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The original was posted on /r/hobbydrama by /u/joebutmynameisntjoe on 2024-03-22 13:59:46.
So this is a story all about how my life got flipped, turned upside down. Well not me, it was actually Mark Webber and Peter Dumbreck who’s lives (or cars rather) got flipped and turned upside down. This is the story of how Mercedes made a car so unstable, that it decided that staying on the ground is for suckers.
The Mans race innit
The year is 1999, and despite the worlds fears of inevitable extinction due to the evil computers, we still had to go racing. The race in question is the 24 Hours of Le Mans, one of the most important races in motorsport. Taking place at the monstrous, 13km long Circuit De La Sarthe, Le Mans is just one of those races that one knows of. It forms the triple crown of motorsport (the achievement of winning Le Mans, the Monaco Grand Prix and the Indy 500), only accomplished by F1 legend Graham Hill. It makes for compelling action and great storylines, including the famous rivalry between Ford and Ferrari in the 1950s and 1960s (which deserves its own post if it doesn’t have one). But in 1999, one funky looking car and its dubious engineering lead to one of the most spectacular series of events that motorsport has ever seen.
Endurance Racing! Its like Racing, but Longer!
Unlike other forms of racing, the objective for an endurance race of any kind is entirely different. The intuitive thing to assume is that the person who crosses the line first after an allotted amount of time or laps would be declared the winner. This however is not the case for endurance races. As the name suggests, it’s a marathon, not a shootout. As the race progresses over 24hrs, the cars will travel more and more distance. The winner of the 24hrs of Le Mans is the car that manages to cover the most total distance within 24hrs. This means that a car needs to be able to strike the right balance between being fast and being reliable. The fastest car on the circuit won’t win the race if it keeps breaking down and needing repairs. The most reliable car wont win if it doesn’t have the speed to cover a greater distance. As a result, the winners of Le Mans are always the team that manage to find that perfect mix between speed and endurance.
Yes, Mercedes once dominated outside of F1 too
In the modern era, the 24hrs of Le Mans is the flagship race of the WEC (World Endurance Championship). In the 90s however, it wasn’t attached to any particular championship. In 1998, Mercedes had been dominated the GT1 class, having won all 10 races of the 1998 FIA GT1 Championship. As a result, many teams withdrew from the competition, leaving the FIA to cancel the GT1 Championship for 1999. The ACO (who organized Le Mans) however had recently started their own racing class, known as LMGTP (Le Mans GT Prototype). For some context, a GT1 car was a racing car that had been derived from a production road car. The LMGTP class was a further evolution on the GT1 car, which moved further away from the production road car and had become a little too fast to compete in any other GT class. As a result, teams could design cars specifically to tackle the Circuit De La Sarthe, which would make for incredible racing. Thus, Mercedes got work building its masterpiece, the Mercedes CLR. It is based off of the Mercedes CLK GTR, their highly successful GT1 car from 1997, which in turn was based off the Mercedes CLK line of luxury coupes. Since the car didn’t have to follow the FIA’s homologation rules (the rules essentially state that road going versions of the car must be produced) teams could get down to building Le Mans specific monsters without worrying about how the car might function as a street legal car.
The Prep Phase
By May of 1999, the Mercedes CLR was ready for pre-season testing and qualifying for Le Mans. The CLR had been designed with two things in mind. Weight saving, and sleekness. The Circuit De La Sarthe is a mammoth 13km circuit, known for its extremely long straights, tight braking zones, high speed corners and undulating terrain. As a result, success at Le Mans can only be achieved if the car has the right mix of sleekness to prevent drag and increase speed, enough downforce to negotiate the high-speed corners, as well as endurance in the brakes and engine to be able to survive this constant cycle of extreme speed and hard braking. Thus, Mercedes designed a car that was long, sleek and low to the ground. Unfortunately for Mercedes, the car proved to be middling in May testing. The Mercedes designers made some changes before the race in June. This is when things began to go very, very wrong. It was at this time, that the Mercedes CLR began to take up an interest in aviation, to soar through the sky like a Top Gun pilot.
The newest advancement in aviation technology
Thursday qualifying begins, as the Mercedes cars number No.4, 5 and 6 looked to put their cars in a good starting spot for the race. However, very early into the session, the No.4 car driven by Mark Webber crashes violently into the barriers. The track marshals manage to safely extract Webber, who escapes with soreness in a few parts of his body, but relatively unharmed. The crash had occurred in a part of the track that was mostly inaccessible to the public and away from TV cameras. So, the Mercedes mechanics and engineers were shocked to hear Webbers accounts of the incident. According to Webber, he had been following an Audi in from of him and was looking to overtake. When the car reached the crest of a hill, and moved out of the slipstream of the Audi, the cars nose seemed to lift up into the air, and the whole car took to the sky and somersaulted backwards before landing back onto the track and sliding into the barriers. Webbers engineers initially didn’t quite believe that this could have been the case. Regardless, the No.4 car was repaired, and the team set their sights on the rest of the weekend.
On the morning of the race on Saturday, the teams set out for a warmup session before the race. However, yet again, Mark Webber and the No.4 CLR seemed to reach the crest of a hill, rotate upwards and somersault backwards in the air. The car landed on its back and skidded, before coming to a rest in a runoff area. Marshals managed to extract Webber again, with Webber thankfully receiving no serious injuries. This had scared Mercedes enough however to remove the No.4 car from the race. TV Cameras had not caught the crash, but images of the car lying on its roof were broadcasted around the world. There was something seriously wrong with the Mercedes CLR, and Mercedes were soon about to realize that it wasn’t just the No.4 car.
The other two Mercedes cars started 4th and 7th in the race. The race progressed normally until lap 76. Peter Dumbreck in the No.5 car was running in 3rd, trying to catch the Toyota of Thierry Boutsen in 2nd. As the CLR approached the Toyota over the crest of a hill, the CLR once again lifted off, somersaulting into the air before crashing into the trees off to the right side of the track. The crash was so violent that a tree branch pierced the cars monocoque, between the drivers seat and fuel tank. Dumbreck had been knocked unconscious by the initial impact, but awoke, and managed to escape the car. This time, the TV cameras had captured the whole scene. This proved to be the final nail in the coffin, as the final No.6 car was called back into the garage to retire, thus ending the race. BMW ended up winning the race, much to the chagrin of Mercedes.
A scientific flip
What happened to the Mercedes CLR is a game of physics. I will try and explain this as best I can with my 10th grade physics, but if anyone see’s anything that needs correcting, feel free to leave a comment.
In order for a car to go fast, it has to be sleek and aerodynamically slippery, so the air can run over the car with the least resistance. However, if you want your car to have downforce (essentially have your car pushed down onto the road by the air, making it more planted and more likely to go faster through corners), you need the air to have more resistance as it goes over the car. A rear wing (or spoiler) on the back of a car is an example of a device that increases downforce, by literally “spoiling” the air passing over the car. The trade-off is that this creates drag, which can slow the car down. For a race car to be successful, a balance must be found between its speed and its downforce. Mercedes had wanted to make this car as fast as possible. Since cars at Le Mans are at full throttle for over 85% of the lap, they prioritized their speed over the downforce. This is why you got a car that was so sleek, to increase the aerodynamic slipperiness. Here is where I am going to have to distinguish between overbody and underbody downfo…
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