1982 24 Hours of Le Mans

This year saw the advent of the new Group C regulations – a formula essentially of open engine capacity but instead on weight and fuel consumption restrictions. The concept had been trialled by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) in the 1975 race, based on ideas proposed by Belgian racing journalist, engineer and 1960 Le Mans winner Paul Frère. At the time it was derided by the press as the “fuel-economy race”. But it would go some way to negate the predominance of the turbo engines, despite the x1.4 modifier to capacity. The two-seater cars would have a maximum amount of fuel available in a race so there had to be a trade-off between more power from bigger engines, the heavy fuel consumption of high-boost turbo engines and the fuel-efficiency of smaller, lighter cars. A minimum weight of 800 kg was put in to maintain structural safety and there were defined dimensions of 100 cm minimum height, maximum 200 cm width and 480 cm length. These dimensions mirrored those of the ACO's GTP regulations. There was also a compulsory 100x80 cm flat floor area required between the axles to try to limit the undertray "ground-effects" performance enhancements. Fuel tanks were a maximum of 100 litres capacity and no more than 25 fuel stops were allowed in the race for each car – a maximum of 2600 litres from the start. The windscreen regulations were such that the drag effect would almost guarantee that any car would need to have a closed-bodyshell and not open-top. With Group C taking over, it made the Group 6 and Le Mans GTP classes redundant. Group B would supersede the Group 4 and Group 5 GT classes. ==Entries==

Whereas other races in the World Championship needed their fields bolstered by Group 6 cars “grandfathered” into the entry list, the Le Mans list had very strong support for the new Group C with 33 entries, coming from a wide variety of manufacturers and racing specialists. There were factory teams from Porsche, Ford, Lancia and Mazda; with racecar builders Lola, March and Rondeau bringing works cars. Finally a raft of small privateer specialists brought their own Group C designs. These amounted to 30 "works" entries, the most seen at Le Mans for many years. However, as an interim year, to complete the field the ACO accepted entries from IMSA in the GTX and GTO categories, and had limited spaces for the former FIA classes. The team had a computer in the pits and digital flow meters in the cars to give them an edge in calculating the fuel consumption. Three cars were ready just in time, run by new team manager Peter Falk. Jacky Ickx was back out of retirement and a full-time works driver again with Derek Bell as his co-driver. The second car had Jochen Mass and Vern Schuppan while the one-off third car had Barth, Hurley Haywood and Al Holbert. The fortunes of Le Mans local Jean Rondeau had taken a big upward turn, selling several vehicles to customers. This enabled development of a Group C ground-effect car, the M482, and embarking on a full WEC season. Until ready, the team adapted the existing design to Group C spec, as the M382. They had the best possible start, winning the opening round at Monza with an updated M379C car, and came into the race as the leader in the championship. For Le Mans, three of the M382s were prepared, fitted with the bigger Cosworth DFL: the race-winning chassis would be driven by François Migault, Gordon Spice and Xavier Lapeyre. The premier car had Henri Pescarolo and Jean-Pierre Jaussaud (with five wins between them) while the third car had Rondeau himself with rally-specialist Jean Ragnotti. There were also three customer Rondeaux; Christian Bussi had an M382 with a 3.3-litre DFL, while those of Pierre Yver and former team-driver Jacky Haran were older M379Cs with 3-litre DFV engines. Much like at WM, some of the R&D team at Mercedes-Benz got involved in Group C racing as a sideline. Swiss engineer Peter Sauber was working with composite-technology company Seger & Hoffmann, stepping up from their BMW M1 collaboration to Group C. They contacted the Mercedes technicians to develop their chassis design and aerodynamics. The resultant SHS C6 was fitted with a 3.96-litre Cosworth tuned by Heini Mader who got it to 540 bhp. Two were built, and sold to Gerhard Schneider (who had bought a Sauber-tuned M1) and Swiss slot-machine magnate Walter Brun. Both cars would be managed for the race by Schneider's GS Sport racing team. Brun drove his car with Siegfried Muller Jr, while the other had team-regular Hans-Joachim Stuck joined by Jean-Louis Schlesser and Dieter Quester. With the Porsche 956 not available for customer sale until the next year, both Joest and Kremer were given copies of the Porsche 936 factory plans to build their own replica versions. Reinhold Joest fitted the new 936CJ with a 2.5-litre turbo engine, and ran it alongside the older 936/77, to give Bob Wollek the DRM championship. Purchased by the Belgian Martin brothers, they ran it in the WEC with Wollek, with their red and white Belga tobacco sponsorship. After they got a third at Silverstone, Philippe Martin crashed the car heavily at Nürburgring. The rebuild gave the engineers the chance to fit a long tail and low-drag nose for the circuit. March Engineering was already making an impact in the American single-seater CART series. It entered Group C picking up the BMW M1C design targeted for the IMSA competition. That car was substantially reworked by Adrian Newey to be able to accommodate any engine into its monocoque chasses. The first choice was a Chevrolet 'small-block' 5.8-litre V8, which put out 550 bhp. The first chassis was bought by Bob Garretson as GTP-spec, and had performed well in America. Bobby Rahal and Jim Trueman had finished second at Sebring and were joined by Skeeter McKitterick. Two more chassis were sold to American teams while the fourth chassis was entered by the works team for Le Mans, to be driver by Eje Elgh, Patrick Nève and Jeff Wood. The 'privateer' car was sponsored by Aston Martin saviour Victor Gauntlett's company Pace Petroleum. Inspired by the achievements of Jean Rondeau, fellow Le Mans resident Yves Courage decided to build his own Group C car. The Cougar C01 had an aluminium monocoque from the same company supplying Rondeau. The chassis was designed by former Ligier and Renault engineer Jean-Yves Charles, and it was fitted with a 3.3-litre Cosworth DFL tuned by Swiss engine-specialist Heini Mader. The previous year he had raced with Jean-Philippe Grand, an agent for Primagaz and they teamed up again with Primagaz sponsorship along with Michel Dubois as the third driver. Group 6 (2-litre) Although the large Group 6 cars had been superseded by Group C, the FIA allowed the 2-litre cars entry to help keep the fields up (and did not prevent new models from entering). They would not count points towards the Manufacturer's Championship, but could to the Driver's title. Ever the opportunists, Lancia produced a new, open-top car for the Group 6 class. The Lancia LC1 had a chassis built by Dallara, with skirts and ground effects (both banned in Group C). It was fitted with the same 1425cc turbo-engine that was in their Group 5 Beta Montecarlo, which was now tuned to put out 440 bhp. Without the weight limitations or fuel restrictions of Group C it could still reach 300 kp/h (185 mph) and was a genuine contender, having won two of the three rounds outright. However, many in autosport saw it as a cynical exploitation of the rules. The Martini team brought back their regular Formula One drivers for the race: Michele Alboreto and Teo Fabi with Rolf Stommelen and Riccardo Patrese and Piercarlo Ghinzani with Hans Heyer. Group 5 With Group 5 being phased out, the over and under 2-litre divisions were merged into a reduced class this year. It was dominated by four Porsche 935s. Dieter Schornstein's Vegla team again worked with Reinhold Joest to run their 935J, while Kremer-kit cars were entered by German Edgar Dören and last year's class winner, Charles Ivey Engineering. The fourth car was Claude Haldi's four-year old 934/5. Against the Porsches there was limited opposition. The only BMW this year came from Hugues de Chaunac's French ORECA team. The Scuderia Sivama di Galliate had bought a pair of Lancia Montecarlos from the factory, to by run in the WEC by the Scuderia Vesuvio team of Daniele Audetto. For Le Mans, they worked with the race-entries of two French privateer regulars, Thierry Perrier and Jean-Marie Lemerle who would share the driving with the Scuderia drivers. Team manager Tim Schenken had a Joest 2.6-litre engine to fit for race. Mazdaspeed was still preparing its Group C project, so in the interim worked with the Mooncraft company to develop the RX-7. The uprated RX-7 254i was more aerodynamic and its twin-rotaries could put out 320 bhp to reach 275 kp/h (170 mph) Cars were prepared for European racing by Tom Walkinshaw Racing. Walkinshaw led one car while works driver Yojiro Terada led the other. Despite a disappointing run the previous year, Billy Hagan's Stratagraph team returned with two big Chevrolet Camaros. Both cars were given smaller engines and front and rear disc brakes. Last year's car (with a 5.7L V8) was an aerodynamic nose and high rear aerofoil. It was raced by NASCAR veterans Dick Brooks and Hershel McGriff. Hagan's car had the 5.4L V8 detuned to 570 bhp and had regular racing bodywork. ==Practice and Qualifying==

Overall, the weather was good for the two four-hour qualifying sessions, aside from losing the last half-hour because of a short, sharp thunderstorm. A new feature this year, was an additional 45-minute warm-up on the Saturday morning, as a last chance to shake down any engine changes or adjustments after the practice sessions. Once again, Jacky Ickx stamped his authority over the rest of the field with the fastest qualifying lap early in the first of the two practice sessions, and posting the highest speed down the Hunaudières straight. The 355 kp/h (221 mph) was a bit slower than his car the previous year, but the better handling gave a faster overall lap-time (3:28.4). The Pescarolo/Jaussaud team left it very late: after the Saturday morning warm-up, a fuel system problem forced them to do a five-hour full engine change in a fraction of that time, finishing just ten minutes before the deadline. ==Race==

Start Race-day was sunny and warm, drawing a huge crowd of 250,000. This year, the honorary starter was Luigi Chinetti, three-time Le Mans winner and founder of the North American Racing Team. Although the mechanics could make the necessary modifications, the decision was final and Richard Lloyd, as first reserve, was given fifteen minutes' notice to get his car on the grid. The first retirement, within the first half-hour, was the Grid-Plaza with piston failure. Keegan, in the Ultramar Lola, was running a strong sixth, splitting the three Porsches, until he had to stop to have a loose door secured. Pignard had handed over to Raulet in the 9th-placed WM, but the sister car would lose over half an hour in the pits after Dorchy tangled with Bussi's spinning Rondeau while trying to lap him. They would be joined by their teammate before midnight after breaking their third starter motor. Wollek stayed in contact in third, while the Ferrari had moved up to fourth. The Nimrod had lost time when the cold dawn air had cracked a front brake under heavy deceleration for the Mulsanne corner. Fitzpatrick's 935 had just taken over fourth at 6.15am, when it spluttered into the pits with a blown head gasket. Instead of repairing the engine, the crew disconnected the offending cylinder and sent them back out on five, running at least 15 seconds a lap off pace. Both Camaros finished, although the McGriff/Brooks car was not classified after losing four hours in the pits for a gearbox rebuild and completing just the one lap in the final hour The win gave Ickx an unprecedented sixth outright victory, and with Porsche achieving its most dominant race yet, winning every class. It included the 1-2-3 for the works team, being the only team to have all their cars finish, and set a very high bar for other manufacturers to beat them in the new Group C regime. ==Official results==

Finishers Results taken from Quentin Spurring's book, officially licensed by the ACO Class Winners are in Bold text. • Note *: Not Classified because did not cover sufficient distance (70% of the winner) by the race's end. Did Not Finish Did Not Start Class Winners • Note: setting a new class distance record. Index of Energy Efficiency • Note: Only the top ten positions are included in this set of standings. Statistics Taken from Quentin Spurring's book, officially licensed by the ACO • Pole Position –J. Ickx, #1 Porsche 936/81– 3:28.4secs; • Fastest Lap –J. Ragnotti, #12 Rondeau M379C – 3:36.9secs; • Winning Distance – • Winner's Average Speed – • Attendance – almost 250 000 ;Citations ==References==