24 Hours of LeMans 2023

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The 24 Hours of Le Mans is coming up June 10th & 11th.

Scrutineering for this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans begins this weekend.

https://www.autoweek.com/racing/more-ra ... d568259d8a

24 Hous of Le Mans 1973 - race poster.jpg (63.32 KiB) Viewed 1572 times

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2023 24-Hours of Le Mans Entry List & Drivers as of May 5th -

https://us.motorsport.com/lemans/news/t ... /10437351/

I counted eight 911 RSR-19 cars in GTE along with four Porsche 963's in the Hypercar class. Porsche is well represented!

24 Hous of Le Mans 1959 - race poster.jpg (57.38 KiB) Viewed 1568 times

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Coming up soon, it's the 91st running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 100th anniversary of the first one held May 26-27, 1923.

The official website for the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans:
https://www.24h-lemans.com/en



Stunning poster art of that first race 100 years ago. Nice! That's classic French graphic art that would look great on a wall. Love the owl and the fireworks too!

24 Hous of Le Mans 1923 race poster.jpg (1.37 MiB) Viewed 1554 times

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From PCA:

"24 Hours of Le Mans viewing guide 2023: Slim chance to win, but miracles happen"

https://www.pca.org/news/24-hours-of-le ... guide-2023

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The big Kahuna of Sports Car Racing - the 24-Hours of Le Mans - is upon us and with it some last minute BoP edicts for the Hypercars.

No idea if there will be more adjustments before the race but Toyota (who was greatly favored to blow away the competition) is not pleased (although the rules state that they cannot comment publicly).

https://www.autoweek.com/racing/more-ra ... d568259d8a

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Motor Trend TV has coverage
https://www.motortrend.com/features/wat ... trend-app/

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"Racing with Giants"

If you have interest in racing, or any interest in Le Mans, or if you just like Porsche's, I would suggest watching the excellent new documentary from Hagerty Media, "Racing with Giants" that was released last week. It's on YouTube - no cost, no paywall, no subscription - just 50 or so minutes of enjoyment and marvelous Porsche Le Mans history.

Narrated by Patrick Dempsey, featuring new interviews and commentary from Derek Bell, Jackie Ickyx, Allan McNish, Patrick Long, Nick Tandy, Felipe Nasr and others, the film packs wonderful archival footage and photographs along with a glowing look back at Porsche and racing.

Porsche - the manufacturer with an astounding nineteen (19) overall wins at Le Mans, the most of any manufacturer in the history of Le Mans. This year's 91st race marks 100 years since the first running of the greatest of them all. It also marks Porsche's 75th anniversary as a automobile manufacturer and 72 years since Porsche first ran the race in the tiny aluminum bodied 356 SL powered by a 1100cc motor that nevertheless could reach speeds of 100 mph and won its class at Le Mans that first year for Porsche.

In addition to the 19 overall wins, Porsche has 107 class wins at Le Mans.

Porsche is not the car we love without its racing heritage - everything Porsche stems from racing. Everything.





The documentary also does a nice job connecting several special Porsches to the Le Mans racing heritage - the 930 Turbo "Widow Maker", the 959, the 918, the first GT3 - the 996.



The 356 SL at the 1951 Le Mans.

Porsche 356SL Le Mans 1951.jpg (64.5 KiB) Viewed 1512 times

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The race cars that set Porsche's manufacturer record of nineteen (19) overall Le Mans victories:

917
936
935
956
962
GT1
919

The question now is how the Porsche 963 Hypercars will fare against the Hypercar entries from Cadillac, Ferrari, Glickenhaus, Peugeot, Toyota and Vanwall. All are impressive engineering marvels.

Le Mans 24 Hours 2023 grid photo op.jpg (320.43 KiB) Viewed 1495 times

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Well, not much of a showing for the Porsche 963 Hypercars in this year's 24-Hours of Le Mans. Reliability issues hit the 963's hard. Again. They'll get it figured out.

Meanwhile, Ferrari's first factory effort in 50-years with their 499P Hypercar resulted in the overall victory, ending Toyota's 5-year win streak. Ferrari's other 499P finished 4th. The factory Cadillac Hypercars were 3rd and 4th behind the 2nd place Toyota. The best finish for any of the Porsche 963's was a distant 9th.

Out of 62 cars in the three classes who started the race, 22 were DNF's, six of which were Porsches - five 911 RSR's and one 963. There were plenty of periods of rain during the race, some heavy, so a lot of adversity and hard driving by all.

This was the last year for GTE Am and the last year for a factory backed Corvette. The Corvette made a remarkable run to come in 1st in the GTE class, finishing 26th overall. LMP2 had great racing, with an underdog team showing it could win.

https://www.autoweek.com/racing/more-ra ... d568259d8a


Next year will mark the beginning of the GT3 class in place of GTE Am. Corvette privateer teams will be there with the new Z06 GT3.R. Ford is joining the fray too, so GT3 is looking like it will be a wild, wide open and heavily contested affair in 2024.

Le Mans 2023 provisional results.pdf

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Ferarri 499P hypercar 2023 Le Mans winner.jpg (163.76 KiB) Viewed 1459 times