The 24 Hours of Le Mans started out as a simple question. Who can go the furthest in 24 hours?
Mostly taking place on public highways, this monster 8.5 mile-long track tests not only the car's speed, handling, and technology, but also it's ability to stay together. It takes place at all hours of the day and in all sorts of weather. Only the front straight has outside lighting and on the rest of the track your only light comes from your headlights piercing through the darkness. By the time the race is over, the winner will have traveled over 3200 miles, roughly the distance from New York City to London.
This is the track that until 1989 featured the Mulsanne Straight, a 4-mile long back-straight with speeds reaching 250mph on public roads. This is the track where in 1955 a car flew into the stands in a fireball and killed over 80 people, almost ending auto racing forever. This is the track where in 1999 the factory Mercedes lost it's downforce and launched itself high up off of the track, backfipping multiple times and disappearing into the trees.
Even with 2 chicanes on the Mulsanne Straight and massive engine restrictions to slow the cars down, drivers are still full throttle for 80% of the lap and top speeds reach over 210 mph on 4 places on the racetrack. In 2008 they reached 225mph and last year they reached 220mph.
Throughout the decades many factory companies have tried their hand at winning this great endurance race. Porsche, Ford, Ferrari, Mercedes, Toyota, Nissan, Jaguar, and Aston Martin have all been there, each coming up with innovative designs and technology to try to win. Today, the battle for the win is between Audi and Peugeot and the technology being developed relates to green energy.
Both the Audi and the Peugeot are factory built turbo diesel cars that run on bio diesel. In fact, there are 5 different types of green energy being used as fuel for this race. The American version of this series, the American Le Mans Series, is the only racing league officially recognized by the EPA, DOE and SAE as a green racing league.
Both the Audi and the Peugeot are really quiet cars. You see, noise is wasted energy, so the quieter the engine, the more efficient it is. You need all the efficiency you can get to last for 24 hours. In fact, as the Audis and Peugeots go by, they sound like a "whoosh". It is said that the cars are so quiet, that once they are in 3rd gear, the drivers have a hard time shifting, because the sound of the wind is louder than the engine.
Hybrid drive train systems are allowed under the new regulations, along with Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) that captures energy from the brakes and stores it in the flywheel. Also, the Audi will be using LED headlights for the first time ever in this race.
So don't let anyone tell you that we can't run cars on alternative fuels. These cars run for 24 hours at over 210 mph at 4 points on the race track and log over 3200 miles, proving that we can do it. These cars are classified as SportsCars which means that they are just super-modified versions of the road cars in existence. The technology and innovations from these cars eventually goes right into normal driving technology.
For US viewers, the race is on SPEED starting at 8:30am this Saturday(race begins at 9am). SPEED is showing 17 hours of the race. From 11pm (Saturday night) to the finish (9am Sunday morning) is uninterrupted coverage.
For Europe, the entire race will be on Eurosport and Eurosport2 from 8:30am Saturday to 9:30am Sunday (US EST time).
Enjoy the race. If anyone has questions or wants more pics, ask below and I'll answer!
Okay, now it's time for pictures!
At Night.
Audi at Night.
Peugeot 908
Audi R18