Goede prestatie!
Inderdaad heeft de R8 wéér enorm veel potentie de LeMans te winnen.
Doet de RS Spyder ook mee aan LeMans? En deed deze mee in deze race?

Was die oranje Mercedes C111 uit de jaren zeventig ook niet een Diesel? Weet alleen nit hoe succesvol, zag er wel erg strak uit in die tijd!

Was die oranje Mercedes C111 uit de jaren zeventig ook niet een Diesel? Weet alleen nit hoe succesvol, zag er wel erg strak uit in die tijd!

The first cars were used to test out Mercedes' plans for rotary engines. The company had declared that it would put a rotary engine into production cars. It set its men in white coats the task of developing and proving such an engine. The three-rotor Wankel engine in the first C 111 of 1969 developed 280 hp, giving the car a top speed of 160mph.

The next iteration - the C 111-II - was fitted with a four-rotor Wankel engine with an output of 350 hp. It gave the car a top speed of 180mph and could accelerate to 60mph in 4.8 seconds.

The company introduced the second generation car to the public at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1970. It went down a storm with the punters who longed for a dramatic and beautiful successor to the 300 SL Gullwing coupe.

Production hopes were dashed though by ever more stringent emission legislation in a large number of countries and finally by the 1973 oil crisis. The pollutant emissions of Wankel engines were difficult to reduce and they also had a relatively high fuel consumption, neither of which was endearing to those campaigning for more environmentally friendly engines.

Wondering where to go next with the project, Mercedes struck upon idea of using diesel engines to set speed records and the engineers were sent back to their labs to sort it out. The engine suggested was the five-cylinder three-litre naturally aspirated diesel from the 240 D 3.0 and 300 D, an engine with plenty of potential for raising performance.

With a Garret turbocharger and an intercooler, the production engine’s output of 80 hp was boosted to a proud 190 hp to power the C 111-II. It was rolled out for a record attempt at the brand-new test track in Nardo on June 12, 1976. Four drivers, who took turns at two-and-a-half hour intervals, drove this car from one diesel record to the next over a time-span of 60 hours. In the end, a total of 16 new records had been established - those over 5,000 miles, 10,000 kilometers and 10,000 miles even were absolute world records, i.e. independent of the type of engine. Speed averaged around 150mph. The diesel had proved its ability to race.

Ja, maar zijn dat dan "klasse-resultaten", want dit is de overall winnaar toch?

Nope, algemeen klassement.