Feature
December 6, 2008

Driving rFactor
A Fast Lap at Le Mans with Virtua_LM’s “Le Mans ’79”

by "Chunx"

Introduction

As a fan of endurance sports car racing, this piece was almost too daunting to write – without writing a book. Le Mans is quite simply one of the most significant and iconic race venues in the history of motorsport. More than just a race, it is a happening; one with an intensely colorful and storied history, filled with triumph and tragedy. It is the ultimate endurance race, a true test of stamina and determination for both man and machine. Famous author Ernest Hemmingway once said that “there are only three true sports: bull fighting, mountain climbing, and motor racing. The rest are merely children’s games played by men.” The 24 hours of Le Mans certainly fits Hemmingway’s definition of a sport.

The first Le Mans endurance race was held in May, 1923, the winner finishing with an average speed of 66 mph. By 1954, the average speed nearly doubled to 117 mph. In 1970, Vic Elford was first to break the 150 mph average speed in a long-tail Porsche 917, flirting with 230+ mph on the long straight.

Racing has always been a dangerous sport. For Le Mans it was most deadly in 1955, when nearly 100 people were killed as Pierre Levegh’s Mercedes swerved to avoid another car and vaulted a berm to land in the crowded spectator area, pieces of the car slicing through the crowd and with violent fury. The tragedy at Le Mans ’55 helped to start a gradual movement towards improved safety for both drivers and spectators, which has evolved into complex engineering marvels that today make the sport much safer.

SimHQ’s 2.4 hour online endurance race for 2008 includes two classes of cars, each featuring one car type. But both cars reflect the rich and glorious history of the race: The Audi R8 Prototype race car which dominated the race throughout the early 2000s, and the Aston Martin DBR9 GT race car which took home GT1 class victories in 2007 and 2008. In this “Fast Lap” edition we’ll discuss the various turns of the track, then take a few hot laps in the Audi and Aston to see how it all gets put together where the rubber meets the road.

This year’s series concludes at the Mother of all endurance tracks, the fabled Le Mans Circuit de la Sarthe, provided for rFactor by the highly capable mod team of Virtua_LM. Their current release recreates the two versions of the circuit; one as it appeared in the years 1972 to 1978 and the other from 1979 to 1986. SimHQ has chosen the latter version for its endurance series, which can be obtained from rFactorCentral.com.

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