Parlez Vous Francais?

Apparently, there's some race called the 24 Hours of Le Mans this weekend in France.  To get everyone amped up for it, here's Hollywood's stylized take on the legendary race.  I hear this Steve McQueen fellow is pretty cool too.

The 80 Minutes of Le Mans

Just wanted to let everyone know that Audi's documentary about last year's 24 Hours of Le Mans, Truth in 24 II: Every Second Counts, is downloadable on iTunes.  It can also be viewed via Youtube... which means it's also here on FPH.  What a great way to kick off this race filled weekend!

You Can't Handle the Truth (in 24 II: Every Second Counts)

Any enthusiast worth his nomex driving gloves knows that Audi is a powerhouse in the world of endurance racing.  With ten overall Le Mans victories since the race in 2000, no manufacturer has ever achieved the same levels of success that the boys from Ingolstadt have in such a short amount of time.  So, what happens when your trophy cabinet is overflowing with French hardware?  Relive the glory by making a documentary, of course!

Fresh from a screening held at the Larz Anderson Auto Museum in Brookline, Ma, I can share my thoughts on the second documentary that...errrr... documents the Audi way of life at Le Mans.

2011-2012 Silly Season Remix

Race season kicks off in just over a week with the Rolex Series 24 Hours at Daytona!!! Ya, we're revved up (every pun intended!)!  Okay okay, so we're not the biggest fans of the Rolex Series or Nascar, which both start the earliest of any series.  Who cares?!?!  Racing's back!  Here's a quick, semi-entertaining yet highly informative rundown of what happened in the off season with the series we do follow:

Ebay Finds: Because Race Car

How would you like to own a Porsche that's cheaper than a Carrera GT, rarer than a Carrera GT, has racing pedigree like the famed 917, and is connected to the current American Le Mans championship team?  Well, here's your chance to own a piece of Porsche history.  For sale on Ebay is a Porsche 962 powered by a 700 horsepower Andial 3.2 liter turbocharged flat-6.  This particular car competed in the IMSA GT class in the mid 80s while other 962 with smaller displacement raced and won in Europe.



The history of the 962 is quite fascinating and I would do it no justice with a summary here.  Google it at your own leisure and check the ebay posting.

The Ferrari 250 LM

Penned by the late, great Battista Pininfarina, only the first Ferrari 250 LM was fitted with the 250 engine, while the rest of the 30 odd models were powered by the larger 330. In 1965, the North American Racing Team privately fielded a 250 LM, driven by Jochen Rindt and Maston Gregory, to participate in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. To date, it remains Ferrari's last overall victory at the world's most famous endurance race.

This one isn't it. But it's still damn sexy!


Ferrari 250 LM #6045 from GridStars on Vimeo.

Check out more videos from Gridstars.

Just Add Water!

Racing is demanding. Racing in the rain is doubly so!

Clash Of The Titans

Release the Kraken! Porsche 911 GT1 driver Yannick Dalmas and McLaren's Steve Soper each put on their 600-hp boxing gloves and brawl it out during the 1996 24 Hours of Le Mans. Although the clip isn't very long, you can already identify some characteristics between the cars and its drivers. The Porsche GT1 has the confidence to brake later and dive into corners before the McLaren. However, the McLaren has the composure to exit the corners carrying more grip and speed. It's rare to capture this sort of dynamism between two evenly matched cars with vastly different driving manners. This definitely falls into the "good old days" of auto racing.




Porsche eventually won the GT1 title for the 1996 Le Mans 24.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

Les Belles Voitures

Dominating endurance racing for a decade, Audi is here to stay. When asked whether Audi has considered participating in Formula 1, Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich counters that very little trickles from F1 into production cars anymore.

"Audi has always been engaged in motorsport that’s relevant to our customers such as rallying and touring cars, which brought quattro, FSI and TFSI to our road cars."

The dynamism of LeMans is second to none. Race cars of varying regulatory parameters, shapes and abilities, albeit all purpose built, race across Circuit de la Sarthe together.

Moreover, while F1's open wheel format displays a relatively linear progression in race car technology, the LeMans' prototype class possess a distinctive character from era to era.

Enjoy!

Le Mans

This upcoming weekend will be chock full of racing.  MotoGP visits the renovated Silverstone circuit.  Formula 1 is in Canada.  There's probably a NASCAR race somewhere.  But to top all of those is the endurance race by which all endurance races are measured against, Le 24 Heure Du Mans or the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

To get everyone up to pace, here's a very concise yet still entertaining documentary.  Enjoy!

Marlboro Sponsorship

If you watched any of the top tier motorsports since the 1970s, chances are pretty good that you've seen a Marlboro sponsored vehicle.  Their mainstay has been F1 but have also dabbled in WRC, MotoGP, and Le Mans.  Their sponsorship have appeared on the vehicles of champions like Wayne Rainey, Michael Schumacher, Tommi Makinen, Ayrton Senna, and Casey Stoner, just to name a few.  Whether displaying the Marlboro name or a simple bar code, you can count of Marlboro to be at the track for many years to come.

Le Mans - A Classic

Porsche.

It seems as though Porsche has become this week's agenda here at Flappy Paddle Heads. And while Danny Chin was busy with the air cooled era 911s, he kindly left a bit of room for me to talk about this.

Changing times: The car pr0n that never was.

Mazda 787B
courtesy of: forocompeticion.com

The year is 1991. Mazda wins the 24 hours of Le Mans and the FIA bans the Wankel rotary engine. This marked the first and only Le Mans 24 victory by a Japanese race car, and the Mazda 787B will never participate in an international race again.

Riding on a high, Mazda believed it was still their time in prototype racing. Conveniently for them, IMSA did not ban rotaries... and the successor to the 787B was created.

Behold, bitches: