This weekend was the running of the greatest race on any calendar. People can say all they want about the Indianapolis 500 or the Monaco Grand Prix, the Le Mans 24 race is the big daddy of them all.
In the US, the SPEED channel did a great job with their coverage, but as always, its the cars that are the story in this race.
Audi took first, second and third with their diesel powered, you read that correctly, R15. It's a thing of beauty this car. It's got a turbocharged 5.5 liter V10 producing over 590 horsepower and 774 ft-lb of torque in a carbon chassis that weighs less than 2000 lbs. This year, the winning car had the distance record of 3362 miles in 24 hours. That's an average speed over 24 hours of 140mph. That's absurd....
The favored Peugeot team, who had faster cars, did not have the reliability of the Audi's and all three of them retired before the race finished.
The Aston Martin team rolled in in 6th place in the 007 car. How fitting.
I think this is the most extreme test of a car company's mettle. Porsche still reigns supreme here having won the race 16 times overall, but Audi is now level with Ferrari at 9 times....
An amazing spectacle.
If you want to see how the Audi team works, check out this free movie on iTunes.
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