Recent from talks
Courage Compétition
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Courage Compétition
Courage Compétition was a racing team and chassis constructor company now owned by Oreca, based in Le Mans, France, near the Circuit de la Sarthe. It was founded by Yves Courage, a French race driver who ran hillclimbs before founding the company. Following the purchase of Courage by Oreca in 2007, Yves Courage has refounded the company as Courage Technology in 2010, attempting to develop electric racing cars.
Yves Courage (born on April 27, 1948) began his racing career in 1972, racing in various hillclimbs throughout the 1970s. By 1980, he had won over 80 hillclimb races, including the Mont-Dore. However, in 1977, Yves Courage moved to sports car racing, participating in his first 24 Hours of Le Mans. In 1981, along with Jean-Philippe Grand, Courage's Lola-BMW managed to finish the race and take victory in the under 2-liter sport class. With this success, Courage decided to found his own company and began building prototype chassis with which he could compete at Le Mans. On this premise, Courage Compétition was founded with the construction of the Courage C01 prototype in 1982.
Debuting at the 1982 24 Hours of Le Mans, Courage's first C01 chassis participated in the also new Group C class using a Ford Cosworth DFL V8. Unfortunately the car managed to last a mere 78 laps before it was forced to retire. Courage would continue on in the following years with the C01 and its follow-up, the C02. The team also earned the sponsorship of Primagaz to help financially, while the chassis would be renamed Cougar instead of Courage, a trend which would continue for many years. However, the team would fail to finish at Le Mans again in 1983 and 1984. For 1985 however, the team announced a deal with Porsche which would bolster their capabilities.
For 1985, Yves Courage signed a deal with Porsche to use their engines in replacement for the Ford Cosworths. To better fit the Porsche turbocharged flat-6 engine, Courage debuted the Cougar C12 chassis. The team saw immediate success with this combination as they finished 20th in 1985, followed by 18th in 1986. All of this built up to the team's greatest achievement so far in 1987, as they managed to finish 3rd overall, behind only the factory Porsche 962 and their own team's 962. During the same year, Courage participated in a partial season of the World Sportscar Championship, managing 8th in the teams championship with their Cougar C20 and Porsche 962. Following this success, and believing that his chassis and team were capable of succeeding at Le Mans, Yves Courage officially retired from driving in order to concentrate on running the factory.
Unfortunately for 1988, the team was not able to follow up on its success, failing to finish any of its three entries at Le Mans and only managing to score points in a single World Sportscar Championship round. This was quickly reversed for 1989 as the team managed to win the C2 class at Le Mans with a 14th-place finish, and take 11th place in the World Sportscar Championship by scoring points in over half of the races that season. The next year, Courage would switch back to the C1 class and finish 7th overall at Le Mans, followed up with 11th place in 1991.
Due to rule changes in sportscar racing, Courage was shuffled to the C2 class (cars complying with the older rules) for Le Mans in 1991 and C3 (a class for Porsche-powered cars) in 1992, and no longer able to run in the diminishing World Sportscar Championship due to their continued usage of the Porsche turbocharged Flat-6, which was no longer legal in WSC. However, at Le Mans the C3-class Courage C28LM took class victory and finished 6th overall. This car was driven by Porsche factory driver Henri Pescarolo who would form a relationship with Courage in the later years.
With the demise of the World Sportscar Championship in 1993, Courage would return again to the C2 class and take both 10th and 11th-place finishes at Le Mans (5th and 6th in class), and then followed by another 7th-place finish in 1994.
In 1995, Courage mounted its best challenge yet, with drivers Bob Wollek, Éric Hélary, and Mario Andretti challenging for the lead in the #13 Courage C34. In the end though the team would have to settle for 2nd place overall, losing by a single lap to a McLaren F1 GTR. In 1996, Courage's reliability continued as they finished 7th and 13th, but were actually 2nd and 3rd in their Le Mans Prototype (LMP) class. One of the two teams was actually run by Henri Pescarolo, who would begin to develop his own team in association with Courage. The duo continued their success in 1997, taking 4th, 7th, and 16th places overall. However, by 1998, Courage's partnership with Porsche was over a decade old, as was the design of the engines that Courage was using. Courage's last outing with the Porsche powerplants showed the lack of pace as the team managed to finish only 15th and 16th against newer Porsche, Ferrari, Nissan, and Toyota prototypes.
Hub AI
Courage Compétition AI simulator
(@Courage Compétition_simulator)
Courage Compétition
Courage Compétition was a racing team and chassis constructor company now owned by Oreca, based in Le Mans, France, near the Circuit de la Sarthe. It was founded by Yves Courage, a French race driver who ran hillclimbs before founding the company. Following the purchase of Courage by Oreca in 2007, Yves Courage has refounded the company as Courage Technology in 2010, attempting to develop electric racing cars.
Yves Courage (born on April 27, 1948) began his racing career in 1972, racing in various hillclimbs throughout the 1970s. By 1980, he had won over 80 hillclimb races, including the Mont-Dore. However, in 1977, Yves Courage moved to sports car racing, participating in his first 24 Hours of Le Mans. In 1981, along with Jean-Philippe Grand, Courage's Lola-BMW managed to finish the race and take victory in the under 2-liter sport class. With this success, Courage decided to found his own company and began building prototype chassis with which he could compete at Le Mans. On this premise, Courage Compétition was founded with the construction of the Courage C01 prototype in 1982.
Debuting at the 1982 24 Hours of Le Mans, Courage's first C01 chassis participated in the also new Group C class using a Ford Cosworth DFL V8. Unfortunately the car managed to last a mere 78 laps before it was forced to retire. Courage would continue on in the following years with the C01 and its follow-up, the C02. The team also earned the sponsorship of Primagaz to help financially, while the chassis would be renamed Cougar instead of Courage, a trend which would continue for many years. However, the team would fail to finish at Le Mans again in 1983 and 1984. For 1985 however, the team announced a deal with Porsche which would bolster their capabilities.
For 1985, Yves Courage signed a deal with Porsche to use their engines in replacement for the Ford Cosworths. To better fit the Porsche turbocharged flat-6 engine, Courage debuted the Cougar C12 chassis. The team saw immediate success with this combination as they finished 20th in 1985, followed by 18th in 1986. All of this built up to the team's greatest achievement so far in 1987, as they managed to finish 3rd overall, behind only the factory Porsche 962 and their own team's 962. During the same year, Courage participated in a partial season of the World Sportscar Championship, managing 8th in the teams championship with their Cougar C20 and Porsche 962. Following this success, and believing that his chassis and team were capable of succeeding at Le Mans, Yves Courage officially retired from driving in order to concentrate on running the factory.
Unfortunately for 1988, the team was not able to follow up on its success, failing to finish any of its three entries at Le Mans and only managing to score points in a single World Sportscar Championship round. This was quickly reversed for 1989 as the team managed to win the C2 class at Le Mans with a 14th-place finish, and take 11th place in the World Sportscar Championship by scoring points in over half of the races that season. The next year, Courage would switch back to the C1 class and finish 7th overall at Le Mans, followed up with 11th place in 1991.
Due to rule changes in sportscar racing, Courage was shuffled to the C2 class (cars complying with the older rules) for Le Mans in 1991 and C3 (a class for Porsche-powered cars) in 1992, and no longer able to run in the diminishing World Sportscar Championship due to their continued usage of the Porsche turbocharged Flat-6, which was no longer legal in WSC. However, at Le Mans the C3-class Courage C28LM took class victory and finished 6th overall. This car was driven by Porsche factory driver Henri Pescarolo who would form a relationship with Courage in the later years.
With the demise of the World Sportscar Championship in 1993, Courage would return again to the C2 class and take both 10th and 11th-place finishes at Le Mans (5th and 6th in class), and then followed by another 7th-place finish in 1994.
In 1995, Courage mounted its best challenge yet, with drivers Bob Wollek, Éric Hélary, and Mario Andretti challenging for the lead in the #13 Courage C34. In the end though the team would have to settle for 2nd place overall, losing by a single lap to a McLaren F1 GTR. In 1996, Courage's reliability continued as they finished 7th and 13th, but were actually 2nd and 3rd in their Le Mans Prototype (LMP) class. One of the two teams was actually run by Henri Pescarolo, who would begin to develop his own team in association with Courage. The duo continued their success in 1997, taking 4th, 7th, and 16th places overall. However, by 1998, Courage's partnership with Porsche was over a decade old, as was the design of the engines that Courage was using. Courage's last outing with the Porsche powerplants showed the lack of pace as the team managed to finish only 15th and 16th against newer Porsche, Ferrari, Nissan, and Toyota prototypes.
Recent media