1987 24 Hours of Le Mans

The 55th 24 -hour Le Mans race, the Grand Prix d' Endurance les 54e 24 Heures du Mans, was held from June 13 to 14 in 1987 and at the Circuit des 24 Heures.

The race

The 24 - hour race at Le Mans in 1987 was to be the last work use of Porsche in the World Sportscar Championship in 1987. After this race the factory team stepped up to the final retreat almost nurmehr the 24 -hour race in the west of France at the end of 1998. Officially it was announced the withdrawal ahead of the 200 - mile race from Nuremberg, which took place two weeks after Le Mans. As justification for the planned 1988 entry into the North American CART series was specified and the full concentration of the Porsche engineers on the development of the Porsche 2708 CART. The superiority of the Jaguar XJR- 8, with which Jaguar the first World Cup races of the season at Jarama, Jerez, Monza and Silverstone won with influence, was not disputed by the Porsche team management.

After Le Mans Porsche brought two 962C with 3-liter 6-cylinder flat engine. From the previous teams of two three- driver teams were. Hans- Joachim Stuck and Derek Bell of Americans Al Holbert was in the car with starting number 17 Thus, the winning team from the previous year was united again. The second unit carriage drove Bob Wollek, Jochen Mass and Vern Schuppan. A third works car was reported in the GTX class. The Porsche 961 with starting number 203 René Metge drove, Claude Haldi and Kees Nierop. More 962C were reported by the team of Yves Courage, Kremer Racing, Brun Motorsport, Joest Racing and Richard Lloyd.

Favorites for overall victory were the Jaguar factory car. The XJR -8 with 7-liter V12 engine were driven by Eddie Cheever / Raul Boesel, Martin Brundle / John Nielsen and John Watson / Win Percy / Jan Lammers. Sauber Motorsport announced two Sauber C9, which were driven by Mike Thackwell, Henri Pescarolo, Hideki Okada, Chip Ganassi and Johnny Dumfries. TOM's, the use of Toyota team brought the 87C - L is a new prototype to Le Mans. The two cars with 2.1 -liter 4- cylinder turbo engine were occupied prominent. In the vehicle with the number 36 sat the former Formula 1 world champion Alan Jones, Geoff Lees and Eje Elgh. The cars with the number 37 piloted Tiff Needell, Masanori Sekiya, and Kaoru Hoshino. Even Nissan Motorsports International - with the Nissan R87E - and Mazdaspeed - with the 757 - brought to Le Mans prototypes.

In the C2 class a tough battle between Spice Engineering and the Curie Ecosse was expected. Fermín Vélez and Gordon Spice each had won on a Spice SE86C in the first three races of the season their class. At the Last race before Le Mans, the 1000 km race at Silverstone, but Ray Mallock and David Leslie had remained victorious on a Ecosse C286.

As in the race after a few rounds, the first Porsche failed - the Trailer of Wollek, Mass. and scales - had just 16 rounds of an engine failure - and the three Jaguar certainly were in the lead, the fears of Porsche Jaguar seemed to confirm, also Le Mans was not beating. But the British team got in the night problems. Only difference of Percy / Watson / Lammers cars after an accident while Win Percy was driving. After suffering a puncture on the Ligne Droite the Mulsanne at over 300 km / h battered parts flying off tire rear body parts of the Jaguar then flew away. As a result, the car lost traction and took off, turns in the air around its own axis and overturned after hitting the road several times. 600 meters after the start of the accident came to be the wreck. Except for the driver's cell without doors and windows, the car was completely destroyed. Except for a few scratches on the helmet, Percy rose from this pile of troops without injury or damage. January Lamb then moved into the car of Cheever and Boesel. The long lying in carriage by Martin Brendel and John Nielsen had to be shut down after 231 laps due to completely overheat cylinder. As the third Jaguar under hot running cylinders suffered Porsche celebrated a surprising double victory with the factory cars of stucco, Bell and Holpert before the Courage - 962C, which was driven by Jürgen Translucent, Pierre concocted t and Bernard de Dryver. Third place went to Pierre -Henri Raphanel, Yves Courage and Hervé Regout in Courage homemade Cougar C20. In the C2 class, it came to be expected duel between Spice Engineering and the Ecurie Ecosse, which ruled the Spice team itself.

Results

Pilot after Nations

Final ranking

1 2 replacement car does not qualify

Only in the message list

Here are the teams, drivers and vehicles that were originally registered for the competition, but it did not participate for various reasons.

Class winner

Race data

  • Reported: 63
  • Started: 48
  • Weather during the race weekend: warm, with light rain showers
  • Distance: 13.535 km
  • Honorary starter of the race:
  • Distance of the winning team: 4991.700 km
  • Winners section: 199.661 km / h
  • Pole Position: Bob Wollek - Porsche 962C (# 18) - 3.21.090 = 242.309 km / h
  • Fastest race lap: Johnny Dumfries - Sauber C9 (# 62) - 3.25.400 = 237.224 km / h
  • Race series: 5th round of the World Sportscar Championship
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