{"id":16113,"date":"2023-09-29T07:55:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-29T10:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/?page_id=16113"},"modified":"2023-10-04T08:39:59","modified_gmt":"2023-10-04T11:39:59","slug":"rondeau-m379b-17-spark","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/rondeau-m379b-17-spark\/","title":{"rendered":"Rondeau M379B #17 – Spark"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"M379B<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
1980 Rondeau M379B #17<\/strong>\nPilots: G. Spice, P. Martin, J-M. Martin\nTeam: Belga Jean Rondeau<\/em>\nRace: 3rd overall (1st in GTP class) at Le Mans in 1980<\/strong>\nSpark - S8456 (resin)<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Published 10\/06\/23<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jean Rondeau, \u201dl\u2019enfant du Mans\u201d<\/em>, began racing his own cars at La Sarthe in 1976. And when I say \u201chis own cars\u201d<\/em>, I mean that he designed AND built his cars. The archetypal garagista<\/em>, he was born in Le Mans and had his shop close by. From the beginning, his intent was to achieve an overall win at the 24 Heures du Mans<\/em>. So he designed and built a Group 6 car, the Inaltera LM<\/strong>, and enrolled two cars in the 1976 race. The Inaltera LM #1<\/a>, piloted by Henri Pescarolo and Jean-Pierre Beltoise came in eighth overall, winning in the GTP class. Rondeau himself, in car #2, finished in 21st. To build a car from scratch and on your first<\/em> race at Le Mans you achieve a class victory \ud83d\ude32? Impressive to say the least. Yet, Rondeau\u2019s goal was first place overall, so he kept on working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"M379B
At the time, the Ford-Cosworth engines were the most popular power plant amongst the small teams.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
With the result of the Inaltera LM, things looked good. He developed the car further and for 1977 he had the Inaltera LM77<\/strong>, and again came in first in GTP. And this time he was at the wheel. Things got grim for 1978, however, when his main sponsor pulled out. Fortunately though, Rondeau managed a new sponsor, and for the 1978 race he unveiled the M378<\/strong>. In the 1978 race he piloted the M378 #72<\/a>, and again came in first in GTP. So far, three races and three class wins\u2026 For 1979 Rondeau further developed the M378 into the M379<\/strong>. Like all its previous versions, the M379 used the Ford-Cosworth DFV<\/a> engine. The DFV was a 2998 cm\u00b3 V8 with DOHC and 4 valves\/cylinder, delivering over 298 kW (408 hp). For a chassis it used a  steel space frame reinforced with aluminum panels, covered by a fiberglass body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"M379B
By 1980, Rondeau only produced four chassis, which he developed into the next version of the car.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
By 1979 Jean Rondeau’s good results attracted investors, so for 1979 he had three cars enrolled with different sponsors. Two cars were in the S+ 2.0 class and one in GTP, and M379 #5 came first in S+ 2.0. That\u2019s four races and four class wins. The following year he slightly enhanced the M379 into the M379B<\/strong>, basically tweaking the car\u2019s aerodynamics. He arrived at the 1980 Le Mans with three cars, two enrolled in the S+ 2.0 class (Group 6) and one in GTP. And he finally did it: piloting M379B #16<\/a>, he came in first place overall. Nine laps after came M379B #17, in third place overall and first in GTP<\/a>. With that, it was five races with one overall win and five class victories, in a row \ud83d\ude32\ud83d\ude32\ud83d\ude32. With cars he designed and built himself. Impressive? Mind-boggling, in fact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/
Five Le Mans, five class wins and one overall win – an unbeatable record.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
With a result like that, Jean Rondeau became a legend at Le Mans. None had done anything remotely similar to that before, and doubtfully will ever do again. I\u2019m a massive Rondeau fan – even though he was known for being somewhat of a prima donna. Difficult character aside, he was a garagista <\/em>and what he accomplished was nothing less than extraordinary. Therefore, I was thoroughly excited when Spark announced the M379B #17 here. In 1:43rd, it’s just as nice as the winning #16, with its very<\/em> quirky looks. Being far from pretty and \u201conly\u201d a class winner perhaps it won\u2019t appeal to many. For the W-143 Garage though, it was a must buy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/
Spark models: THE best bang-for-the-buck in 1:43? Very probably.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
 And here\u2019s why Spark is simply THE BEST<\/mark>. Belga was a cigarette brand, therefore nowadays it wouldn\u2019t be \u201cpolitically correct\u201d to make a toy (???) with tobacco advertising. That being so, Spark makes the M379B #17 historically accurate by sending the necessary decals inside the model\u2019s box. However, the decal job was not exactly easy, due to some complex surface curvatures on the model. Nonetheless, see why it\u2019s hard not to be <\/em>a Spark fan boy? \ud83d\ude0d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
1980 Rondeau M379B #17 Pilots: G. Spice, P. Martin, J-M. Martin Team: Belga Jean Rondeau Race: 3rd overall (1st in GTP class) at Le Mans in 1980 Spark – S8456 (resin) Published 10\/06\/23 Jean Rondeau, \u201dl\u2019enfant du Mans\u201d, began racing his own cars at La Sarthe in 1976. And when I say \u201chis own cars\u201d, … Continue reading “Rondeau M379B #17 – Spark”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-16113","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16113"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16344,"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16113\/revisions\/16344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}