1982 24 Hours of Le Mans
As well as a significant anniversary, this was a watershed year for Le Mans, with the highly anticipated advent of the FIA's Group C regulations, the essence of which was to allow an open engine formula but a minimum weight for safety and a proscribed fuel allocation.
By dawn, the Porsche special of Joest Racing was established in third, which they held until ninety minutes from the end when the engine packed up, stranding Bob Wollek out on the track.
There were factory teams from Porsche, Ford, Lancia and Mazda; with racecar builders Lola, March and Rondeau bringing works cars.
[8] 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.
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.
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.
[20][10] The Kremer brothers' Porsche replica, the C-K5, had a 936 frame fitted with their own Kevlar-blended sharkfin chassis and had the transaxle and rear suspension from their previous year's unsuccessful 917 project.
They continued the productive relationship with Ted Field's Interscope Racing, and his regular driver Danny Ongais, along with the Kremer's 1979 Le Mans winner, Bill Whittington.
[30] Inspired by the achievements of Jean Rondeau, fellow Le Mans resident Yves Courage decided to build his own Group C car.
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.
[21][35] 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.
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.
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.
One of the distinctive long-tail models was sold to Gianpiero Moretti's Momo Racing, while the other went to John Fitzpatrick with its race-debut at Le Mans, with co-driver David Hobbs.
[42] The maximum speeds recorded on the Hunaudières speedtrap[44][46] 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.
[4][44][47] 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.
[44] Klaus Ludwig was the fastest Ford driver putting his car sixth on the grid (3:32.5), followed by Stuck's Sauber, the Kremer-Porsche and the Andretti Mirage in ninth.
The wrecked car then caught fire, but amazingly, Grohs was shaken but uninjured, and aided in a quick escape as the door had been torn off in the mayhem.
John Fitzpatrick's Joest special was a disappointing 26th (3:48.5) while the quickest Ferrari was the NART car with 3:54.1 (36th), outpaced by Bill Hagan's thundering Camaro in 32nd (3:52.6).
[49] 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.
[50] Ickx and Mass took to the front from the start with a hot pace, chased hard by the Rondeaux of Migault and Jaussaud, Stuck's Sauber and Ludwig in the Ford.
Both works Lancias were immediately in trouble with faulty fuel pumps and in the first two laps both cars stopped on-track for running repairs, taking an hour each to get back to the pits.
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.
[22] At 7.35pm, British hopes took a dive when a slow puncture blew a tyre on Tiff Needell's works Nimrod while he was running ninth and travelling at top speed on the back straight.
[51] The severe vibrations inherent in the long-stroke Cosworth DFL engine started causing a myriad of problems: Schlesser's clutch needed repair only for the Sauber to then refuse to restart.
Aside from the third-placed Rondeau of Migault/Spice/Lapeyre, the two other team cars had a miserable time with a number of stops to fix fuel and electrical problems and leaving them well back in the field.
A number of cars were starting to show signs of wear: the Nimrod was smoking, dropping to eighth; either side of midday, the Charles Ivey 935 that had been running 6th lost 18 laps in three pits-tops to repair the turbo.
[37] Thierry Perrier's BMW had got as high as 14th in the early morning but was disqualified for doing a full gearbox replacement, a fundamental component, not allowed to be changed in-race.
Despite scaring the Nimrod team when it stopped at the Porsche Curves at 1.30pm, Ray Mallock got enough fuel pressure in the engine to get moving again, and made it back to the pits to be repaired.
Cudini had stopped at the Ford Chicane but managed to get back to the pit where they waited for the final laps, eventually coasting out to finish ninth.
