Circuit des 24 Heures
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 Le Mans , Sarthe Department , Pays de la Loire
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| Route type: | partially permanent racetrack | ||
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| Owner: |
Automobile Club de l'Ouest Ville du Mans |
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| Operator: | Automobile Club de l'Ouest | ||
| Opening: | 1923 | ||
| Time zone: | UTC + 1 ( CET ) | ||
| Track layout | |||
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| Route data | |||
| Important events: |
Le Mans 24 hour race | ||
| Route length: | 13.626 km (8.47 mi ) | ||
| Curves: | 38 | ||
| Records | |||
| Track record: (automobile) |
3: 14,791 min. ( Kamui Kobayashi , Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid , 2017) |
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| http://lemans.org/ | |||
Coordinates: 47 ° 56 ′ 59.5 ″ N , 0 ° 12 ′ 27.1 ″ E
The Circuit des 24 Heures is over 13 km long semipermanent Motorsport - race track where the 24-hour race at Le Mans will be held. After the river Sarthe and the Sarthe department , the course was also known as the Circuit de la Sarthe .
The racetrack consists for the most part (9.207 km) of public country roads near Le Mans (closed during racing) and is supplemented by 4.419 km of permanent racetrack and the pit facilities, which are also used for the short Circuit Bugatti circuit . The high-speed track has a full throttle share of over 85% and is accordingly a challenge for the drivers and racing cars, as well as their engines , drive components , brakes and chassis .
Route history
The route originally connected Le Mans , Mulsanne in the south and Arnage in the southwest. In the first race in 1923 and in the 1920s, the route led from the pit facility at the time in Rue de Laigné directly to downtown Le Mans, and after a tight right-hand bend near the Pontlieu bridge, it left the city again via a long straight. The street is now called Avenue Georges Durand , named after Georges Durand , one of the founders of the race.
In 1929 the 17.262 km long and at that time unpaved route within the city center was shortened by 922 m. From 1932 the city center was even completely avoided. The route led over the then new section through the now famous Dunlop Bridge , over the curve combination Esses to the Tertre Rouge . This route variant was 13.492 km long and was used unchanged until the Le Mans disaster in 1955 .
The pit facilities were modernized in 1956 for 300 million old French francs , but the lane and pit lane were not separated for another two decades - as is now customary. The central traffic lights and the tower for the flag signs were moved to the end of the Mulsanne curve.
With the vehicles getting faster in the 1960s, there were many deaths, especially during the test drives in April, and the track came under increasing criticism. In 1965 the modern, smaller permanent racing track Circuit Bugatti was opened. Both tracks share the pit lane, the pit lane system and the first corner with the famous Dunlop bridge . An additional chicane ( Ford chicane ) was used from 1968 onwards, causing the vehicles to slow down just before the pit lane. In 1969 the line was equipped with guard rails . In 1972, the fast and dangerous section of Maison Blanche was bypassed by building the Porsche curves .
The route is famous for its 6 km straight that runs on the public road Ligne Droite des Hunaudières , part of the départementale D338 route (1973-2006 route national N138 / 1824-1973 N158 ). This straight leads directly into the village of Mulsanne and is therefore often called Mulsanne Straight in English , although the Route du Mulsanne actually leads to Arnage. In the late 1980s, top speeds of over 400 km / h were achieved here, but this, in combination with the increasing contact pressure, led to increased tire damage. The official record held by the Frenchman Roger Dorchy , the 1988 with a WM P87 with 2.8-liter Peugeot - turbo engine and Michelin reached -Spezialreifen a top speed of 405 km / h. In 1990, for safety reasons, two chicanes were installed on this straight to reduce the maximum speed that could be achieved. In the same year the FIA announced that racetracks with straights longer than 2 km no longer receive a track license.
The average speed in qualifying was in 1993 of 249 km to 243 / h and then rose up again in 2008 to 247 km / h, surpassing 2017 with 251.882 km / h for the first time on the layout without chicanes with the Porsche 962 reached 251.815 km / h.
Aerial view of the paddock and pit area.
A poster with the route overview.
The run-off areas in front of the Dunlop Bridge.
The Ford chicane.
A large part of the route runs on the Sarthe Route Départementale D338 .
Course records
Circuit Bugatti
The permanent, clockwise additional course of the 13.626 km long traditional race track Circuit de la Sarthe was opened in 1965 with a length of 4.422 km, serves among other things as the venue for the French Grand Prix as part of the motorcycle world championship and hosted the DTM until 2008 .
The Circuit Bugatti , named after the automobile designer Ettore Bugatti , was designed by chief engineer Charles Deutsch , who worked full-time for the French road construction administration and was also a partner in a company that built racing cars. For his design, Deutsch used the home straight and adjacent parts of the track on which the Le Mans 24-hour race was held. Behind the shared pits and the paddock , he designed a new section with six slow to medium-speed corners and a hairpin before returning to the traditional Le Mans circuit.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento from June 9, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Accueil> ACO> Les infrastructures> Les circuits> 24 Heures Le circuit des 24 heures
- ↑ List des circuits approuvés Asphalt 2012 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ), www.ffsa.org, accessed on July 9, 2012.
- ^ Original map "Circuit de la Sarthe" from 1906 , accessed on July 1, 2011.
