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Genesis, you would possibly assume, will change into the primary South Korean producer to compete on the Le Mans 24 Hours when its forthcoming LMDh takes to the grid in 2026. However you’d be mistaken. Thirty years earlier than the Hyundai model’s meant arrival there was one other marketing campaign at Circuit de la Sarthe by a automotive maker from the Asian nation.
SsangYong made an assault on the French enduro again in 1996. It was an intriguing one, not least as a result of it was put collectively by an ex-System 1 driver with a Le Mans victory on his CV.
Bertrand Gachot, the winner at Le Mans in 1991 with Mazda who loved (or maybe endured) a nomadic F1 profession with Onyx, Rial, Coloni, Jordan, Larrousse and Pacific, was within the technique of hanging up his helmet and on the lookout for new profession alternatives when he was recruited by a producer that was simply breaking into Europe. It had began promoting vehicles within the UK in 1994.
“I wished to get out of driving and into enterprise,” says the Belgian, who had raced at Le Mans in 1994 and ’95 with Honda throughout his remaining seasons in F1 with Pacific. “I felt that I’d achieved my bit, had my time.”
To that impact, he travelled to South Korea with Ko Gotoh, who had been a shareholder in Pacific and, says Gachot, “had enterprise pursuits everywhere in the world”. A gathering with SsangYong resulted in a request to take a model that got here into being in 1988 to Le Mans.
“They have been an upcoming model and wished to alter their picture, which had been extra focussed on issues like vehicles,” recollects Gachot, whose time in F1 will at all times be remembered for the race he didn’t do somewhat than any of the 47 he did – Michael Schumacher made his grand prix debut with Jordan at Spa in 1991 when the house driver was incarcerated for assaulting a London automotive driver. “They requested if we might take them to Le Mans and gave us a really small price range. It was a loopy challenge.”
Gachot (left) wished to cease driving after two making an attempt seasons in F1 with Pacific, however was lured again by new Le Mans challenge
Photograph by: LAT Photographic
Gachot says the deal provided didn’t stretch to seven figures and got here with just one stipulation: no matter automotive was taken to Le Mans bearing SsangYong’s identify needed to be powered by a Mercedes engine. That was as a result of it had a know-how tie-up with the German producer and used its powerplants throughout its vary.
Gachot’s response to SsangYong’s request was to pick out the quirky central seat LMP2 chassis constructed by Welter Racing, certainly one of which had claimed outright pole for Le Mans in ’95. Into it he put a Mercedes two-litre four-cylinder engine in turbocharged type rather than the unique Peugeot unit.
Gachot struck a cope with Nicholson-McLaren Engines within the UK to show the four-pot Mercedes highway engine right into a racing powerplant. “I requested them what they wanted, and so they stated, ‘5 blocks however you need to get them from a scrapyard’,” he recollects.
He now had an engine to go along with a WR chassis of 1994 classic – and solely minor revisions to the engine mounts and the bellhousing have been required – however what he didn’t have was a staff
The rationale for the unusual request? Forged iron engine blocks get stronger over time as they undergo warmth cycles. Which is why the most important castings of the BMW turbos that took Nelson Piquet to the F1 world championship in 1983 with Brabham have been removed from model new. Tales of personnel from BMW engine guru Paul Rosche’s division urinating on the blocks to by some means speed up the ageing course of might or will not be true.
“Nicholson-McLaren constructed us an excellent engine, very highly effective,” explains Gachot. He now had an engine to go along with a WR chassis of 1994 classic – and solely minor revisions to the engine mounts and the bellhousing have been required – however what he didn’t have was a staff.
“We didn’t personal one screwdriver,” recounts Gachot, who linked up with someday Le Mans entrant Jean Messaoudi to create a construction to run the automotive. “We put collectively a type of digital staff: we rented all the pieces and introduced in some mechanics I knew from F1.”
Gachot obtained an entry for the race beneath his personal identify, prefixed by the acronym PGM: it stood for Fairly Good Administration and was the corporate beneath which he operated as a racing driver. His slot from race organiser the Vehicle Membership de l’Ouest, nonetheless, solely acquired him into what we now name the Take a look at Day. Again then it was a aggressive session, at the very least for a number of the opponents: Gachot must prequalify on the finish of April if SsangYong’s entry was to proceed to race week in June.
Nicholson-McLaren Engines turned the road-going Mercedes engine right into a racing unit for Gachot’s SsangYong WR
Photograph by: John Brooks
It didn’t work out as deliberate. Gachot, the one driver to take to the wheel of the WR-SsangYong in prequalifying, didn’t make the reduce. An issue within the afternoon, which this author remembers not being disclosed on the time, stranded the automotive out on observe, just for it to be hit by one other entrant – one of many works WRs! It wouldn’t make it again out on observe.
That isn’t the top of the SsangYong story at Le Mans. Gachot and the automotive have been again on the venue in September for an occasion often called the Autumn Cup on the everlasting Bugatti circuit.
What Gachot’s WR would possibly or won’t have proven at this occasion isn’t completely clear, partly as a result of he concedes that his reminiscence of the challenge is a bit shaky 30 years on and since modern experiences, together with Autosport’s, have been brief and candy. A motley discipline didn’t demand vital protection: the entry was restricted, although the four-hour affair was attended by Braveness Competitors with a pair of Porsche-powered LMP prototypes and the works WR squad.
Talking to Autosport, Gachot was initially satisfied that the looks of his WR on the brief circuit at Le Mans got here previous to the prequalifying day, not afterwards. He remembers a throttle downside, which he’s positive got here on the Bugatti occasion – and insists that the WR-SsangYong LM94 led one of many pair of two-hour heats.
His recall isn’t backed up by Autosport and the historical past books. However the SsangYong-powered P2 Gachot shared with Emmanuel Clerico did set second quickest qualifying time behind the Welter Racing entry, simply over 9 tenths in arrears.
They completed eighth within the first warmth however didn’t see the chequered flag within the second. Which will or might not have been a results of the throttle downside of which Gachot talks.
That was the top of SsangYong’s tentative Le Mans programme. It didn’t renew the cope with Gachot – the next 12 months the corporate was taken over by Daewoo initially of a peripatetic existence. The model would fall beneath the management of Mahindra and Shanghai Automotive through the years and is at present often called KGM, which stands for KG Mobility.
The Belgian continued to do a little bit of racing – in 1997 he contested a handful of All-Japan GT Championship rounds and was again at Le Mans in a buyer Porsche 911 GT1 – however in the identical 12 months, he began importing the Hype vitality drink into France. By 2000 he turned CEO of the corporate.
Gachot returned to Le Mans one final time with Kremer-run Porsche 911 GT1 in 1997 after the SsangYong challenge concluded
Photograph by: LAT Photographic
However he has good reminiscences, nonetheless blurred, of his time as an entrant with a South Korean automotive maker most individuals had by no means heard of.
“You recognize the story: the older you get, the quicker you have been,” he says. “I hope I’m not becoming a member of that membership, however we have been fast on that little Bugatti circuit in opposition to the large vehicles.
“I’m positive we led sooner or later earlier than the issue, however I positively bear in mind leaving the circuit completely happy that we’d proved one thing. We have been upset, however we knew we had achieved properly. Our little bundle was super-fast.”
Regardless of its lack of success, Gachot has fond if hazy reminiscences of the SsangYong WR challenge
Photograph by: John Brooks
On this article
Gary Watkins
Le Mans
Bertrand Gachot
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Author : Motorsports
Publish date : 2025-01-16 11:06:11
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