1992 24 Hours of Le Mans
The 1992 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 60th Grand Prix of Endurance, taking place at the Circuit de la Sarthe, France, on the 20 and 21 June 1992.
With the withdrawal of the Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz teams, it looked to be a Peugeot vs Toyota contest, each with very strong driver combinations, with the new Mazdas there waiting for any slip-ups.
Weidler led for the first hour, but a slow fuel-stop let the Peugeot of Derek Warwick, Yannick Dalmas and Mark Blundell into the lead.
Indeed, in the close-season, the FISA (Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile) Commission had recommended the cancellation of the series as the entries had been desultory and event promoters were put off by the exorbitant fees the body demanded.
[1][5] As the deadline approached, the premier race had a feeble 21 cars entered from those two classes so once again, the ACO (Automobile Club de l'Ouest) was forced to improvise.
FISA gave their grudging approval of the reality but stipulated that the cars could only come from marques in the SWC past or present – which allowed Jaguar, Toyota, Spice and rotary Mazdas but excluded the Porsche 962.
[1][6][3] Entries were still lacking, so the deadline was extended again, and a final effort was made, opening up a fourth class to the low-cost, low-powered sports cars that ran in national European series – including the French Peugeot 905 Spider, Italian Coupe Alfa Romeo and British Pro-Sport 3000.
Only three major companies remained committed to the Championship: Peugeot, Mazda and Toyota with their five new SWC entries bolstered by extra works cars for Le Mans.
[11] The Peugeots were also the first cars to race with xenon headlights, using an electric arc rather than a metal filament giving a very bright, pure-white beam that could extend over 300 metres.
A third car, driven by Alain Ferté, Eric van der Poele and ex-Mercedes driver Karl Wendlinger was also entered for this race only.
The winning team of 1991, Volker Weidler, Johnny Herbert and Bertrand Gachot, had one car, again decked out in the same orange-&-green Renown livery as their previous steed.
Due to mechanical problems, they were unable to start at the Silverstone round and so arrived at le Mans with not even two hours of track-time to shake down the new car.
[25] Shin Kato's SARD team had been a stalwart customer over the years, and the drivers were the regular trio running in the Japanese championship: Eddie Irvine, Roland Ratzenberger and Eje Elgh.
Marc Pachot Racing brought one of the last chassis made, a C289, to Le Mans – eligible for Category 2 as ALD had run the full championship in 1991.
Their lead car had an experienced line-up: Le Mans winners John Nielsen (1990) and Manuel Reuter (1989) were joined by Giovanni Lavaggi.
[29] The driver line-up was the same as the past two years, with co-owner Jürgen Lässig joined by Otto Altenbach and Primagaz concessionaire Pierre Yver.
[33] Welter Racing was the successor to the small French WM-Peugeot team that had achieved Le Mans immortality in 1988 when they had broken the 400 kp/h mark on the Hunaudières straight.
[22] In contrast, the TOMs team had only a single T-car and bamboozled the stewards constantly changing its race-number as each driver-squad (legally) took a turn to set their race-times.
After starting from the pitlane, Taylor had got the BRM up to 17th position, but then the troublesome gearbox jammed spinning him off at the Ford Chicane costing many minutes trying to find a gear to limp across to the pits.
Extraordinary pitwork got the two damaged cars back on the track in less than an hour, albeit a dozen laps down or so, driven by van der Poele and Brabham.
In the fourth hour, the track was completely dry and World Champion Teo Fabi started putting in very fast times as the Toyotas were finally able to get onto slicks and show their potential.
[41][49][42][45][43] In the improving weather, the leading cars were pushing hard, but that in turn led to mistakes being made: Herbert had several episodes with loose bodywork then lost 20 minutes replacing a holed radiator.
[49] This pattern continued on toward midday, with periodic misfires, gearbox and engine problems thwarting the attempts of the leading cars to string together a reliable driving stint.
[49] After the second car's demise, Sandro Sala was swapped into the remaining Mazda, with the tall Gachot having found the cramped cockpit a very uncomfortable experience.
Yet again, the unruly crowd surged over the barriers and blocked the track so he could not officially take the chequered flag, as the cars got diverted to the park fermé instead.
[50] Kenny Acheson nursed his overheating Toyota to second, keeping the rapidly closing Peugeot of Mauro Baldi at arm's length to get home by half a lap.
[34] It was only Orion spyder that endured – after needing an engine rebuild from a blown gasket, and rear suspension repair, it was always trailing at the back of the field.
[50][10] Reliability was far better than many expected and the rain had reduced the maximum speeds, which helped the “atmo” engines survive, as well as easing the fuel economy of the turbos.
[50][48][53] The Mazda pitcrew got a special prize from the ACO for changing out a broken gear lever, holed radiator and faulty hub in less than an hour for Johnny Herbert.
[9] With minimal regular opposition, Ferdinand de Lesseps and his Chamberlain Engineering Spice won every round and was crowned the one, and only, FIA Cup Champion.
