Courage C60
The Courage C60 was a Le Mans prototype built by Courage Compétition and used by racing teams in sports car races from 2000 to 2005. While the C60 was intended for the more powerful LMP900 category, a modification for the smaller LMP675 class was marketed under the name C65 in 2003 .
technology
At the end of 1999, Courage developed the C60 as the successor to the C52 . However, both vehicle types were used in parallel for several years. The C60 was an open mid-engine spyder with a carbon fiber chassis. The cars were built for the large Le Mans prototype class, the LMP900. Today this classification corresponds to the LMP1 class. Right from the start, the concept of the C60 was to sell a large part of the chassis to private teams. Different engine concepts have been used over the years.
When developing the vehicle, company owner Yves Courage trusted the designers Paolo Catone , Jean-Claude Rose and Alain Touchais to create a completely new vehicle that, unlike the various previous models, was not based on the Courage C41 . Target of Courage was in cooperation with the car company Nissan , the 24-hour race at Le Mans win. In order to do justice to the track characteristics of Le Mans, chief designer Catone relied on a deep-seated, flat rear wing, small air inlet at the front of the vehicle and flat lines. The vehicle was intended for various technical components, but in 2000 the works vehicles were equipped with a sequential gear shift from Emco, an engine from Judd and tires from Pirelli .
history
Beginnings
During the winter break in 1999, the team developed the car. Initially, the works vehicles should continue to be equipped with racing engines from Nissan. During the pre-tests for the Le Mans 24-hour race in April 2000, the team reported a 3.5-liter V8 turbo engine from the C52, but the takeover of the Japanese car manufacturer by Renault ended Nissan's collaboration in endurance racing at short notice . Courage had to look for a new engine supplier for Le Mans in June 2000 . Philippe Gache , who ended his contract with the rival manufacturer Riley & Scott at the end of 1999 , stepped in and reported the already assembled chassis to the pre-test in Le Mans. The C60 was converted to a 4-liter V10 engine from Judd. For the Judd GV4, developed from a Formula 1 engine, the engine compartment had to be redesigned, but it appeared in time for the pre-test on April 30, 1999, in which Gary Formato also drove alongside Gache . In preparation for the Le Mans endurance race in June, the Courage works team also completed the 500 km of Silverstone. Despite some technical difficulties, the C60 finished the race in ninth place overall. At the actual race at Le Mans, the driver trio Gache, Formato and Didier Cottaz retired on Sunday morning with a technical defect. The subsequent championship run of the American Le Mans Series at the 1000 km race on the Nürburgring was ended prematurely due to an accident.
Despite the difficulties, Yves Courage sold two C60s to Henri Pescarolo during the winter break , who started the C60 in 2001 in his own racing team Pescarolo Sport . Pescarolo built on the 6-cylinder turbo engine from Peugeot . The factory team also changed the tire supplier and developed the vehicle further; especially the aerodynamics have been revised. During the course of the year, Pescarolo Sport fielded the C60 in various endurance races in the European Le Mans Series and the FIA Sports Car Championship and, after a few failures and placings in the midfield, won the 1000 km race with Jean-Christophe Boullion , Laurent Redon and Boris Derichebourg at the end of the year Estoril races and the two and a half hours of Magny-Cours . However, the Boullion / Redon team was at the start there. The works team, on the other hand, concentrated exclusively on the 2001 Le Mans 24-hour race , could not finish the race after an accident and so the 13th overall position of the Pescarolo sports car of Boullion, Redon and Sébastien Bourdais remained the best result so far of the C60 in Le Mans. At the end of the year, driver Philippe Gache's advertising contract expired and the C60 was sold to the Spanish team Saturn . This car had a 7 liter Chevrolet engine taken from a Corvette , but the vehicle was never used in a race.
The C60 JX
In 2002 the car was revised again. Designers Paolo Catone and Jean-Claude Rose modified the vehicle to accommodate a 5-liter engine from Nissan and a sequential gearshift from Xtrac. The further developed car was now internally called the C60 JX. However, the owner Yves Courage decided in favor of Judd's proven racing engine. In addition, he registered the car with Didier Cottaz and Boris Derichebourg in the FIA sports car championship . However, the works team did not get beyond second place and ended the season prematurely after a failure at Magny-Cours. Henri Pescarolo's team, on the other hand - still with a Peugeot engine - won two races in the sports car championship with Sébastien Bourdais and Jean-Christophe Boullion and also finished tenth in the 2002 Le Mans race .
In 2003, the factory team concentrated on developing the C65 for the less powerful but lighter prototype class LMP675. The Pescarolo Sport customer team continued to do most of its racing with the C60. Franck Lagorce and Soheil Ayari won the 2 ½ hour race in Nogaro and achieved second place in the 1000 km race in Spa-Francorchamps in 2003, one of the greatest successes for a C60. Only in Le Mans 2003 were both Pescarolo Sport vehicles and the works team at the start. The three vehicles finished the 24-hour race in 7th, 8th and 9th overall. The best Le Mans result was achieved by Jean-Marc Gounon , Stéphan Grégoire and Jonathan Cochet in the factory C60.
Successors and further developments
With the rule changes of the Le Mans prototypes planned for 2007, Courage began developing a completely new Courage LC70 after using the LMP675 descendant C65 , which was completed in 2006. Henri Pescarolo, on the other hand, further developed the C60 himself and later named the car Pescarolo C60 with further changes Pescarolo 01 .
literature
- Luigi Reni, Jean-Marc Teissedre: Courage C60 - Unfinished Business In: Olivier Loisy, Jean-Marc Teissedre: 2006 Le Mans Series Yearbook , Apollo Publishing 2006, ISBN 2-952-10445-X , pp. 100-107
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ The C60 Chevrolet ( Memento from May 29, 2010 in the Internet Archive )