France: French Automobile Club Plans to Build 24 Hours of Le Mans Theme Park

The 86^th edition of “The 24 Hours of Le Mans“, the traditional race car event which is held once a year near the city of Le Mans in northwestern France in June, has just come to an end this past weekend. This year’s winner team is Toyota Gazoo, headed by two-time Formular One World Champion Fernando Alonso. A total of 256,900 spectators were attracted to the event this year, which has been organized by French automobile club L’Automobil Club de l’Ouest (ACO) since 1923. With several racing events throughout the year (in addition to the car race, a motorcycle long-distance race is also held once a year on the short “Bugatti Circuit” race course) and a museum dedicated to motorsport and the famous racetrack itself, the location draws several hundred thousand visitors every year. In order to equally attract visitors to the site during the rest of the year away from the big racing events, the organizer has expressed their interest to build a 24 Hours of Le Mans theme park.

The concept of the theme park is more likely to resemble that of Autostadt Wolfsburg than that of Ferrari World Abu Dhabi or Ferrari Land in Spain and for this reason should have an informative and educational character – without any rollercoasters – to promote motorsport and the circuit itself. According to French media reports, ACO is currently working on the development of a concept for “Le Mans Resort”, which is scheduled to open by 2023. The Pays de la Loire region, the Sarthe department as well as the municipal association “Le Mans Métropole” reportedly support this project, estimated at a total investment of several million Euros, as partners. (eap)