18 replies to this topic

[TDC]

There's a brief listing of top mulsanne trap speeds from 1961 at the Mulsanne's Corner website, but I'm curious to know if, aside from individual magazine accounts through the years, there's any other source that is more complete and comprehensive and where top speeds from 1923 onward are recorded, as well. Ideally, it would not be just the fastest. Anyone have any ideas? TDC

[dretceterini]

I don't think official trap speeds were recorded until after WW2.

[TDC]

I think you're right, but there's always a chance someone has collected speeds claimed through the years. Hope springs eternal! TDC

[Hieronymus]

I think the highest speed ever was obtained by Roger Dorchy in a Peugeot in the 80s....they claimed to have reached the 400km/h mark.

[jcbc3]

Originally posted by Hieronymus
I think the highest speed ever was obtained by Roger Dorchy in a Peugeot in the 80s....they claimed to have reached the 400km/h mark.

rather a WM-Peugeot, IIRC.


edit:

Wikipedia
Don't know how official this one is


and a picture from www.racingsportscars.com: WM P87

Problem is that in the annals the car is listed as the P88, but Dorchy apparently drove the P87 in the 1988 Le Mans race.

[Pedro 917]

Are we talking about the speed at the Mulsanne corner or about the top speed on the "Les Hunaudières" straight?
I know Jackie Oliver reached a top speed of 381 km/h (or was it 396?) on the long straight in the Porsche 917K during the pre-qualifying runs in 1971.

[Twin Window]

Originally posted by jcbc3

rather a WM-Peugeot, IIRC.

Indeed. From memory, that's all they set out to achieve.

[Ray Bell]

I don't think that's necessarily so...

It was a prime objective, and I think they set up one car to do the top speed. But they had more than one car in the race, presumably to get some sort of finish.

[ed holly]

I remember Frank Gardner a few years ago came down to a HSRCA meeting in Sydney and told of some of his fabulous exploits, with that wonderful style of his.

I particularly remember him saying that they had jetted the big 7 litre engine's carbies (or was it injection) in the GT40 to make make max power at around 3.00am when they knew the due point and the temperature would come close together. And that usually spells wispy fog. High density air, engines love it.

Max power, 7 litres of grunt delivered 246. 3 mph , that's around 397kph.

This was at the time the quickest anyone had ever travelled down Mulsanne straight, and I don't think it was broken for a long long time.

Not sure of the year, can anyone fill that in.

Just think of it 246 mph, that's nearly twice as quick as I've ever been without wings....and to do it in the night-time with vehicles topping out at half that speed....

Ed

[jcbc3]

Fastest top speeds since 1961. (Don't know how official this one is)


They have the fastest Ford speed at 343 km/h in 1967.

[isynge]

Originally posted by Ray Bell
I don't think that's necessarily so...

It was a prime objective, and I think they set up one car to do the top speed. But they had more than one car in the race, presumably to get some sort of finish.

Being at work I can't directly confirm this, but I seem to recall in Time and Two Seats the second WM was referred to as "fortuitously" retiring shortly afterwards so the whole team could celebrate Dorchy's effort.

[Twin Window]

Arriving at the *kink* at 240+ mph must have been a blast...

[philippe7]

Originally posted by Pedro 917
Are we talking about the speed at the Mulsanne corner or about the top speed on the "Les Hunaudières" straight?

"Hunaudières" must be unpronoucable for an English speaker, Luc, I guess that's why our friends always call it the "Mulsanne" straight , which is indeed wrong ;)

I know Jackie Oliver reached a top speed of 381 km/h (or was it 396?) on the long straight in the Porsche 917K during the pre-qualifying runs in 1971.

I read the same at the time, but it was in an all white 917 LH if I remember well ( just nitpicking....)

[petefenelon]

Originally posted by isynge


Being at work I can't directly confirm this, but I seem to recall in Time and Two Seats the second WM was referred to as "fortuitously" retiring shortly afterwards so the whole team could celebrate Dorchy's effort.

The Welter effort always amuses me, at my first Le Mans in 2000 they had one of the little single-storey garages at the start of the pits and they spent most of their time sitting on top of it with a plethora of garden furniture and a seemingly copious meal. The car seemed to make the occasional foray onto the track.

I'm all for amateurs in motor sport, but not ones that always seem to get a Le Mans entry despite never achieving much!

[Mallory Dan]

Don't forget the WM lead, on merit, very early on in 84, against Lancias and private 956s - Roger Dorchy again IIRC.

[doc knutsen]

Originally posted by Mallory Dan
Don't forget the WM lead, on merit, very early on in 84, against Lancias and private 956s - Roger Dorchy again IIRC.

Indeed, and took out one of the Porsches at the end of the Hunaudieres, was it the Richard Lloyd
car? Roger left the corner with a very mangled set of front bodywork...the Porsche continued, albeit delayed. Lap one, if memory serves....and was it Lammers in the Porsche?
The 400km/h effort was in 1988, they took off most of the downforce and wound the boost right up
in order to get into the record books at 400klicks....iirc they were timed at 406. At the time, nobody had done 400km/h before, although some cars came pretty close.

[2F-001]

Didn't Sauber also manage to hit 250mph (400+ km/h) some time later than M. Dorchy? (Possibly in practice rather than the race.)

[TDC]

Yes, most of the modern top speeds are listed on the Mulsanne's Corner website. It's the older ones that I was hoping there might be some source for. TDC

[Ralliart]

In the film "Porsche 956", filmed during the '83 season, narrator Brian Kreisky says that the top speed that year was 246 mph on the Mulsanne. I believe Motor Sport did a feature a few years back on Dorchy's speed attempt.