ACO released this afternoon (02/28) the entry list for the 24 Heures du Mans of 2020. We will only have six LMP1 cars – two Toyota, two Ginetta and two Rebellion. The grid will consist of 62 cars in total, and the other 56 are 24 LMP2, 11 GTE-Pro and 20 GTE-Am cars.
This year will be the last hurrah of the LMP1 class, and I’m sad to see only six cars. The class has been around since 1994 and I thought they deserved a grander going-away party 😥.
Motorsport.com has the full list here.
Earlier this week we heard that Aston Martin is pulling out of the new Hypercar class, and therefore the Valkyrie project was put on hold (canceled?). So far only Toyota has what looks to be a “working project”, but nothing yet from McLaren, Peugeot or Glickenhause. Well, the later, on Tweeter, said they do have something in the oven. We’re almost in March now, and Le Mans is in June, so with all that (lack of) news I’m worried.
Jalopnik has a much better story on this. And unfortunately, it’s a troublesome read.
According to Road & Track, this weekend both race bodies announced that from 2021 onward Le Mans and Daytona will be raced with the same rules. That is huge, since it means that the same car will now be able to compete at Daytona and La Sarthe, an immense incentive to race car manufacturers. Starting in 2021, Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) and the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) agreed on a new class, called Le Mans Daytona h (LMDh). There will also be LMP2 and Hypercars, and both classes will be legal in both series.
Everything is all official, so this means that starting next year things will be very interesting for Le Mans. And by that I mean more manufacturers, ergo, more variety and cool cars 🤞.
I’m not. Not because I don’t think it’s ice cool, but because I don’t have the space for a nice track. I would absolutely love to see my beloved cars racing on a track in my living room. Or in my man cave, if I had one. But alas, it’s not for me.
However, if I had the space and US$ 300.000,00 to spare, I definitively would buy a track like this one featured at Petrolicious.
This morning I was really sad to know that Neil Pert passed away this past Friday, January 10th. A true car guy and drummer from Rush, one of my favorite bands, he was battling cancer for three years.
Rush has too many great songs to list, but without a doubt “Red Barchetta” is my all time favorite. If you ever have the time to listen to it, pay attention to the lyrics.
The world is less bright today 😥.
Le Mans, June 14th, 1990. Nissan Motorsports had three cars on the track, ready for the gruesome 24 hours of racing on the following Saturday, June 15th. Two of them were RC90CK and one was the older RC89CP. Mark Blundell was piloting RC90CK #24, and it was his turn at qualifying on that Friday.
Specially at high level endurance racing, there’s an equilibrium between raw power and engine lifespan. All cars can produce more power then what they race with, but their engines would not last the 24 hours. So essentially engines are detuned for reliability. However, unbeknown to Mark or the whole Nissan team, his engine was faulty. When he started his qualifying lap, the wastegate for his RC90CK’s turbo system stuck shut. That translated to instead of the optimal 700-800 hp normally produced by his 3.5-liter twin-turbo V8, the turbos were delivering in excess of 1000 hp!
With that kind of raw power he lapped La Sarthe in an eye-watering 3m27.020s. Okay, but is that fast? If you take into consideration that the second fastest came a full 6 seconds (!!) behind, that’s unheard of. During that lap, on the Mulsanne straight he reached 383 km/h. As a comparison, the 2019’s pole position (Rebellion’s R-One AER #13) clocked 339.1 km/h in qualifying.
So unbelievably, a mechanical issue in your own engine can bizarrely be to your advantage 😲.
In the 90s, with everybody trying their hand at GT1 racing, Lamborghini didn’t want to miss the fun. So despite basically ZERO racing experience, they contracted French Signes Advanced Technology to build them a race car. Based on the lines of the current Diablo, they came up with the Lamborghini 132 GT1.
With a specially designed 6-liter engine delivering around 655 hp, they built one road-going example. And even got it homologated by the FIA in April of 1998. However, in September Audi bought Lamborghini and the program stopped right there.
And that was that, no Diablo at La Sarthe. What a shame! I for one would love to have a racing Raging Bull in the W-143 Garage.
OH YES! It was just announced that Rebellion Racing will partner up with Peugeot for FIA’s 2022 WEC Hypercar season. There aren’t much details out about the partnership, so it’s not clear if Rebellion will still run their R-13 LMP1 car in 2020.
As I said before, this new hypercar class is going to be awesome. With Peugeot committed and Aston Martin and Toyota confirmed, so far we will have three factory teams running hypercars. I’m really looking forward to next year’s season.
Late this week Petrolicius uploaded a delightful article about the 1976 Japanese Grand Prix. Full of fantastic shots of the race and backstage, it captures very well the huge drama that occurred. The Japanese GP was the last race of the season, and both Niki Lauda and James Hunt had a solid shot at the title. However, Mother Nature played an important role, that meant victory for one and defeat for the other.
Click on the link above for the full article and photos.
Yes, a Concours d’Elegance on the top of a building. In New York city. Definitively not a setting that you would expect for a Concours d’Elegance, but très cool nonetheless. Mingling classic cars with modern fashion and a rock show proved to be a winning formula. It happened on October 5th, and was such a success that the 2020 event is already confirmed.
More info and photos at the NYC Concours page.
