Attention racers,
Event 27 is over, and here are the abridged results, with full results and more on the event sheet.
PHLS#28 officially starts now, and we’re doing an endurance thing. Le Mans, hypercars, what could go wrong?
Full details, past results, and voting for events 29 and 30 up in the top post.
Le Mans
Le Mans is the capital of the département of Sarthe, named after the Sarthe river that runs through Le Mans, joining there with the Huisne river. Le Mans is located at 200 km by road, and one hour by TGV, from Paris. It was established at least two centuries BCE under the name Vindinion (lit. “the white citadel”, from the limestone found in the area), renamed Vindunum after the Roman conquest of Gaul. Home of the Cenomani Gallic tribe, it was also known as the Civitas Cenomanorum, the city of the Cenomani, which became the Celmans in Middle French, and ultimately gave the name Le Mans to the city.
Le Mans saw many battles throughout history, owing to its central position between Normandy, Brittany, and Aquitaine. It was conquered by the Franks and integrated into the Kingdom of the Franks in the 6th century, before being captured by Guillaume de Normandie (aka William the Conqueror) in the 11th century, eventually becoming part of the Plantagenêt/Angevin Empire and de facto under the authority of the English crown. It was reconquered in the 15th century in the final years of the Hundred Year War and rejoined the Kingdom of France permanently. During the French Revolution, Le Mans was the site of a major battle in the counter-revolutionary war opposing Royalists to Republicans, and was a decisive victory for the newly formed French Republic. Almost a century later, in 1871, Le Mans was the site of another decisive battle, this time with a victory of the Prussian Empire against France.
Today, Le Mans is known for its pork rillettes, and that’s pretty much it.
Oh no, wait, there's that other thing...
Le Mans’ automotive history starts in shortly after the end of the Franco-Prussian war, in 1873, when inventor Amédée Bollée creates the Obéissante (lit. the obedient), a 4-wheeled steam-powered horseless carriage, sometimes considered the first automobile. Bollée would then go in 1875 on perhaps the first road trip in history from Le Mans to Paris (230 km in 18 hours which, at the time, was still very slow), predating Bertha Benz 1888’s trip in the Benz Patent-Motorwagen. In 1881, he would break the 60km/h barrier with the Rapide, possibly the fastest non-rail land vehicle on the planet at the time.
Amédée Bollée’s role as a pioneer of automobile was recognised at the creation of the Automobile Club de l’Ouest in 1906, becoming honorary president of the ACO. The ACO was founded to organise the first race to be named Grand Prix, to be held near Bollée’s hometown. In 1908, Amédée and his son Léon would host the Wright brothers for their first public flight and the demonstration of the Flyer Model A over the Hunaudières, a lieu-dit (lit. named place) on the outskirts of Le Mans.
The Hunaudières (or more strictly the Hunaudières straight, known in English as the Mulsanne straight even though Mulsanne is the name of the corner at the end of it) had been used for motor races since the 1880s, and became part of the layout of the 1911 Grand Prix of France, and was used again in 1921 on the layout that would be reused two years later for the first edition of the 24 heures du Mans. The Hunaudière was the longest straight in motor racing, with a top speed record of 407 km/h (253 mph) by the Peugeot-powered WM P88 (publicised as 405 by Peugeot) in 1988. For safety reasons, and to avoid an escalation, the ACO added chicanes in 1990, making this record unbeatable, and still to this day the fastest a (non-drag) race car has ever gone in any official competition.
The name used in Forza of Circuit de la Sarthe is not official. It is the Circuit des 24 heures du Mans, a temporary circuit using parts of départementale roads 338 (forming the Hunaudières up to the town of Mulsanne), 140 and 139 and parts of the permanent Circuit Bugatti.