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here's something different: scrutineering at Le Mans 15 years
ago. This was the first year of the Silver Arrows - and they
won, despite the best efforts of the Jaguars, Nissans, Toyotas
and the pink Joest Porsche. Perhaps that should read because
of the misfortunes met by these opponents. |
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Mercedes-Benz
returned to Le Mans in an official capacity for the first
time
in 34 years. |
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Sauber
C9 In Silver - The second placed Baldi / Brancatelli / Acheson
car. |
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The Silver Arrows were the centre of public and media attention. |
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Team
principal Peter Sauber and chief designer Leo Ress. |
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Dave
Price proving that the ‘basin’ haircut never went
out of fashion. |
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One
of the most charismatic cars was the WM P400. Run by a group
of volunteer mechanics and other staff, in 1988 the P400 had
been the first car to achieve a speed of over 400kph/250mph
on the Hunaudieres Straight. |
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The
Aston Martin V8 engines were prepared by Callaway Competition.
This company would later return to Le Mans and race its own
variations on the Chevrolet Corvette theme. |
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During
1989 the Max Boxstrom-designed Aston Martin AMR1 showed promise
that would sadly be snuffed out at the end of the year by internal
Ford politics. |
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Nissan commissioned Lola Cars to design and build its new Group
C chassis. Andy Scriven, now with Crawford Racecars, was the
project’s chief designer. |
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Mazdaspeed’s
1989 Le Mans programme was entrusted to Alan Docking Racing.
Two years later Mazda became the first Japanese manufacturer
to win Le Mans with a further developed version of this car
run by the French ORECA organisation. |
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Joest
Racing received Porsche factory support in 1989. The 962 would
bid to add to Porsche’s six Le Mans wins in the Group
C era. Stuck and Wollek were at their peaks in the late 80s,
and the pink car deserved to win, clutch bothers eventually
slowing it. |
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Although an ageing design by 1989 standards, the Porsche 962
was a serious contender. |
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The production based all-aluminium Mercedes-Benz M117 V8 engine
in the 1989 race winning car. Turbocharged to 2.2-bar the
M117
developed over 800 bhp. A hot qualifying lap from the C9, the
Toyota or the Nissan was a fantastic sight. |
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In 1989 Toyota introduced a new purpose built turbocharged
V8 racing engine. This would prove to be the forerunner of
its
successful CART power unit and the engine used in the Toyota
GT-ONE in the late 1990s. |
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Nissan
hired the enormously experienced Keith Greene as team manager.
In the 1960s Keith raced in Formula One against Jim Clark,
Graham Hill and Stirling Moss, in the 1970s he moved into
team management
working at Brabham with Bernie Ecclestone for a while and during
the 1980s was a revered team manager in sportscar racing.
He’s
still around now. |
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