1983 Porsche 928s Wrecked And Parts Car To Go With on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Race Recap: 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans defines 'endurance'

Commenting on the rush of events that rocked beginning and end of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Paul Truswell of Radio Le Mans said "the race is about the ability to endure, not just the ability of drivers to do what they do for a long time." The entire race machine, all the way down to the pit boards and radios, has to survive the stress and abuse of the entire day. This was the race to prove those words.
There were two Toyotas, two Porsches and three Audis, five of the seven led the race at some point, six of the seven ran in the top three. Toyota will be hugely disappointed that it didn't win when its car and drivers were so, so strong, but they gave Audi the kind of scare we haven't seen since the best of Peugeot's days, and Toyota did a better job of it even in the loss. Porsche blew away everyone's expectations, falling 3.5 hours short of a fairy tale ending that would have made Disney cry.
But Le Mans doesn't really do fairy tales. Well, not that fairy tale. Audi's Twitter handle during the event was #welcomechallenges. As usual, Le Mans answered for the entire field.

Porsche 919 Hybrid used 500 gallons of fuel to win Le Mans

After 395 laps and over 3,300 miles covered, Porsche claimed its record seventeenth overall win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans this year. Those, however, were only a few of the numbers that went into the German team's landmark campaign, the fourth one-two victory in the history of its assault on the endurance race. And now it has released some of the other mind-boggling figures behind its win. Over the course of 24 grueling hours of competition, the winning Porsche 919 Hybrid averaged a staggering 139 miles per hour, reaching a top speed of over 211 mph. Along the way, the winning car changed gears over 25,000 times. We can imagine the drivers worked up quite a sweat in a cockpit, whose temperature topped 80 degrees, with less than a quart of water to drink during each stint between pit stops – the longest of which lasted over ten hours. Little wonder that Mark Webber lost over six and a half pounds by the end of the ordeal. Naturally, pit stops played a huge part in the campaign, and the team – whose headcount topped 120 – carried out 90 stops (30 per car) over the course of the race. All told, the three cars went through 116 tires, each car had its oil refilled entirely, and the winning car alone swallowed up 500 gallons of fuel. And that's not even counting the energy recuperated by the electric component of the hybrid powertrain, which would be enough to power a family home for three months. Those are just some of the most notable figures, but they give us a pretty good idea of the enormity of the whole endeavor. Want to read more? There's a whole list of numbers in the press release below. Related Video: The 17th overall victory for Porsche at the Le Mans 24-Hours 395 laps to victory Stuttgart. On Sunday, 14th June 2015, the trio of Earl Bamber (NZ), Nico Hulkenberg (GER) and Nick Tandy (GBR) took the 17th overall victory for Porsche at the Le Mans 24-Hours. They were followed across the line by the sister car of Timo Bernhard (GER), Brendon Hartley (NZ) and Mark Webber (AUS). This made it the fourth one-two result for the brand after achieving this in 1971, 1987 and 1998. But there are more interesting facts and figures about the race. • The winning team completed 395 laps (5,382,82 kilometres). This year's race was only two laps short of the longest distance covered in Le Mans back in 2010. • The average speed of the winning Porsche 919 Hybrid was 224.2 km/h.

Car companies may need to start curbing model proliferation

Looking at the current automotive landscape, especially from German makers, you quickly get the impression that less definitely isn't more. BMW alone offers its 3 Series platform in practically every segment possible, including the regular sedan and 4 Series Gran Coupe, which would seem to be direct competitors. Porsche might be the winner, though, with 20 different variants of the 911 listed for sale on its US website. However, some of this model madness might be reaching an end as companies begin cutting back spending or shifting money to other priorities.
According to Yahoo Finance, the offerings from the German automakers are up 25 percent over the past three years to over 200 models in Europe. The peak is expected to come around 2018 at 230 separate vehicles, according to consulting company PwC.
Amazingly, BMW, which is among the poster children for this model explosion, might be changing its tune. "I'm sure there will be points in the future where we look at certain cars and say, 'Maybe we need to think differently now,'" said head of sales Ian Robertson in an interview, according to Yahoo Finance. The statement certainly sounds shocking coming from a company rumored to have 23 front-wheel-drive vehicles all using a single platform on the way.