24 Heures du Mans 2006

[Ross M]

Heads up - Speed Channel coverage starts at 9:30 eastern Saturday, with race start coverage at 10:30

http://mysite.verizon.net/res1ub0g/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/lemans2005_18.jpg

Wish I could be there:

http://mysite.verizon.net/res1ub0g/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/lemans2005_08.jpg

[Paul Pless]

http://www.corvetteracing.com/pictures/sebring2006/images/sebring044.jpg


'course I'll be pulling for these boys:D

[Ross M]

Great shot - I love the glow of rotors after midnight :D

[Paul Pless]

Those "I can do anything" girls are awesome! Did you see the boots:D

someone posted this elsewhere earlier this week:

http://www.speedarena.com/gallery/albums/Sportscar/Le%20Mans/2006/Audi%20R10/001.jpg

...and four rings to rule them all.

[davidagage]

LeMans is the greatest race I have ever been to. Camping on the grounds and trying to get a wink in to the roar of those cars is something that has to be experienced...

[John B]

I've been reading a lot about le Mans early days recently because of the old jag I bought.Its not that long ago that they were driving their competition cars there to race.( 1950's)The success of the C and D types gave Jaguar the capital to develop the E. Which did quite well for them in sales and market profile.

Did you know that those terrible 70's years for Jaguar were indirectly ( or directly depending how you look at it) caused by the death of William Lyons son in a car crash on the way to the 1955 Le Mans.That left Lyons without an heir and caused him to sell the company to BMC in the late 60's ,and then of course it was gobbled up by the dreaded British Leyland shortly after.
and the 55 race itself. My god. 80 people killed. ( I knew it was bad but ..... )

and then later, there was the extended talks between Ford and Ferrari about Ford buying Ferrari. When the deal fell through, Ford decided to teach them a lesson and developed the GT40 specifically for that purpose at Le Mans. Took em 2 or 3 years to achieve it IIRC. Kiwis driving one or two of them ( again IIRC) Amon and Mclaren ?

[Ross M]

...Did you see the boots:D...

Hell ya!

I think the TDI's are sitting pretty. Rumor has it the Pescarolo/Judds are quicker, but they will probably have to pit more often.

David - color me jealous :cool:

[davidagage]

The 55 race was tradgic. Mercedes SL was racing the C-type, passing a Healey 100s, The Healey was going faster than they thought and the mercedes clipped the jag, went into the crowd in flames (magnesium alloy bodies on the merc SL). I recently read that the race was kept going (merc did pull out) because the ambulances could not get into the track if they had called the race due to the outbound traffic.

[PaulC]

Has anyone seen Brian Cunningham lately? Maybe he snuck off to France???

[Ross M]

...Ford decided to teach them a lesson and developed the GT40 specifically for that purpose at Le Mans. Took em 2 or 3 years to achieve it IIRC. Kiwis driving one or two of them ( again IIRC) Amon and Mclaren ?

1966 - the #1 car was Ken Miles(GB)/Denny Hulme(NZ); the #2 car was Amon(NZ)/Mclaren(NZ).

The Amon/Mclaren team gave Ford it's first LeMans victory in a MKll painted in New Zealands's sporting colors - black with silver stripes - repleat with silver fern :cool:

http://mysite.verizon.net/res1ub0g/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/ford-gt40-lemans-victory-1966.jpg

Bit of a controversial finish, BTW - Ford wanted a dead heat finish showing Mkll's in first, second and third; the leading car (#1) was slowed to achieve this.

For better or worse, the French ruled that since the #2 car started behind the #1 car, it had travelled farthest and was awarded the race.

Either way, a Kiwi won Lemans :D

Ross

[John B]

Thanks Ross.
Of course, Bruce McLaren died young. I must find out more as to how and why his team was able to live on like it has. There'll be a key person who made that happen. .
Denny Hulme.. I remember watching him in the race in the late 90's early 00's where his car pulled over to the guard rail and grass and drove along it. He had died of a heart attack (IIRC) driving . Much older but still too young. Sort of destiny fulfilled unlike McLaren if that makes sense.
Chris Amon is a farmer and makes appearances from time to time.
Talking with my mate yesterday about cars and threads like this and he was telling me about the man who maintained his MkII jag for many years. John Olsen. I was rather astonished to hear of his motor racing/ car building career and associations with Shelby and the early Cobras .He died a couple of years ago but was in business literally a mile away from where I live. He could build a Shelby Cobra and it would be a Shelby Cobra. Evidently he was commissioned to build one for some phenomenal amount relatively recently( in the last decade) and it was signed by Shelby.

edit; Denny Hulme died in 1992!! seems like yesterday. aw hell. he was only 56.

http://www.grandprix.com/gpe/drv-hulden.html

[John B]

Oh , another bit of trivia that came to light from this particular book I have going ATM, is that Mike Hawthorn, the jag D type driver initially blamed ( subsequently cleared)for the 55 Le Mans crash, was killed himself in 1959. He had just retired from race driving but lost control of his modified Mk I Jag in the wet on a public road and was killed aged 29.

[formerlyknownasprince]

I remember the Mk1 Hawthorn story - something to do with a 100mph sideways in the wet episode. I used to love the look of the Mk 1 (which were never actually called Mk 1's, that being a subsequent naming after the Mk 11 was released.) I had a couple of Mk 1's back in the late 70's - still have a rocker cover or two in the basement, I think John - polished alloy.

Yes the '55 race - I've seen photos (and, I think film) of the crash - absolutely horrific - Mercedes withdrew from racing for many years due to that. There was also an incident in Mexico with major loss of life around the same time too. The '55 race incident was not unlike the Mark Webber "off" when his Merc flipped over backwards after taking off at 300+ kph about 10 years ago - except he didn't hit anyone.

Ian

[Paul Pless]

that CLR flip was astonishing wasn't it

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/0c/CLR_Flip.jpg

[John B]

That was Webber ? oww.

Those early 300 mercs ( the 55 race) had an amazing air brake on them. They'd had trouble with the D types because they had disc brakes .So they came up with a door which they could open up at the end of the straight to slow them down. Like a whole boot ( trunk) sized flap that opened against the wind.( the same action as when you open a suicide door when moving)

[Ross M]

The flipping CLR was something else, all right. A touch of misbehaviour, Unlimited Hydro style. IIRC, that picture was the first occurence; there was a second event that sent the car way over the Armco and into a field, resulting in Mercedes withdrawal. I seem to remember a Porsche GT1 performing similar manuevers at Road Atlanta a few months later...

John B:

Dave Friedman's "Shelby GT40" book mentions John Ohlsen at least a dozen times and includes this great story by him:

"I remember an incident at Le Mans in 1965 when I was taking care of the Rob Walker-entered GT40, which was actually a Shelby entry. Bondurant and Maglioli were driving for us and the car was running very well. We were well satisfied with everything and thought we had a good chance in the race, we were finishing up with our final race checks when this bloke from Ford shows up with a new engine. I said 'What's that for, our engine is running well, it's strong, and we feel that it will finish.' He said, 'Change the engine, you have nothing to say about it.' We did, and the engine failed three hours into the race. That was the beginning of the end for me."

[John B]

Thanks for the name spelling correction Ross.
John G the lurker just rang me after seeing your post to say thats exactly what John Ohlsen told him a few years ago.

o thats very interesting. The Daytona! John Ohlsen! bloody hell, a mile down the road and I never met him.

heres a pdf article on some cobra replicas FYI too. a NZ magazine so it might be a fresh read for you.
http://www.classic-car.co.nz/img/cobra.pdf?S=b9762e84701edace5efb904288c85d74

[John B]

and now he's supplied this further info on Ohlsen
. interesting read.
http://www.cobracarclub.org.au/articles/cobraman.htm

[Paul Pless]

not lemans related but pretty spectactular,

especially considering he walked away, and then officially retired for good from Indianapolis:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvuLGyDN16Q&feature=PlayList&p=2F444BEB077A9C50&index=8

[Ross M]

Great reads, John - a million thanks for posting them. Both were very informative, and to the best of my knowledge, accurate.

If there is an American counterpart to Mr. Ohlsen, it must be Phil Remington. Phil came to Shelby American with the keys to Reventlow's Scarab factory :D . There is a good article about Phil on AAR's (Dan Gurney) website: Mr. Fix-it (http://www.allamericanracers.com/rem/rem-story.html)

Paul - Mario is wayyyyy to old to fly one that high. Lucky to have not been terribly injured, IMO. Must be a tough old guy...

Looks like the Pescarolos were fastest only in the wet - yesterday's qualifying ended with the Audis on top.

Ross
almost forgot to add - the factory DBR-9s are on top of GT1 :p

[John B]

Its really interesting eh Ross.:) There's people like him (different fields)out there all around the place but inevitably its not till they've gone that you realise what amazing things they've done.

Andretti .. ouch!

[Paul Pless]

Paul - Mario is wayyyyy to old to fly one that high. Lucky to have not been terribly injured, IMO. Must be a tough old guy...


Yeah actually I think it was his wife who insisted that he retire immediately from open wheel racing. I think since though he has gone on to compete at both le Mans and the Rolex 24. Incidenatlly if one really wishes to look for cars flipping through the air one need look no further than Talladega and Daytona. LOL!

Interestingly enough, no one has mentioned the old style Le Mans start with all this nostagia talk going on...

http://www.mb300sl.de/lema52-2.JPG




The Le Mans start is also the reason why left-hand-drive (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-hand-drive) Porsche (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porsche) street cars continue to have their ignition switches on the left of the steering column rather than on the more customary location of the right-side: this enabled the driver to start the engine with left hand while engaging the 1st gear with the right hand, depressing the clutch with left foot and stepping on the gas with right foot simultaneously thus allowing the Porsche to get off the starting line more quickly than other race cars.

[Ross M]

Its really interesting eh Ross.:) There's people like him (different fields)out there all around the place but inevitably its not till they've gone that you realise what amazing things they've done...

Indeed. I found out altogether too late that Alf Francis - Rob Walker's F1 chief mechanic - lived just across the park from my parents :mad: . He had a small exotic car dealership in town selling Maseratis, Aston Martins, Lamborghinis, etc. If only I had known he was a neighbor...


Interestingly enough, no one has mentioned the old style Le Mans start with all this nostagia talk going on...

I miss 'em. But even more, I miss the un-chicaned Mulsanne straight. That's progress, I guess.

BTW - 27 minutes in and only 1 of the Astons is on the track. Behind the Corvettes :)

Ross

[John Bell]

My kids just asked a question I can't answer: Why do the the P1 and P2 cars have two seats? I know it's a rule, but why?

[John Meachen]

If you want to read the rules,they can be found at http://www.imsaracing.net/2006/competitors/aco3.pdf
I believe I am correct in saying that the cars are notionally required to have two seats in order to demonstrate touring capability.Not that anybody goes touring in an LMP.The last real two seater I am aware of was a 2002 spec Bentley that was modified after the race to allow journalists and other passengers to experience almost all the performance these cars have to offer.The assymetric open cars of recent years have been legislated out and the cars are required to have a configuration that would allow a passenger and for that person to have some rollover protection.The truth is that the passenger space is full of electrics and plumbing rather than a seat and the air intake would be blocked by the passenger's head.

[Meerkat]

The truth is that the passenger space is full of electrics and plumbing rather than a seat and the air intake would be blocked by the passenger's head.Even if the passenger is an airhead? :D

[Paul Pless]

Its a freeking travesty that a third tiered professional neckcar series preempts the broadcast of the most important endurance sports car race of the year.:mad: :mad:

[Ross M]

Yea, and when Fox bought Speedvision they promised not to turn it into the Nascar Channel :(

Ross

[Ross M]

Hey, what's with the "endurance sports car" qualification to the "most important race of the year" statement? ;););)

Le Mans '06 Live Timing (http://www.lemans.org/24heuresdumans/live/chronos/chronos_gb.html)

[Paul Pless]

"endurance sports car"

haha...

How 'bout that Corvette team!:)

Good thing the race is almost over, otherwise SPEED would cut off the telecast so we could watch some lameassed canned nascar prerace show...

[Sea Frog]

Yet another victory of the diesel engine.
The Pescarolo had to refuel too often to fully compete with the Audi.

[Paul Pless]

Audi should name their race cars like the British used to name their battleships.

[Sea Frog]

Renaming your Turnip Truck Special for the next, Paul? :D

[Ross M]

Amazing performances by many. Of course the TDI Audi is incredible, but Pescarolo deserves kudos for competing effectively on what I suspect is a small fraction of the budget.

And of course, as on the street, Chevrolet outperforms even the boutique variety of Fords :p. If only those Astons were not so damn good looking...

It ought to be even better next year with Peugeot (and Porsche?) (and Honda?) in the mix.

Good stuff.

Ross