[LM24] Which is the WORST car to race at Le Mans in the Last 10 years?

[rdjones]

We have a current poll runing,which is the best car to have raced at Le Mans, so now let turn the question round:-
Which is the WORST car to race at Le Mans in the Last 10 years?

I have only chossen the last 10 years as if we where to go back to 1923 there would be lots of bad cars.

[paulzinho]

Phew thank god 92 is the cut off!!!!!

[Nordic]

Has to the Panoz. alot of hype surrounded this effort, only for it to fail big time.
The rest either did will or we where suprised when it turned up.

[Aysedasi]

I voted for the Lucchini, as it was an even crappier little spyder than the......... (no, I can't bring to myself to insult it, bearing in mind the burgeoning membership of the new fan club!).

Actually, it probably should have been the MIG, a complete waste of an entry.

[Aysedasi]

.....or how about the Bellefroid Orion? (92).

[rdjones]

What's that Aysedasi, go on say it u mean the.........Deborah, the horry little thing they are they should all be put together and burned so that they do see the light of day again ! ! !

[Nordic]

Re the MIG, during Pre Q it ran well with a Lambo engine in it, but for the race it turned up with a Motori Moderi ( or some such ) that was hopeless. the car flexed so much that the drivers could not change gear!!
I quite liked it and admired the effort.
We must not forget Mr Canerys power boat engined Eagle....what a monster

[Aysedasi]

Originally posted by rdjones
What's that Aysedasi, go on say it u mean the.........Deborah, the horry little thing they are they should all be put together and burned so that they do see the light of day again ! ! !

Well really rd! I'm ashamed of you! Actually, our Tourists know that I christened the Debora with a new name back in 92 when I first saw it - B.A.D. - the Bloody Awful Debora.

But, of course, I've grown to love it since then.......

(By the way - I don't think it's got an 'h' on the end, has it?)

[rdjones]

Sorry to all Aysedasi and all the Deborah fans out there, it is just my personal view and not that of the members of tentenths.com

[Big Stu]

What about the Gillete from a few years back.... Looked a bit like a hard-top seven but it made such an impact on me I can remember little else about it!

[FG1]

Is the Merc the CLR from '99? The one responsible for the Guerney on the wings of the prototypes and the removal of the Mulsanne hump. Got to be a contender that one!

FG

[rdjones]

No the CLR was from '99 and you are right they did have a bit of habit of becoming plane. The cars from '98 where know as CLK-GTR LM which were both out in the first three hours with Engine problems.

I my opioin pretty bad cars, even with the might Merc behind them.

[cybersdorf]

Toyota GT-One?

[SL]

Want a reminder on how bad or good they really were ?

Just found this remarkable site http://gto-racing.nexen.net/Nouveau_dossier/ it is in French but has photo's of just about every sportscar you can think of, except one, sorry Paul but it might be worth looking to see if I missed it.

SL

[Kid Prozac]

Re the MIG, during Pre Q it ran well with a Lambo engine in it, but for the race it turned up with a Motori Moderi ( or some such ) that was hopeless. the car flexed so much that the drivers could not change gear!!
I quite liked it and admired the effort.
We must not forget Mr Canerys power boat engined Eagle....what a monster

i remember reading about the canary in ken wells book, said it was tuned by a company that made drag race engine(!) and lasted about as long as one of them!!

the MiG had a porsche road car gearbx i think, which wasnt up to the demands of the power available, hence the flexing.

dunno why they chnaged to Motori Modena (sponsorship?) they made he minardi f1 engines for a year i think, and had a habit of not working! same with their q scale rc engine.

does anyone have any pictures of the MiG cos the only one ive seen is of the cockpit, and i really want to see what this car looks like.

what about the norma w12, also in 1990. why anyone would want to use the life w12 f1 engine i dont kow, that barely lasted to the end of the pitlane in f1 guise, were the team mad to think it would last 24 hours!! also ken wells said that no one believed it actually existed as there was never any sign of it in the paddock until scrutineering, anyone got any pics of this one as well?

[SL]

Kid,

I have a photo of the MIG's in the garage at Le Mans, let me know your e mail and I will send it to you.

SL

[Lee Janotta]

I didn't see the MiG, so I can't comment. The Panoz LMP-07 stands out in recent memory, though. I root for the team, but the car was an absolute distaster! A tortoise on the track, and both cars were sidlined by rain!!! It was a bad concept from day 1, the guys who designed it should have been flogged. No way a 4.0L V8 beats a detuned F1 engine, or 4.0L turbos, or a 6.0L anything!!!

Maybe if the cars had run constistently the entire race, they could have had a top 5 finish, but it certainly wasn't the case. And in sprint races, where the LMP1 shone, it was an absolute embarrasment.

[Speedworx]

The Panoz 07 was really horrid.

[fausto]

The Mig M100!
About the engine: when the car started life as the MCA Centenaire they planned to use a Lamborghini V12 engine but, apparently, Lamborghini wasn't happy with it so they went looking for an engine and made a deal with Carlo Chiti company.
I remember seeing an original "road" Centenaire, it was moving at a very slow speed, making horrible rumours....
And a picture, from Autosport, of the Mig M100 at the pre-race test days: the ride height was just incredible for a 90s sportscar....
However, after LM, they reworked the car, that contested the Vallelunga 6 Hours, the results didn't change.....

[Fab]

Originally posted by Aysedasi

I christened the Debora with a new name back in 92 when I first saw it - B.A.D. - the Bloody Awful Debora.

But, of course, I've grown to love it since then.......

Another bad comment about our favorite car, and a fullfill an entire page of Debora... without an H !

[AllonFS]

The Mercedes CLR '99. No excuses from such a big organisation as Mercedes - particularly with the decision to still race after the 2 Webber flights.

And thanks to them we lost the hump and if the rumours are true may get another sodding chicane on Indianapolis. MIGs and Deboras ete at least have the very good excuse they are low budget outfits, Mercedes should know better.

[kdr]

i see ayse didn't rise to cybers "toyota gt-one" jibe...

[KA]

Originally posted by Kid Prozac



what about the norma w12, also in 1990. why anyone would want to use the life w12 f1 engine i dont kow, that barely lasted to the end of the pitlane in f1 guise, were the team mad to think it would last 24 hours!! also ken wells said that no one believed it actually existed as there was never any sign of it in the paddock until scrutineering, anyone got any pics of this one as well?

I've definitely seen a photo of it somewhere- it was sitting on axle stands in the team's awning in the paddock, which was pretty much the only place it ever went- from the account I've read, getting the engine to last to the end of the pitlane would have been an achievement- apparently at Le Mans they couldn't even get it to fire up........

1990 was a classic year for bad cars at LM- both the Eagle and the Norma.....!

In terms of failure rated against money spent etc, then the Merc CLR has to be a contender- with their track record, how could they have got it so wrong???

[KA]

Originally posted by paulzinho
Phew thank god 92 is the cut off!!!!!

I wouldn't have called your Dad's Tiga the worst car to run at Le Mans....

[paulzinho]

Hehe thanks!!!

86 was a bit of a tough one though....