News from France

[Porschinelle]

Friday evening the rallye stop in Toulouse
They left Toulouse Saturday morning toward Biarritz with a last race session on the Pau Arnos race track and 2 last night special stages during the Friday to Sunday night after a few hours stop in Biarritz to prepare the cars to this night session
Below the 904 being fitted with large additionnal beams

Despite this preparation several cars did not succeed to finish these 2 moutain roads session as this Mercedes 300 SL forced to retire when they were in the 10 first cars


Final results

The VHC (historical competition vehicles) which include competition cars respecting the FIA (International Automobile Federation) regulations
This same organisation rule the formula 1 and World rallyes races
was dominated by GT 40 who finish 1 st and third

The second place was for a Jaguar E type similar to the one seen below who had to leave the race after an engine breakage when they occupied this same second place only a few kilometers before the end

[Porschinelle]

The fourth pace went to the 904
A fantastic performance regarding the difference between the 2.0 liter capacity of the 804 compared to the 6.0 liter capacity of the Ford GT40 and the 3.8 Liter capacity of the Jaguar E type

Ludovic Caron AC Cobra (overall winner in 2015) finish the rally at a mere 43rd place due to a time penalty after having won 9 off the special stages

[Porschinelle]

Correct VHC classification the one publish above was wrong


Always in the Competition group the indice de performance classification

[Porschinelle]

In the G H I classification (cars up to 1981) outside the FIA regulations the overall winner was a Ligier JS 2 one of the 2 cars built specially by the small sport cars manufacturer to race the Le Mans 1975
These 2 cars were powered by a Ford Costworth V8 DFV formula 1 engine instead of the standard Maserati Merak of the series cars

The owner of this car who race under the pseudonym of Mr John of B finish the Tour Auto for the first time after 2 off previous attempts

[Porschinelle]

The regularity classification was won by a 1957 Maserati barchetta 200 S

[Porschinelle]

Now some videos

To start with a video filmed during the "Roches du Diable" (Devil rocks) special stage in Brittany
Pat if it post you may look at it with the sound up

www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2Woht9dROM

[Porschinelle]

Special stage Saint Paul de Vern/La Touille

www.youtube.com/watch?v=13hINAPHtok

[Porschinelle]

If you have looked at these 2 videos you may have seen that the owners of these very expensives race cars very often don't hesitate to drive them at full speed with the risk to crash them as this poor Alfa Romeo GTA

I hope the owner had a good insurance company

[Porschinelle]

More videos

Last night stages in the Pyrenees mountains above Biarritz

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnoSp37-8kE

[Porschinelle]

last day


www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYFCPbD7C14

[Porschinelle]

This last week end June 16th/17th, were held the 85th edition of the Le Mans 24 hours race
This year everything was on line for beating previous records
Beautiful and warm weather and a sharp cometition between Toyota (with 3 cars) and Porsche (with only 2 cars due to race budget reduction in the VW group (no more Audi either)
At the end, as last year, it was again a 3rd consecutive win for Porsche but no records
In 2016 despite a rainy and cold weather the winning Porsche cover 384 laps of the 13,629 kilometer long circuit making a total of 5233,54 kilompeters
This year the again improved over 2016, winning Porsche only achieved 367 laps ie a mere 5001,84 kilometers
The reason
The leading Porsche (car race number 1) had to stop after 20 hours for a breakage of its hybrid system just after the car had pass in front of the Porsche stand and was unable to cover one more lap at a very low speed
The second Porsche (car race number 2) had the same problem but only after 3 hours of racing
The pilot succeed to take back the car to the pit and the Porsche mecanics did a fantastic job changing the whole electric system ( electric motors and power recuperation) in just a little more of 1 hour
When the Porsche number 2 take back the track they were only in 56 th/over 60 starting cars, position
This car was quicker by 10 second per lap of all the other cars except for the 2 Toyota left
Luckily for Porsche a first Toyota car (car race number had to stop for the same electric power recuperation system failure than the Porsche number 2 but it took more than 2 hours for the Japanese mecanics to change the whole system
This car took back the tyrack but wa

[Porschinelle]

This car took back the track but was unable to do better than a 9th overall
In less than one hour the 2 other Toyota had to retire one for a clutch burn, the other one after a tyre punction after a light collision with another competitor (the flat tyre destroy the plastic back body and the transmission broke hence a very lucky 19th win for Porsche

[Porschinelle]

As you may see on the above pic if the distance covered record was not broken the attendace (over 250.000 spectators) was well over 2016
The winners in the 4 categories



As you may see unfortunately the new 911 RSR (with the engine in the middle)

was not on the podium of the GT category
The winning car was an Aston Martin

who succeed in the 2 lat laps to beat up to then, leading Corvette

who with terrible brake problems lost also the 2nd place for a Ford

[Porschinelle]

a nice summary of all the above

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxY5VdCv_YU

[CPC69]

Greetings from Scotland!

You posted a photo of a 1956 Porsche 356A Carrera GT at the 1956 Le Mans 24 hour race, car Nr.26.

I'm researching this car and have been trying to find out the chassis number. I know it was owned by Max Nathan.

Do you happen to know the chassis number for the car?

Best wishes
Christian