1999 Le Mans 24 Hours Speed coverage Part 6

[@stevemcrichards8768]

Still the most memorable Le Mans for me in my life. Damn I wanted Toyota to win because I've always been a JDM fan boy but, I loved the variety of manufacturer competition in 1999 before Audi came in and made it a bit boring. 58min.:50sec -- Alain de Cadenet was absolutely right and this was later confirmed by independent sources of Gordon Murray and Racecar Engineering in the early 2000's as the actual reason why the Mercedes CLR GTPs flew. Mercedes had the rear suspension ride height too low which aided the suspension frequency instability which caused the aerodynamic moment to go beyond the limit in a pitch up situation.

[@milesr4609]

Facts!. Besides the memorable Mercedes case. The spectacular cars participating and it's diferent stories are as memorable as well. The Toyota and BMW preparing the terrain for F1 but giving us an amazing battle, the debut of Audi and how beautifull the R8C was (after some development it ended being the Bentley speed 8, wich debuted in 2001 and won in 2003), the oustanding Panoz, wich proved that a front engine LMP works, the Nissans, the Courages. Amazing stuff indeed..

[@TitanTrond]

Thank you for the fantastic upload!

[@Orvieta]

1:21:15 onwards, best footage of this part :)

[@andrewgillis8572]

Posche GT1 had already flipped at Petiit - BMW flipped the next Petit at same spot - plus 3 Benz flips here - wow - otherwise was this the best v-8 engine performance ever at LeMans - the Panoz LMP lap of 3:38? Was the Benz V8 Group C car as fast?

[@Orvieta]

Faster. In 1999 cause of the nature of the track and regulations, the cars had way more cornering speed, but less straight line speed. They still hit 330-340 though.

[@dedurocortorum365]

To make it simple, in 1999 the GTP had more power than LMP1 (around 650 hp), 100 litres tanks vs 80, but had narrower tyres, the weight was 900 kg minimum for both categories. The Group C cars were supposed to be faster but their consumption was limited (around 2500 litres allowed for the whole race) so it was maybe 600-650 hp for the race. The best laps of the Group C were realized during the practices and qualifs (700, 900, 1000 hp ?).