13.06.2019Next weekend: The 24 hours race of Le Mans 2019

Saturday and Sunday are again in the sign of motorsport: The May has it in itself! Last weekend the fans had the choice between Formula 1 in Canada, the DTM in Misano as well as the ADAC GT Masters in Spielberg; next weekend Le Mans is in the row, one week after this the 24 ours at the Nürburgring and the Formula 1 in France take place. There is really something going on at the race tracks this month, isn't it? The more we are pleased that the modelcar manufacturer take the hype into account and prepare us a lot of fun with so many novelties: Spark, for example, has delivered miniatures, whose role models drove in Le Mans last year; CMR lures the fans of racing cars with an action that in previous decades have established the reputation of Le Mans. We look at the race data and the modelcars in short form. 

The 24-hours-race in Le Mans is considered the most traditional endurance event worldwide. The first edition was designed to serve the purpose of presenting automotive innovation, durability and performance, and was organized in 1923. Only in 1936 (general strike in France) and in the period from 1940 to 1948 (World War II and reconstruction) the classic in the northwestern French city was not held. This year marks the 87th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. On the afternoon of June 15th, 62 vehicles will start into the race in four classes. The field of participants on the 13.626 kilometers long track was never that big. The circuit is a combination of a permanent circuit - known as Circuit Bugatti - and public roads that will be closed to traffic during the event.

The famous Hunaudières straight, often referred to as Mulsanne, is the main link between Le Mans and Tours, apart from the race week. Notorious are the fast Porsche curves. Narrow run-off zones and high speed provide for special thrills and spectacular racing scenes. A food from which spark also consumes: The label from Asia that reduces almost everything that was somehow in racing on four wheels and / or is. With the deliveries of last week, the miniatures of last year's winner of the class LMP2 came on the market, the models of the Alpina A470 from the team Signatech Alpine Matmut, whose driver Nicolas Lapierre, Pierre Thiriet and André Negrão thus also secured the fifth overall; by the way powered by the 4.2-liter V8 engine builder Gibson.

The modelcars in the scale 1:18 reproduce the closed racing car in terms of appearance and details perfectly and carry the item number 18S391. Spark also delivered the miniatures to the winner, the Toyota TS050 Toyota Gazoo Racing by Sebastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso, to which the fans get a matching cup (18LM18). Spark continues as usual on the almost complete replica of the starter field, so that also the Aston Martin Vantage GTE by Nicki Thiim, Marco Sörensen and Darren Turner is considered. The model with the 4.0-liter V8 Turbo landed on the 23rd place in the ranking after 339 laps (18S394). The Oreca 07 of TDS Racing was disqualified by the drivers Francois Perrodo, Loic Duval and Matthieu Vaxivière; he still attracted attention as a modelcar (18S400).

Two real knockers are of course the two miniatures of the previous year's Porsche. 2018 was the first year in which Porsche did not compete in the LMP1 class after 19 overall victories but with four Porsche 911 RSR's. Of course, the Stuttgart also won this segment: This weekend, they want to repeat the success or defend the title. The previous year's cars with the starting numbers 93 and 94 of the driver trios Patrick Pilet, Nick Tandy and Earl Bamber, as well as Romain Dumas, Sven Müller and the two-times long-distance world champion Timo Bernhard now also bring Spark on a scale of 1:12; the large scale, in which the highly detailed models measure in length about 38 centimeters (12S013, 12S014). They are fascinating eye-catchers in outstanding quality, which stand alone and attract the looks outside of a collection!

The current Porsche 911 RSR celebrated its debut in the sports car world championship WEC at Silverstone in 2017. In the running super season of the years 2018/2019 the race car from Weissach occupied the first both places in Le Mans 2018 in the class GTE-Pro and also won the class victory in the GTE-AM via the customer cars. The water-cooled 4.0 liter boxerengine is based on the seventh generation of the sports car icon 911 and performs, depending on the restrictor, about 375 kW / 510 PS. In Le Mans the factory cars go again in special designs on the track, as in the previous year. The both Porsche 911 RSR from the FIA WEC wear a world champion emblem on the roof and gold color stripes as insignia for the titel victory. The sister cars from North America will compete in the Brumos-design of the first both season runs from the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. 

The 24 Hours of Le Mans on TV 

The 24-Hours-race of Le Mans begins on Saturday, June 15th, 2019 at 3:00 pm local time. Earlier on Wednesday, the only free practice and the first two qualifying sessions took place. The last of the three qualifying sessions is scheduled for today, Thursday, June 13th, at 7:00 pm and 10:00 pm. The highlight of the event will be the driver parade on Friday, June 14th, starting at 5:00 pm in downtown Le Mans. Eurosport (German TV channel) broadcasts the training, qualifications and the entire race live on its Eurosport 1 channel and as a live stream in the Eurosport player. The German free-TV station Sport1 will be showing the highlights on Monday, June 17th, from 8:30 pm and in the Porsche GT Magazine on Wednesday, June 19th, starting at 11:00 pm. We wish a lot of fun!

Here: Click to the modelcars from Spark