Just listened to an interview by Blundell, engine's wastegates got stuck shut, making all kinds of boost, he was angry because the crew chief told him to bring it back to the pits so he put the hammer down, and managed to control this hand grenade for a record qualifying lap... THE SKILLS THIS MAN HAS haha he wasn't even aware of the problem, just drove his frickin ass off in anger!!!
tristancauvin i may have heard the same interview - he says he got up to roughly 238mph and that is with the recently (in 1990) installed chicanes. What do you think he would be clocked at on the speed trap with no chicanes and a full mulsanne to accelerate..? Was it just over 250 mph the Peugeot trapped at in high speed trim - Blundell was (allegedly) driving in high downforce trim with hard tyres. He said he couldve gone much faster had he setup the car in quali trim and had more than ONE LAP! Amazing drive. And i so wish he got that McLaren seat for longer. Him moving to Indycars was a real shame. He was exciting to watch and a real 'trier' (i hear his balls no longer fit in the ever decreasing size of the f1 cockpits).
@@Tipo-F120b i seem to remember the first Peugeot was only meant to clock a high speed. And the C9 is one of my favourite cars ever so learning that from you makes me like it even more, so thanks for that :) Hope you're good and staying safe.
4:45 My body stopped reacting and my eyes was frozen knowing that the death angle was waiting in corner to take me with him.. Man this is insane and very f*ken fast with all this shaking and steering kicking left and right. I think Marc had a fitting balls made from titanium.
Titanium balls are way too light to hold the car ob the ground at that point. I like to think that they had to use a crane to lift him into the car, because of the weight of his balls.
The way he was wrestling that car in to and out of every turn is insane.. kind of makes me imagine an onboard of Fangio on his famous Nordschleife run..
I've always wondered what switch he was changing at 5:15. Looked up some cockpit pictures and taking the context into account I think he saw the car ahead of him on the road (that he soon passes) and adjusted his headlights to perhaps full beam or something to make himself more visible. Especially since he was approaching at a ridiculous rate of knots with the overboosted engine. I read a short interview with the engineer on the car and he claimed that the wastegate sticking shut almost doubled the HP, from 800 to 1200/1300(!). Regardless of the actual numbers, the fact this was done on hard race tyres and on a race setup with it being the first time all weekend that the car had actually run flat out makes it even more impressive/bonkers. What. A. Lap.
Probably brake bias or differential settings. He changes at the start of the lap as well. Different settings for the flowing corners vs the corner-straight of the middle of the course
Blundell's time of 3:27.02 would of qualified him 10th in the 2010 race, 7.31 seconds slower than the Peugeot 908, which is amazing when you consider the 20 year difference in technology
He wouldve gone a lot faster if the car was set up accordingly he was running hard tyres and high downforce trim also the circuit had undergone slow down measures in terms of the additional chicanes along the Mulsanne so in pre circuit adaptations who knows what speed he would have clocked an easy 250mph I'd say!
I read somewhere this did 370km/h (230mph) on the Mulsanne straight WITH the chicanes in place. One wonders how fast it would be had they kept the old layout for 1990...
@fueldragster It sure is, but bear in mind this was a 1100hp turbo monster compared to the 650hp cars of 2010. Here's what I consider amazing. It took 39 years for them to finally break the all time distance record of the 24 hours at LeMans race from 1971 (the Porsche 917). Then one suddenly realizes what a giant leap the Porsche 917 was back in 1970-1971. Indeed this Nissa R90Ck was insane too. 366km/h (227mph) WITH the chicanes on the Mulsanne straight is pretty insane.
Thanks EVO for the tip! Simply amazing driving; really got a feel for how hard that was to keep in a straight line! POV like this really convey the speed at which these things travel - awesome!
Just some info for the Le Mans fans out there... In this particular lap, MB had around about 1400bhp. On the Mulsanne, he hit 238mph. He had wheelspin in every gear up to fourth. "That lap was a real step into the unknown... I couldn't believe the time when I crossed the line, but if the car had been more sorted we could have gone even quicker."
YEAAH, this is an excellent video! thanks man, i was waiting for it since a lot! 3.27, only Peugeot 905 and Toyota TS010 could do better, but this Nissan was scary fast! I'm sure it went over 350kph on the mulsanne straight (or on the straight before the indianapolis corners). This car was even faster than an Audi R10 or a Peugeot 908!
Thank you for sharing this vid. It looks like a factory made video. The group C cars were the best IMHO. Nothing in sportscar racing has even touched those cars in my book. They were so elegant and purposeful at the same time. I would think this is the height of the ground effect or tunnel cars, and what an enormous task it must have been to pilot one through a WSC race.
Pole lap, over 6 seconds clear of 2nd place and he only had one attempt. To say he nailed it would be an understatement. One question thats always bugged me about this lap is - when the turbo's wastegate(s) get stuck and it consequently produces over 1100bhp (it may be even more), and you have a man whos balls quite literally require a wheel barrow to transport them as your driver, so he can man-handle all that power and translate it into one of the greatest qualifying performances in any car, on any track, in any series - *wouldnt you purposely jam the wastegate? And did the team doctor the turbo so it jammed?* or would that risk a catastrophic/terminal engine failure?
what i've heard is, that they unintentionally gave it too much boost pressure. when he was out driving, they told him on the radio what was going on and told him to slow down and come back to the box. instead of doing so mark blundell shut down the radio ( you can see in video when he fiddles on the dashboard before the porsche curves ). still one question remains, rather two: 1) how could anyone or anything lift blundells balls in car and following that 2) how can he be so fast with so much weight added.
@@Pintkonan yep, he was asked to return to the pits but shut the radio off in frustration. His official top speed was 238mph, the official record set the previous year with no chicanes was I believe 253mph. One f the engineers reportly said the exhaust was still glowing when he pulled in. So it's doubtful the engine was in good health after that but man what a lap!
In 1986 the benetton formula 1 racing team used sealed waste gate for qualification trim, the bmw turbo producing 1350-1500~ hp at 5-6 bars of boost. 540 kg car.
@@user-po2rf1ds4p Also don't forget that the fuels used in F1 at the time consisted of a spicy mix of Toluene and other highly potent additions basically rocket fuel this is what subsequently caused the huge plumes of black smoke emitting from the exhausts! What an era of motorracing 🔥
every time he grabbed 6th gear he was shortening his longevity.. it's fucking scary going flat out above 400km/h, it's nuts. notice he was short-shifting 2nd-4th on every occasion, shows enormous power this beast had.
Here due to Evo! Lord, Blundell worked very hard for his lap, in the article he mentions 'armfuls of corrective lock' but the points where he does this, and the associated speeds, stunning work. Mesmeric at times ....
Additional information: 1. the turbo wastegates malfunctioned in the closed position, preventing the turbos from discharging excess boost pressure, which is why as per video description the engine was making 1080-1100bhp during the lap and why it was a miracle the 3.5l twin-turbo Nissan V8 didn't explode on the back straight. 2. Mark stated that they used race tires, not qualifying tires and therefore suggested a much faster lap was possible.
look at the steering work done by Blundell, its as if the car is trying to get out from him, especially on the run down to Indianapolis. Not to mention he has a thousand hp over his shoulder... He's the man. he was 24 when he did that. I believe he's still the youngest pole sitter in Le Mans history, I think.
That video showed the power of the YGK "Big-bang" engine that Nissan Europe had for qualifying only. I think read where Blundell said he had major wheelspin...even in HIGH GEAR!!
I think the in-car speed impression has a lot to do with the camera placement - it affects depth of field in the view. Incidentally the boost was wrong on this lap - the wastegate stuck from what I remember! But he had started his lap before the telemetry showed the problem, so he continued. The boost was off the scale, even compared to qualifying boost! The engine was changed as a precaution before the race, but the internals were in a very good condition even after that much boost.
Ds la casualidad que justo a media carrera boxes llama al piloto para que vuelva, por que ? Porque detectaron que el motor de empezo a calentar de manera exagerada, el piloto dijo que nunca habia sentido tan bien el coche y no quiso volver , resulta que la válvula de alivio estaba rota y metia toda la presión del aire al motor , la cuestión es que de generar 800 hp , al romperse la válvula de alivio, empezo s meter todo el aire y generaba 1100 hp , y esto causo que tanta potencia hiciera al coche patinar hasta en 4ta marcha
Yea! I so hope they come back to Le Mans, it would certainly bring some spice to the race. Even if the R390 wasn't successful I'm convinced Nissan could build a car today that could win Le Mans. Nissan know what they're doing, just look at the GTR...
@REVs99 He's using a sequential shifting transmission that alternates. So say up for 1st down for 2nd up for 3rd etc. During this time F1 was going to paddle shifting, and Le Mans would follow suite soon after but still amazing cars.
In this scene, the car had a stuck wastegate and that's why the engine was boosted to about 1100hp. It usually should qualify at about 1000hp and race at 800hp. I think he set a lap record or something here by accident. He hit the mulsanne at about 227mph once. About the same as a Formula 1 car could do it.
Hi, we ran the sister "Unisia" Nissan R90CK at Le Mans last weekend in the Group C race on Sat morning, I let the radio le mans guy know about this link - the car is awesome, it just doesn't run quite as well at the moment, hope u enjoyed... Al
We are toned down with the amount of in-car footage we have access to on the internet. This looks truly frightening, the sound and savagery of that car are incredible, think only Senna at Monaco can come close for rawness.
@brown9708 Yes 227mph on Mulsanne with BOTH the new chicanes was quite a feat. One can only imagine what speed he would have reached had they not put the chicanes there in 1990. The Sauber-Mercedes's did 250mph+ in qualifying.
No it didn't. _One_ car did 400 km/h... once and it was six seconds slower than the pole lap. The 5.8 km straight contributes nothing to the racing. Spectators were not even allowed to stand on the Mulsanne..
@greenbastard619 I agree. If anything, the change to the 3.5L engine formula only proved how far the Sportscar Championship was from rivalling F1. Only couple of years earlier, F1 teams experienced no problems with similarly drastic rule changes. The bar was just raised too much.
