooth.
(30:04):
The movie is a norm atun, A Man and a Woman.
It's 1966.
It's slow, but it's worthwatching for the cast.
Alright here, endeth part one.
Of this series on Lamar, and this is theend of our thoughts on accommodations,
(30:24):
logistics, and, and practical stuff.
The future episodes arearound history more.
If I can be coherent.
(30:48):
This episode has been brought to youby Grand Touring Motorsports as part
of our Motoring Podcast network.
For more episodes like this, tune in eachweek for more exciting and educational
content from organizations like TheExotic Car Marketplace, the Motoring
Historian, break Fix, and many others.
If you'd like to support GrandTouring Motorsports and the Motoring
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(31:10):
www.patreon.com/gt Motorsports.
Please note that the content,opinions and materials presented and
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