One more brand for the LMH class: Genesis, from Korea. Yesterday they reveled their GMR-001 hypercar, to race in the WEC starting in 2026. GMR stands for “Genesis Magma Racing”, and Genesis is developing the prototype in a partnership with ORECA. The presentation yesterday showed the prototype without an engine, since that is still in development. Magma Racing seems to be serious about their race intentions: not only do they have a VERY hot-looking car, they also contracted André Lotterer and Pipo Derani for the team. Head over to Jalopnik for more info.
As I kind of expected (predicted?), LMH is becoming the GT1 of the 20s, with everybody wanting to get in. I only hope that the FIA, ACO and manufacturers keep up the enthusiasm for a long time.
After I posted the review on my g-o-r-g-e-o-u-s 9X8, I was thinking about Hypercars in general. When the LMH class was introduced in 2021, I was over the moon. After the boring final years of LMP1, Le Mans deserved a better top class. Not that the race per se had become boring, mind you. After all, in the “junior” classes the battles continued VERY competitive. With that, a new competitive top class was very welcome news. At first things started slow, with just Toyota and Glickenhaus. Very soon, however, the future brightened up. A lot! We got news that Porsche would be joining LMH, as would Alpine, Isotta Fraschini, Cadillac, Peugeot, Vanwall, BMW and also the Italians Lamborghini and even Ferrari.
I don’t think we had such a diverse lineup in the top class at Le Mans like in 2023. Not even in the Group C days do I remember so many big dogs up front. And that was the idea behind the new class. In essence, LMH would be much cheaper than the previous LMP1 class, and that was a major incentive for manufacturers. Nonetheless, running cars in the top class at Le Mans is still VERY expensive and is not for everyone. So, as expected, the initial enthusiasm died down and consequentially we had quite a few dropouts. After the 2024 race, Isotta Fraschini, Glickenhaus, Lamborghini and Vanwall had abandoned the fight.
So, what can we expect for 2025? Doing the math, in LMH we’ll have Aston Martin (newcomer), Alpine, BMW, Cadillac, Ferrari, Peugeot, Porsche and Toyota. There was a rumor that Mercedes would also come back to La Sarthe, and it was true. However, in 2025 they will compete in GT3-LM, not LMH. Which in my book is still great. Unfortunately though, Lamborghini dropped out from LMH and GT3-LM. Even so, I’m still happy with the perspectives for this year’s race. I expect to see a knife fight between Porsche, Toyota and Ferrari (and maybe Cadillac too?). Aston, BMW and Peugeot, on the other hand, are unknown quantities, so how will it all go down? Tough question 🤔.
Well, though I think it’s impossible to predict results, I’m positive that it’s going to be a heckuva year 😎.
I just found this article, though it was published not even two weeks ago. The Le Mans accident of 1955 has always been a subject of interest to me. Why? No, no morbid curiosity or something like that, far from it. With Le Mans being a great passion of mine, the tragedy always hits a chord within me. How something so fantastic could have been the stage for such pain and devastation? All the race stories of greatness and passion kind of pale when I think about the tragedy. That being so, I really can’t enumerate how many articles and videos I’ve seen about the 1955 race. Some truly good, yet mostly superficial or just utterly non-factual. However, today I stumbled upon this article by Darrell Hartman. His piece is one of the best I’ve ever seen – factual, well-written and just as important, objective. Unhappily, the majority of stories written about the tragedy try to deflect blame. To glaze over a few details. Hartman, however, exposes (the known) facts – and with facts you can arrive at your own conclusions. The accident happened because of a multitude of factors, however one small detail was the fulcrum to the ensuing disaster.
Nonetheless, whatever were the reasons for the accident, knowing what happened will not make it less of a tragedy. Yet, it will bring enlightenment. Therefore, knowing the facts is always a great thing. So let us be glad that motorsports have evolved enough that something like what happened in 1955 will NEVER happen again. And to ensure that it really never does, let us always be aware of the facts.
“100 Le Mans: A Century at the World’s Greatest Endurance Race” – Glen Smale
Very probably, of all the books that I have, this is one of the very few that got me anxious. “100 Le Mans: A Century at the World’s Greatest Endurance Race”, by Glen Smale, was announced in 2022. Hardcover, 240 pages, with a slip case and chock-full of photos, celebrating Le Mans’ centennial race. Has to be awesome so a must buy, right? When I saw it on Amazon I immediately put it on pre-order, and it should come out in 2023. Well, as soon as the initial euphoria passed, I payed better attention to the price. I know books nowadays are expensive, yet this one was REALLY expensive, especially factoring in shipping fees. So I thought better of it and grudgingly canceled my pre-order 🙄. Oh well, another awesome book that was just too darn expensive…
For every year there’s a small write-up on the race.
I honestly forgot about the book; the centennial Le Mans came, I watched the race and busied myself trying to decide what 2023 models would be must buys. Fast forward to July, 2024. Since Amazon Prime Day was coming, my son asked me to get him a few books. So I went to Amazon and while looking for his books, there’s “100 Le Mans”, on sale. For US$ 27,00 😲. Locally, so no oversea shipping 😲😲. When first announced, the price was over $100, plus shipping.
The pictures are FANTASTIC!
I bought it on the spot and only after paying and confirming my order was good that I remembered that I still needed to order my son’s books 😂. And as expected, I got what I paid for. This is important: do NOT expect it to be the be-all-end-all book about Le Mans. It is a (good) coffee table book, with loads of info and fantastic photographs. For every year there’s a small resume and a few anecdotes of that year’s race (the best part, IMO). Since these anecdotes were the “big” stories of that year, most of them were not news to me, however I still learned a couple new stories. This book is NOT the definitive book on Le Mans up to 2023, despite the title.
Someone doesn’t know squat about racing cars…
Nonetheless, the photography is GREAT, though, there is this caption on one of the fold-out pictures 😖. How the proof-reader could have mistaken a R18 TDI for a M3 GT2 is beyond me… Fortunately I can show the real car in question 😁. I only found that one wrong, yet specially with the older cars that I’m not very familiar with, there could be more mistakes. Honestly, a very small blunder, nothing that would condemn the book. Even so, do I recommend this book? Maybe not. Let’s start with the title. Though the name says 100 Le Mans, it covers 99 years, from 1923 to 2022. That right there tells me that this book came out before the centennial race to be a cash grab. “Let’s milk the cash cow before the centennial race becomes old news…”🤑 I’m sure this book was not intended for the hardcore Le Mans nut, but for the casual fan. Therefor, it will be disappointing for some (like me). Honestly, W-143 has MUCH more general information on Le Mans than 100 Le Mans.
The definition of a coffee table book – great photos and a lot of anecdotal information.
With all that, I would say “100 Le Mans” is more of a light & generic book about Le Mans. I read it from cover to cover (captions and all) in I think about 4-5 hours. A nice read, no doubt, with GREAT photos, yet I would like to taste more meat in my sandwich, you know? Basically, more info, more content. Bottom line, if you want a generic coffee table book on Le Mans, this is a (very?) nice buy. If you want technical statistics, pit lane stories or more detailed information, very probably this is not for you. Even if you can find it for a heavily discounted price. And yes, now I know the reason for the huge price slash…🙄
Back in August of 2020 I posted an article about zamac rot. In a nutshell, what happens is that the model’s metal body starts to bubble underneath the paint. That occurs when the zamac alloy contains impurities, mainly lead, that react with the other metals. That reaction produces an intercrystalline corrosion process, with corrosion bubbles appearing inside the metal. Ambient temperature and humidity play a roll in the process, speeding up or delaying the reaction. The problem is that if the zamac alloy is contaminated with lead, the process will eventually occur, sooner or later.
When I got it out of the cabinet, to my dismay, there it was: zamac rot.
Usually, you don’t see zamac rot with higher end brands, yet some manufactures are notorious for this. Franklin Mint is perhaps the most famous. And until now, I never heard of this happening to Kyosho. However, as you can see from the photos, my beloved M3 GTR has fallen victim to the problem 😭. I took it out of the cabinet a few days ago for a shoot of another model and there it was, zamac rot. So, what am I going to do about it? Nothing. There’s nothing to be done, the process will get worse and the model eventually may crumble to pieces 💀.
Sometimes the process stops there, but I’ve seen models actually fall apart with time.
The only solution would be to replace it. However, a proper silver M3 GTR is really hard to come by. Minichamps offers the model in a few colors, and they’re very easy to find. Nonetheless, since BMW produced the real car only in silver, Minichamps’ models are all wrong. So unless I find a new Kyosho in good condition (very rare), or some other brand issues the car in 1:43, I’m stuck with this one bubbling up.
It took a while, yet I finally finished my race report. There were a lot of photos to edit, which unfortunately, most were too crappy to use. In my humble opinion, cell phones are made to make phone calls, not great photos 😣. Either I’m right or too old to learn otherwise, the fact is that I need a reflex camera to make decent shots. Nonetheless, I managed a few (half) decent ones, and they are now ready to show. I also did a write-up on our whole experience, without being too boring (or trying to, at least). So if you wanna see some photos of the race or read about how it felt like, click HERE.
What a blast! Honestly, one of the best three days I ever had! Expensive, yet totally worth it. Got back home this morning, and I’m currently editing my photos. I took a LOT of photos, and perhaps the one above is the one I liked the most. Pity the 9X8 underperformed (again!)… Nonetheless, since new models to review became kind of scarce around here (🙄), my idea is to write an article on the race where I’ll show the best shots.
And let’s start positive thinking for Spark to release at least a few of the those cars in 1:43… 🤞🤞🤞
