TTAC Video of the Week: Looking Back on NASCAR Invading LeMans

Tim Healey
by Tim Healey

One of the highlights of LeMans this year was that a NASCAR Chevrolet Camaro was entered.

It was literally in a class by itself, and it was driven part of the time by well-known NASCAR wheelman Jimmie Johnson. It stood out not just because of its looks but for its sound.

Naturally, race fans had fun with this over the weekend.

We decided to give you a roundup of select videos featuring the car before we move on from LeMans. Enjoy!

Here's the transaxle breaking, courtesy of friend of TTAC Bozi Tatarevic. This was repaired and the car did finish.

And one more from Bozi.

Listen to that sound.

Mulsanne at night in a NASCAR stock car...

Some TikTokers (is that a word? I neither Tik nor Tok) got a bit patriotic -- if not outright jingoistic -- and put Lynrd Skynrd's "Free Bird" to work.

Finally, we close out with the Garage 56 car finishing. We can't see it, but we can hear it.

Hope you enjoyed that, now let's move on to this week's races. I will be glued to IndyCar at Road America -- I can't make it person this year, but I will be watching on TeeVee.

[Featured image: NASCAR]

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Tim Healey
Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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  • Dukeisduke Dukeisduke on Jun 16, 2023
    I wrote a couple of comments on the original article yesterday, and then the article was quickly taken down. 😐️ Button, Johnson, and Rockenfeller - all of those guys are great drivers. Button is a former F1 champion, Johnson is one of the top NASCAR drivers of all time, and Rockenfeller was one of the stars of Audi Sport's turbo diesel era at Le Mans, winning in 2010 in the R15 TDI Plus, sharing the driving duties with Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas.
  • Andrew Robert Andrew Robert on Jul 14, 2023
    Very impressive as it contains information that is unique to its own. I love this kind of article. keep sharing the great work For Assignment Help at No1AssignmentHelp.Com for guidance in academic needs.
  • Wjtinfwb 157k is not insignificant, even for a Honda. A lot would depend on the maintenance records and the environment the car was operated in. Up to date maintenance and updated wear items like brakes, shocks, belts, etc. done recently? Where did those 157k miles accumulate? West Texas on open, smooth roads that are relatively easy on the chassis or Michigan, with bomb crater potholes, snow and salt that take their toll on the underpinnings. That Honda 4 will run forever with decent maintenance but the underneath bits deteriorate on a Honda just like they do on a Chevy.
  • Namesakeone Yes, for two reasons: The idea of a robot making decisions based on algorithms does not seem to be in anyone's best interest, and the thought of trucking companies salivating over using a computer to replace the salary of a human driver means a lot more people in the unemployment lines.
  • Bd2 Powertrain reliability of Boxer engines is always questionable. I'll never understand why Subaru held onto them for so long. Smartstream is a solid engine platform as is the Veracruz 3.8L V6.
  • SPPPP I suppose I am afraid of autonomous cars in a certain sense. I prefer to drive myself when I go places. If I ride as a passenger in another driver's car, I can see if that person looks alert and fit for purpose. If that person seems likely to crash, I can intervene, and attempt to bring them back to attention. If there is no human driver, there will probably be no warning signs of an impending crash.But this is less significant than the over-arching fear of humans using autonomous driving as a tool to disempower and devalue other humans. As each generation "can't be trusted" with more and more things, we seem to be turning more passive and infantile. I fear that it will weaken our society and make it more prone to exploitation from within, and/or conquest from the outside.
  • JMII Based on the human drivers I encounter everyday I'll happily take my chances with a computer at the wheel.The highway driver assist system on my Santa Cruz is great, it can self drive perfectly in about 90% of situations. However that other 10% requires you to be in control and make decisions. I feel this is the problem with an AI driving a car, there are times when due to road construction, weather conditions or other drivers when only a human will know what to do.
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