Mat Fernandez reports that the proposed sale of the Le Mans museum to the ACO has gone ahead at a sale price of 3.55 Million Euros to the Department.
Short-term plans are for a change to the layout of the museum, a facility which the ACO already owns 60% of the cars on display.
Longer term plans though are more extensive with investment planned through to 2023 (the 100th anniversary of the first Le Mans 24 Hours) into an expanded facility titles “Le Mans Resort” with the objective of increasing activity on the track all year round, not just around existing planned competition.
The first phase of investment (with effect in 2018) is between 15 to 20 Million Euros (as a yardstick, the current investments on the track itself is c.5 Million per year).
The stated objective is to bring an additional 200.000 visitors to the track each year. Right now the track attracts some 600,000 visitors.
At a press conference to announce the scheme Fillon described a set of animations for families going from the entrance of the track all the way down to the karting track. These “animations” will cover history, science, technology, culture,- all tied back to the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Le Maine Libre report that a 4D movie theatre should be built as part of the program me, though this detail apparently didn’t make it into the press conference script!
In post event questions the ACO were somewhat reluctant to describe the programme as a theme park but all of the local newspapers (Le Maine Libre, Ouest France) described it in exactly those terms.
