Race
The 1996 race was won by a car that was considered by Porsche to not be a factory-backed entry, instead run by Joest Racing. Porsche themselves sent a team to compete in the GT1 class with a new mid-engined Porsche 911 GT1 with the intent of winning the race overall, defeating custom-built Le Mans Prototypes. Joining in the GT1 class were a fleet of customer McLaren F1 GTRs, the defending race winners. However Joest's prototype was born from the shell of a TWR-designed Jaguar XJR-14 racing car, modified to an open top design by Tom Walkinshaw Racing, and fitted with a Porsche 962 engine. The resulting TWR Porsche WSC-95, while not being the fastest car on track, won when the manufacturer-backed teams hit mechanical troubles.
Read more about this topic: 1996 24 Hours Of Le Mans
Famous quotes containing the word race:
“There is a strange and mighty race of people called the Americans who are rapidly becoming the coldest in the world because of this cruel, maneating idol, lucre.”
—Edward Dahlberg (1900–1977)
“But—if you cannot give us ease—
Last of the race of them who grieve
Here leave us to die out with these
Last of the people who believe!
Silent, while years engrave the brow;
Silent—the best are silent now.”
—Matthew Arnold (1822–1888)
“There are times when they seem so small! And then again, although they never seem large, there is a vastness behind them, a past of indefinite complexity and marvel, an amazing power of absorbing and assimilating, which forces one to suspect some power in the race so different from our own that one cannot understand that power. And ... whatever doubts or vexations one has in Japan, it is only necessary to ask oneself: “Well, who are the best people to live with?””
—Lafcadio Hearn (1850–1904)