Pescarolo C60
The Pescarolo C60 was a Le Mans prototype that Pescarolo Sport used in sports car races from 2004 to 2006.
The Pescarolo C60 was based on the Courage C60 , which Pescarolo had been using as a car in the Le Mans 24-hour race and in the Le Mans Series since 2001 . When the French team decided in 2003 to run the racing cars under their own name in the future, the idea of in-house development was discarded and the C60 chassis began to be adapted. However, there were some difficulties involved. The regulations that the Automobile Club de l'Ouest stipulates for the endurance race at Le Mans stipulate that a vehicle may only start in the name of the registered team if the chassis was completely built by them, a circumstance that depends on the selected variant did not apply. However, team boss Henri Pescarolo managed to get the officials to make an exception with 33 starts as a record driver in the race and he was given permission to start.
The former racing driver and well-known racing car designer André de Cortanze , who had long experience as a prototype developer, was hired as chief technician . He had designed such well-known racing cars as the Peugeot 905 and the Toyota GT-One . De Cortanze had the CFRP chassis converted and designed a new rear and rear wing. The previous V6 - turbo engines from Peugeot were new 5-liter V10 naturally aspirated engines of Judd replaced.
The C60 made its debut at the 1000km race in Monza with fourth place overall and Emmanuel Collard and Soheil Ayari at the wheel. The Ayari / Comas / Tréluyer team also finished fourth overall at the Le Mans race . The second car broke down after an engine failure.
In 2005 Pescarolo took advantage of a loophole in the Le Mans regulations. As with the Dome S101 , the chassis still complied with the old LMP 900 regulations, but the aerodynamics of an LMP1 vehicle. With the Pescarolo C60 Hybrid , Henri Pescarolo suddenly had a victorious LMP1 concept that led to serial success in the Le Mans Series. Only at Le Mans did the team fail to achieve great success, which was mainly due to Audi's better financial resources , which with the R8 were always the favorites. In 2005 , however, the two C60 started from the front row, dominated the first two hours of racing and after 24 hours the trio Collard / Comas / Boullion reached second place overall. In 2006 , technical problems caused both cars to fall back early. Éric Hélary , Franck Montagny and Sébastien Loeb fight their way back up to second place in the overall standings, which they also held at the end of the race. These successes were very popular in France and attracted a lot of media attention far beyond sports reporting . Not only because the two-time rally world champion Loeb already had a special status in his home country, but above all because the small team from Pescarolo was the big opponent of the overpowering Audi for two years.
The hybrid C60s were almost unbeatable in the Le Mans Series. After their first victory in Monza in 2005, these vehicles won almost all European endurance races for two years.
