Cadillac, Reflecting On Its Le Mans Past, Plotting A Winning Future
Cadillac has come a long way since its first-ever Le Mans appearance in 1950.
It all started with a pair of Series 61 coupes, one mostly stock and another modified with a low-profile aluminum body nicknamed “Le Monstre.” The cars were entered by privateers Briggs Cunningham and Miles and Sam Collier.
Miles and Sam Collier co-drove the #3 “Petit Pataud” to a 10th-place overall finish. Cunningham shared the wheel of the #2 “Le Monstre” with Phil Walters and finished 11th overall despite an early off-course incident that cost them 15 minutes. That same year, Sydney Allard and Tom Cole Jr. finished third overall in the Cadillac-powered Allard J2.
Most recently, Cadillac competed at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2000, 2001 and 2002 with its 4.0-liter turbocharged V8-powered Northstar LMP.
In 2000, Cadillac Racing had four racecars in the LMP900 class. Franck Lagorce, Butch Leitzinger and Andy Wallace drove the Team Cadillac #1 Cadillac Northstar LMP to a 21st-place overall finish, while Wayne Taylor, Max Angelelli and Eric van de Poele finished 22nd in the # 2 sister car.
Cadillac Racing was also aligned with the DAMS team, which entered two Cadillac LMP900 cars. The #3 entry, with Eric Bernard, Emmanuel Collard and Franck Montagny driving, finished 19th overall. The #4 Cadillac, with Marc Goossens, Kristian Kolby and Christophe Tinseau co-driving, did not finish.
In 2001, Taylor, Angelelli and Tinseau co-drove the No. 6 Cadillac Northstar LMP 01 for the DAMS team to a 15th-place finish. A second LMP 01, the No. 5 entry for the DAMS team co-driven by Bernard, Collard and Goossens, retired from the race with a mechanical issue.
Jeff Kettman, GM Racing Le Mans Prototype manager for the start-up programme who previously was the GM NASCAR program manager:
Knowing the teething pains of a new programme and watching the Cadillac V-Series.R from afar, what are your thoughts?
“I see parallels to what we went through in the late ‘90s, early 2000s in that it is new technology for the time. I have a lot of respect for the program, and it blows me away the amount of technology they are doing with the hybrid. As far as the teething pains, it’s chewing off a lot to run in two series on two continents.
“We did that a little bit with hiring the DAMS team to help us. A big part of the reason we did that was to have a French connection so that it would ease our path into Le Mans after 50 years away. The DAMS team was both a good team and also had more knowledge of how things operated in Europe. Running two programs does enhance the knowledge base. However, it was also challenging to support four cars. We were being outspent by Audi by a large margin and that also showed in their presence at the track.
Many design and development aids today were either in their infancy or not available yet, right?
“We were using computer-aided engineering, but we didn’t have CFD back then. We were still doing 40 percent scale models. We didn’t have the simulation that they have today. There definitely wasn’t a driver simulator where they could sit in it, so everything was more like the old school way of building parts, going to the track and testing. Obviously, making sure they were structurally sound before they were built through computer engineering, but there wasn’t the simulation like you have today.”
How do you regard the three-year programme with the emphasis on Le Mans?
“The return from 50 years was a big deal and I would say from a marketing perspective it succeeded because back then ‘Arts & Sciences’ was the Cadillac marketing theme and this was the bridge from the vinyl top Cadillacs to the CTS-V, which 2003 was the first year of the production car.
“The whole reason that Cadillac got involved in motorsports was to shift the public perspective of Cadillac to more of a sporty vehicle. We didn’t have the results on the track but the fact that we didn’t have major problems was impressive. We really didn’t have that much time; less than a year before the first race from getting the car built from the ground up.”
What did Max Angelelli bring to the programme?
“Wayne (Taylor) wasn’t afraid to say what he was thinking. Max, coming from where he was, would tell it like it was and pushed us to really get better in a lot of areas in the car development.
“Max, being from Italy, kind of had the tie with Pirelli tires. They did develop a tire specifically for us and we thought that could be an advantage.
“Everybody else who was successful, including Audi, was running Michelins, so we thought that the Pirelli tie-in would give us an advantage.
“In reality, it was a disadvantage because we couldn’t compare ourselves. We didn’t know if our speed was the car, the tire or something else. So, we got some Michelins and ran a test and found that we were faster. That was part of the decision in year two to switch to Michelins.
“There were a whole lot of changes after year one. Max, I still appreciate. He was a very aggressive driver. Wayne was more of the endurance driver and could keep a car together for the long period and Max would be more of the let’s push it and see how hard it can go, and we needed that. It was a good balance.”
What was your initial thoughts about the spectacle of Le Mans?
“I had a background in IMSA road racing with Peerless Racing; we ran a Corvette GTP car in the late ‘80s, so I had been to the 24 hours of Daytona, Sebring, but the whole pageantry and spectacle of Le Mans – the scrutineering downtown, the parade with the drivers and just the history – was definitely noticeable.
“The first year it was a lot of things that were above and beyond for me as a program manager because I was involved in marketing and things like that, so it was a lot of involvement beyond the actual racetrack event.
“The amount of interest that we had in us as the American team as General Motors and Cadillac was kind of surprising. We were quite well-received. They like the American V8. The fact that the Corvettes were coming too was a big thing.”
What does it take to win Le Mans?
“The perspective I like is that between the 24 hours of Daytona and 24 hours of Le Mans the amount of daylight is a big difference.
“Le Mans, it’s not getting dark until 10 o’clock at night and the sun is coming up at 5. So, you do look for the car setup in the sunny, warmer weather ideally, but you also don’t know what you’re going to get at that time of year.
“In our era, it was already shifting from you couldn’t just sit back and ride for 22 hours and race the last two. It was getting in the early 2000s you had to go hard much the whole time, and I see it that way today, too. It’s a combination of the ability of the cars and the ability of the drivers. You see the drivers that are pushing it from the beginning.
“There’s no substitute for miles on the track, which again because of budget reasons and other reasons we were not running a full schedule back then. But after Sebring we stayed a couple of extra days and ran another 12-plus hours to get real track miles on the car. You can simulate as much as you want in a lab or computer, but it doesn’t match what you run into. And even then, it’s not the same as running in a race. That is the other part – getting your crew sharp – and that only comes from running in a race.”
How did the car between the first year and 2002 change?
“The car evolved. We worked with Riley & Scott in the beginning because they were very successful and were probably the top U.S. constructor at the time. They did a new carbon monocoque, which was new for them. But the reality was they were a couple years behind when we looked at what was going on in Europe. So, Wayne put together 3GR with Nigel Stroud and Jeff Hazell and they were based in England right in the heart of the F1 cottage industry.
“We didn’t have enough time to do a complete new car for ’01 so they modified what we had and made some improvements. The car basically became a European design for ’02 and made leaps and bounds improvements in car handling. The engine was kind of tweaked and fine-tuned. It was figuring out where the weak links were, just like any racing program.
“The engine itself always seemed to have enough power and durability-wise I don’t recall us having any major engine issues. In the first year of the program, we learned about the level of competition we faced. In the second year, we focused on collecting data and accumulating experience while racing a highly modified LMP01 chassis. In the third year, we introduced the new Cadillac Northstar that incorporated the lessons we learned and embodied the knowledge we gained.”
Doug Duchardt (2002 LMP 02 program manager, former GM Racing Group Manager, current executive consultant at Chip Ganassi Racing):
“When I think back on that program, the head of GM Racing at that time, Herb Fishel, had gotten in lockstep with what Cadillac the division was trying to do in bringing a performance narrative to Cadillac with the V-Series. The important part of that first program was that General Motors did that in conjunction with the V-Series introduction. So, that racing program was the start of looking at Cadillac as a performance brand. After that, we went to World Challenge and continued to race Cadillac and win, and I think that has been important as we competed on the track — that it matched up with the performance variants that they’ve come up with through the years. It continued to show the capability of the street car and then we transitioned into the DPi program and continued to put Cadillac out there on the racetrack.”
(About competing at Le Mans):
“The 24 Hours of Le Mans is a crown jewel event for any racer and in racing. The challenge is huge, the competition is fierce but that’s what makes it exciting. I think back to the first time we fired this new car up last July and how much work has been put in. The fact that we went the 24 hours of Daytona was a testament to everyone in the program – from General Motors to Dallara to Chip Ganassi Racing and Action Express Racing to everyone that helped develop the car. We feel like we tried to do our homework, but we know the competition is going to be fierce. You just have to go and focus on executing – do the obvious things right – and hopefully we’ll be on the podium.”
(About the 2002 program for Le Mans):
“For 2002, we felt like it was going to be a step up with the new design and engine tweaks. The car was pretty good. We were obviously going against a formidable competitor in Audi. We felt like the car had a lot of potential.”
Dave Spitzer (LMP engine development manager, former Cadillac Racing GT program manager):
“(GM Racing Executive Director) Herb Fishel took a group of us over to France in 1998 for kind of a sighting visit and then we went back in 1999. By then, we were in full development of the Cadillac LMP that was going to enter in 2000. Back in that era, I was responsible for the engine program. We basically leveraged the Oldsmobile Aurora V8, which was racing at Indy on alcohol for 500 miles and turned that into a gasoline engine for Le Mans, 4-liter twin turbo. That was quite a challenge. We were proud to work with the DAMS team, but bringing four cars our first year it looked good in terms of numbers but it put a bit of a challenge into our program in supporting all those cars.”
(About Cadillac’s return to Le Mans):
“I’m really excited that Cadillac is going back. For me, it was a source of enormous pride. I think we acquitted ourselves well. Over three years, we really developed three generations of cars. The 2002 car we were getting pretty quick. We were racing against Audi at that time and their investment was off the charts. It was difficult to compete. They were one of the first with direct injection fueling the engine, so it gave them some advantages. But we were proud of the brand. When the 2002 program was over, the story for Cadillac was not over. It was all about building a racing heritage, so I came home and was assigned to the Cadillac CTS-V race program that we executed with Pratt & Miller, so I was program manager. We ended up winning races, winning championships and really building the Cadillac heritage.”
Max Angelelli (Cadillac LMP driver at Le Mans in 2000, ’01, ’02):
“This year we’re going with something that we know we can compete, with something that brings to all of us optimism. In the past, it was different. We did not have that sensation from the beginning. We are here with new cars in both championships (IMSA and FIA WEC) knowing that we are competitive and we can fight for the win.
“Le Mans is special because, first of all, it is an extremely unique racetrack because of the high speed and how many times you do it per lap. Four times per lap you are at high speed for that long and then almost every year it is raining and you have to perform the same thing. Four times every lap, top speed exceeding 300 km per hour every time day or night rain or dry. The other one is all the surrounding, the spectacle. It is an event that the entire country is filled from around the globe to compete and show who is the best. That brings to the drivers so much excitement because in one place it is unique. I remember that so well.
“For a manufacturer, I totally understand the investment. Going with three cars is an outstanding decision for Cadillac. It’s one team. What that does is everybody speaks the same language, everybody shares information and everyone helps everyone.”