24 Hours of Le Mans Review 1998

Porsche, Mercedes, Toyota and Nissan made the GT1 class the most exciting it had been for several years as the big manufacturers vied for supremacy. Mercedes’ return was a welcome one, given the success of the Mercedes Sauber C9s of the late ‘80s. The impressive looking V8 powered CLK-LM certainly impressed in testing but how would the ‘Silver Arrows’ cope with the rigours of a 24 hour race? Toyota too had a brand new machine; the German built TS020 GT-One. Phenomenally fast, the question was whether the three car team could avoid Toyota’s traditional Le Mans curse. Porsche stuck with their updated and powerful GT1s and Nissan’s R390 collaboration with TWR had matured into a reliable and quick package – the fight was on for class and overall honours! With Ferrari, BMW, Panoz, Courage, Chrysler and McLaren also represented there was masses of action all through the field to keep the fans interested.