Le Mans

If you look back over the course of racing history, one of the most important and memorable times was the epic face-off between Ford and Ferrari during the late 1960s at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

If the 650 hp, $450,000+ Ford GT weren’t awesome enough all on its own, now Ford Performance has gone and made it look even better, with a slick livery which pays homage to the Le Mans winning ’67 Ford GT40 Mk.

Yesterday, during a practice session for the 2017 24 Hours of Le Mans race, Toyota put everyone on notice. During practice, Toyota LMP1 driver Kamui Kobayashi crushed the Circuit de la Sarthe lap record putting in a crazy-fast run that was two seconds faster than the previous lap record set in 2015.

Last year, I spent some time getting to know the drop-dead gorgeous 2017 Ford GT. You know, the $400,000 carbon fiber and aluminum sportscar that a handful of very wealthy (and very lucky) buyers will soon have the privilege of purchasing.

Ferrari hasn’t raced at Le Mans since 1965. But that didn’t prevent California car designer Marcello Raeli from executing a stunning design for a future Ferrari Le Mans racer. The so-called Ferrari Piero T2 LM draws some of its design cues from the track exclusive hypercar Ferrari FXX K, but takes those hints to the extreme with massive sideskirts, protruding wheel wells, and a tripartite rear diffuser.

The 24 hour endurance race at Le Mans every year is one of the biggest races on the planet. But unlike other racing events, you have to be invited to participate. Even though Ford built the Ford GT racing cars to race at Le Mans, there was no guarantee that they’d be allowed to run.

One glance at the teaser images that Hyundai has offered ahead of the unveil of the N 2025 Vision Gran Turismo and you can see that the car looks like the love child of a Le Mans racer from the future and a fighter jet.

You can’t simply design and build a car and toss it on the track in a major racing event, then hope for the best. Race cars have to be developed to ensure that they can stand up to the rigors of life at high speeds in traffic.

Odds are you… nor I… will ever get a chance to actually drive Le Mans, which is going on as I write this. So we’ll have to make do with this video of a Nissan GT-R tearing up the Circuit de la Sarthe, in advance of the 2015 Le Mans.

1966 was a watershed moment for Ford, when the GT40 trounced Ferrari at its own game at Le Mans. What’s more, it went on to do it three more times in ’67, ’67 and ’69. It was revenge for Enzo backing out on a deal, and Henry Ford II wanted Il Commendatore never to forget it.

ORECA, a company best know for a few really, really fast vehicles that compete in Le Mans, just geeked out about the same thing everybody is geeking out about: Star Wars. Instead of showing semi-interested friends and family or firing off inane tweets, ORECA did something spectacular. 

“We could easily be AMG-Toyota. No problem whatsoever. What do you want?” So boasts John Day, a longtime employee at Toyota Motorsport Gmbh (TMG). Currently based in Köln, Germany, TMG is responsible for designing, testing and building Toyota’s race cars.

We got a brief glimpse at Nissan’s new Le Mans LMP1 racer during their Super Bowl commercial. Now we have more images, video and some specs for this impressive experimental sports car. According to Nissan, the GT-R LM NISMO will feature a front-wheel drivetrain and a front engine, a seldom used configuration for performance cars, but one that can pay off when it comes to fuel efficiency and straight-line performance.

This stylized video was put together to showcase the debut of the Audi R18 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Audi driver Allan McNish discusses all the elements that go into building a successful team to compete at Le Mans, something Audi has certainly had success with – finishing 1 and 2 in the 2014 event.

The 2014 Le Mans Classic took place a couple of weeks after the 24 Hours of Le Mans race, bringing together over 450 classic cars dating from 1923 to 1979 to race in the same venue as today’s cars.