From the June 2023 issue of Car and Driver.
Break out your American flag shirt and grab your passport, because NASCAR is headed to France for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The crossover is not as strange as it seems. American sports car teams have long competed for glory at the Mulsanne straight at the famous endurance race, but NASCAR has only been to Le Mans once before.
Every year, the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) welcomes teams to Le Mans to take part in the Garage 56 program, an exhibition class created in 2012 to encourage technical innovation. Past G56 racers have used alternative fuel or cockpits equipped for disabled drivers, with the two teams from the latter category being the only G56 entries ever to finish the race. For 2023, the ACO invited NASCAR to compete at the Garage 56 venue to bring the rowdy NASCAR V-8 experience to Europe.
While NASCAR runs a road course, endurance racing has different rules and challenges. So it’s not as simple as just sending through the Cup Series cars. NASCAR chose Hendrick Motorsports, the most successful team in NASCAR’s premier class, to go to France. This year’s G56 entry will be the Camaro ZL1 Cup Car, modified for the long times and tough racing conditions of Le Mans. “We had to adapt it to make it an endurance vehicle,” said Brandon Thomas, vice president of vehicle design. “But it’s a Cup car in spirit.”
Check out the photo gallery to learn more about how NASCAR modified the Camaro stock car for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Bicentennial Party
In 1976, with high gas prices and low attendance, the ACO invited NASCAR to send some big V-8-powered cars to battle Porsches and prototypes at Le Mans. A Dodge Charger and a Ford Torino made the trip, but neither survived the 24 hours.
A Famous 56
Nissan campaigned the odd-looking Deltawing in 2012, the G56’s debut year. A study in aerodynamics and weight reduction, the odd-shaped front track wingless design (almost all downforce comes from the diffuser) can run while sipping a fraction of the fuel and using fewer tires. It weighs just over 1000 pounds and manages to hit the ACO requested pace (between prototypes and GT racers). It retired on lap 76 after making contact with the barrier, but that was after it made it to its goal and returned 8.8 mpg at race speed. That’s just as surprising as a production car getting 100 mpg.
Associate News Editor
Caleb Miller started blogging about cars at age 13, and he realized his dream of writing for a car magazine after graduating from Carnegie Mellon University and joining Car and Driver team. He loves quirky and obscure cars, aspires to own something outlandish like a Nissan S-Cargo, and is an avid motorsport fan.