In many ways, the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans was very much a watershed year. It featured the last Toyota outing for over a decade, the very first Audi appearance, while BMW scored its only victory as a manufacturer. As a warm-up to this year's race, we have taken a look at the machines fielded by these manufacturers 15 years ago.
The most striking is undoubtedly the Toyota GT-One, which debuted in 1998 as a GT1 machine and ran in 1999 in the newly created LMGTP class. It dominated all sessions and the featured example looked set to clinch the long sought victory until a puncture in the final hour. Toyota is again on the pace this year and will start from the pole, so 15 years later that huge disappointment could finally be erased come Sunday afternoon.
There to pick up the scraps was the BMW V12 LMR, which was developed together with Williams and featured an evolution of the V12 engine that had powered McLaren to their debut win back in 1995. Our comprehensive gallery features every angle of the 1999 Le Mans winning machine.
In retrospect, the arrival of Audi was actually the most significant as whereas BMW and Toyota would pursue F1 efforts, the German manufacturer won all but two of the next 14 Le Mans races. With the R8R already made their mark by placing third and fourth. Our R8R gallery now features two distinct versions of the car, raced at Sebring and Le Mans respectively.
This week, two manufacturers also launched new cars. Actually expected to race this weekend, the Lotus P1/01 was shown for the first time yesterday. It is powered by a new AER twin-turbo V6 engine and should hit the track later this year. Still very much under development is the Zytek Z16S, which will not be seen in action before 2016.
Enjoy the links:
1999 Audi R8R - Images, Specifications and Information
1999 BMW V12 LMR - Images, Specifications and Information
1998 - 1999 Toyota GT-One - Images, Specifications and Information
2014 Lotus P1/01 - Images, Specifications and Information
2014 Porsche 911 Carrera S Martini Racing Edition - Images, Specifications and Information
2016 Zytek Z16S - Images, Specifications and Information
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