The original layout was a triangle running south from Le Mans to Mulsanne, northwest to Arnage, and back north to the city. In the 1920s the track was 17.261 km (10.725 mi) long and unpaved. Cars drove from the pits on Rue de Laigné directly into the city, passing a sharp right-hand hairpin at the Pontlieue bridge. A bypass shortened the track in 1929; the city was bypassed entirely in 1932 with the addition of the section from the pits through the Dunlop Bridge and the Esses to Tertre Rouge, establishing the "classic" configuration at 13.492 km (8.384 mi).
The classic configuration remained largely unaltered for decades. Its pit straight was approximately 3.7 m (12 ft) wide with no physical separation between the racing line and the pits. Track and pits were not separated for fifteen years after the 1955 tragedy. By the 1960s, rising car speeds drew criticism of the circuit as unsafe, with drivers dying during trials. In 1968 a Ford Chicane was added before the pits to slow cars; Armco barriers were fitted for the 1969 race. The "Maison Blanche" kink claimed three Ferrari 512 variants and several lives, including John Woolfe in 1969 in a Porsche 917. The classic configuration was last used in 1971, when prototype cars averaged over 240 km/h (150 mph); an Armco barrier was added that year to separate the track from the pit straight.
The Ligne Droite des Hunaudières — commonly called the Mulsanne Straight — was a 6 km (3.7 mi) stretch of public road (route départementale D338) on which cars spent nearly half the lap at full throttle before braking from over 322 km/h (200 mph) to around 100 km/h (62 mph) for Mulsanne Corner. The Porsche 917 long tail reached 362 km/h (225 mph) between 1969 and 1971. Turbocharged engines pushed speeds further: the 1978 Porsche 935 was clocked at 367 km/h (228 mph), and Group C prototypes exceeded 400 km/h (250 mph) in the late 1980s.
At the start of the 1988 24 Hours of Le Mans, Roger Dorchy driving for Welter Racing in the WM P87 — entered as "Project 400" by Team WM Peugeot — was radar-clocked at 407 km/h (253 mph). The car was officially designated WM Secateva; Claude Haldi shared car 51 with Dorchy. After spending 3.5 hours in the pits with engine problems, the car returned to the track for the speed attempt. It retired on lap 59 with an overheating engine. The record is sometimes mistakenly cited as 405 km/h because Peugeot used the run to advertise their new 405 model.
Fatal accidents involving Jean-Louis Lafosse (1981) and Jo Gartner (1986) on the straight led to the installation of two evenly spaced chicanes before the 1990 race. The modification was also required by an FIA decree prohibiting straights longer than 2 km (1.2 mi). Despite the chicanes, the fastest qualifying average speed dropped only from 249.826 to 243.329 km/h (155.235 to 151.198 mph) by 1992.
The circuit has been modified ten times since the classic era:
1972: A 300-million-franc renovation reshaped the pit area and first and final straights, added the quick Porsche Curves bypassing Maison Blanche, moved the signalling area to the exit of the slow Mulsanne corner, and resurfaced the track.
1979: Construction of a new public road required re-profiling Tertre Rouge into a faster double-apex corner and the removal of the second Dunlop Bridge.
1986: A new roundabout at Mulsanne Corner required the addition of a right-hand kink on the approach.
1987: A chicane was added to the Dunlop Curve, reducing entry speed from 180 mph (290 km/h) to 110 mph (180 km/h).
1990: Two chicanes were inserted on the Mulsanne Straight.
1994: The Dunlop chicane was tightened.
2002: The section between the Dunlop Bridge and the Esses was reconfigured into fast sweeping turns to improve the transition to the Bugatti Circuit and facilitate a separate pit lane exit for the Bugatti Circuit re-entering just after the Dunlop Chicane.
2006: The ACO redeveloped the area between the Dunlop Curve and Tertre Rouge, tightening the Dunlop Chicane and enlarging run-off areas.
2014: Following the fatal crash of Allan Simonsen at the 2013 race at the exit of Tertre Rouge, the corner radius was moved approximately 200 m inward and new tyre barriers were installed.
2018: CIRCUIT N°15 came into use and remains the current configuration.
The Bugatti Circuit is a 4.185 km (2.600 mi) permanent track built in 1965 within the Circuit des 24 Heures and named after Ettore Bugatti. It shares the Ford Chicane, the pit complex, and the Dunlop Bridge straight with the larger circuit; at the branching point, vehicles turning right at La Chapelle continue the Bugatti layout through the infield, which includes Garage Vert, a back straight, the S du Garage Bleu, and Raccordement back to the Ford Chicane. It hosted the 1967 French Grand Prix — the only time the Formula One World Championship used the circuit — and currently serves as the venue for the French motorcycle Grand Prix (MotoGP), the FIM Endurance World Championship 24 Heures Motos, and the FIA European Truck Racing Championship. Its permanent capacity is 100,000. It was also the home base of Pescarolo Sport, founded by Henri Pescarolo.
The circuit sits near the Le Mans airport weather station, which records an oceanic climate (Köppen Cfb). High-profile races run before the peak of summer frequently see cool ambient and track temperatures with rainfall as a factor; air frosts have not been recorded in June.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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