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European Space Agency

Press Release

Space tech to race at Le Mans this weekend

10 June 2003
 
Space technology will thrust two cars into this year's legendary
24-hour Le Mans race. Thanks to new composite materials designed for
space travel, the cars will be lighter and safer making them more
competitive in the world-famous race that takes place this year from
14 to 15 June in France. 
 
Le Mans, which has been held every year since 1906, is an
international event in automobile endurance racing. Right from the
first race it has been a test bed for new technologies - for example,
disk brakes were first used in a Le Mans race in 1953. This year is
no exception and several new technologies, originating from Europe's
space programmes, will be showing their worth.

ESA Technology Transfer Programme (TTP) has been working since 2002
with Henri Pescarolo and Andre de Cortanze of Pescarolo Sport, on two
priority lines for development: performance and security. In
collaboration with Bertin Technologies in France and Grado Zero
Espace in Italy this collaboration led to the identification of areas
that could greatly benefit from space technology: space composite
materials for structures, space thermal insulation and innovative
lightweight cooling systems.
 
Henri Pescarolo, team leader of Pescarolo Sport, is very satisfied
with the result "undoubtedly the space technology we use improves the
car's performance and safety," he says. 

This was already demonstrated at the Le Mans qualification test day
last month, when the two Pescarolo C60 Peugeot cars achieved a very
encouraging 9th and 13th position out of the 50 cars participating.

For Pescarolo engineers André de Cortanze and Claude Galopin it was
particularly important to verify that the effort to make the cars
more aerodynamic through the use of the new space composite materials
on the C60 Peugeot had borne fruit. Having both cars doing the same
tests at the same time was a great opportunity to evaluate the
different adjustments on each car, and to choose the best
configuration for the actual race to come.

"We did not seek pure performance or high qualification, our
objective was to perfect the behaviour of our C60 Peugeot
configuration," summarized Henri Pescarolo at the end of the test
day. "We made some very fast laps and could see that we had made a
lot of progress, but the variations between the different
participants were much less this year and this year's race will be
much tougher than last year. 


Lighter and safer with space materials
 
The performance to weight ratio, which is vital in Le Mans, persuaded
the Pescarolo Sport team to use hi-tech carbon composite materials,
the same material employed in satellite construction, to construct
the racing car. This allowed a reduction of 29 kg in the overall
weight thus compensating for the loss of 60 CV of engine power due to
new Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) regulations. 

To make the cars safer, thermal shields similar to those used on the
European Ariane-5 launcher were placed between the engine and the
flexible fuel tank in order to protect the tank from engine fire
hazards and similar material was used to insulate the manifold and
turbo. The same insulation shields have already proved their worth as
they were used in the Pescarolo Sports car that ran in the
Paris-Dakar race in January 2003.

This year Le Mans cars are still open-topped, but new rules for next
year's race will introduce closed (saloon) bodies, which will
introduce new challenges to control the temperature inside the cars.
Grado Zero Espace have already had experience in designing and
creating innovative clothing for the McLaren Formula 1 racing team
using high-tech materials from ESA's space programmes and they have
produced two sets of cooled undergarments for the Pescarolo team.
These are worn under the driver's racing suits and need no special
modification. 

"We will work with Pescarolo in this year's race in order to adjust
the garment and to try and obtain a weight reduction of up to 50% by
2004, "says Silvio Campigli from Grado Zero Espace. "The cooling
system is encapsulated in an advanced textile structure designed for
low cooling dispersion." 


Space tech already a winner
 
The technology and 'know-how' obtained through the development of the
European space industry have already proved their worth at the first
race in the seven-event FIA Sportcar Championship, at Estoril,
Portugal in April 2003. The Pescarolo Sport team that won used the
same lightweight composite space materials and insulation shields
that will be used at Le Mans. 

"We started the cooperation with Henri Pescarolo to demonstrate how
space technology can provide innovative and practical solutions for
endurance racing," says Pierre Brisson, head of ESA's Technology
Transfer and Promotion Office. "When exotic space technologies prove
their worth in tough races like Le Mans and Paris-Dakar, they will
also find their way into the mass-produced cars we all use everyday,
providing improvements in comfort and maintenance and more
importantly, contribute to greater overall safety and reliability."

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