The Mulsanne Straight is the name used in English for a formerly long straight of the Circuit de la Sarthe around which the 24 Hours of Le Mansauto race takes place. Since 1990, the straight is interrupted by two chicanes, with the last section leading to a sharp corner near the village of Mulsanne.
When races are not taking place, the Mulsanne Straight is part of the national road system of France. It is called the Ligne Droite des Hunaudières, a part of the route départementale RD 338 in the Sarthe department. The Hunaudières leads to the village of Mulsanne, its English namesake.
History
After exiting the Tertre Rouge corner, cars would spend almost half of the lap at full throttle, before braking for Mulsanne Corner. The Porsche 917 longtail with its 5.0-litre flat-12 engine, used from 1969 to 1971, had reached. After this, engine size was limited and top speeds dropped until powerful turbocharged engines, pioneered by French manufacturer Renault, were allowed, as in the 1978 Porsche 935 which was clocked at. Speeds on the straight by Group Cprototypes reached over during the late 1980s. At the beginning of the 1988 24 Hours of Le Mans race, Paris garage owner Roger Dorchy drove for Welter Racing in a car dubbed the WM P88. The P88 belonged to a program known as "Project 400" and was powered by a 2.8-litre turbocharged PeugeotPRV V6 engine, which sacrificed reliability for power. As a result, the car was out after just 53 laps with turbo, cooling and electrical failures. It was measured by radar travelling at an all-time race record speed of. There were fatal high-speed accidents on the Mulsanne Straight in the 1980s. Jean-Louis Lafosse was killed in 1981, and Jo Gartner in 1986; in 1984 a French track marshal was killed in an accident at the Kink involving the two Aston Martin Nimrod NRA/C2s of British driver John Sheldon and his American teammate Drake Olson. One driver had an extremely lucky escape in 1986: a tyre on British driver Win Percy's 7.0 litre V12-powered Jaguar XJR-6 exploded at, tearing off the rear bodywork and flipping the car into the air "up above the trees". The wreckage finally came to a halt 600 metres down the road. Although the vehicle was almost obliterated, Percy somehow walked away from the crash with nothing more than a badly battered helmet.
Addition of chicanes
As the combination of high speed and high downforce caused tyre and engine failures, two chicanes were added to the straight before the 1990 race to limit the achievable maximum speed. The chicanes were added also because the FIA decreed it would no longer sanction a circuit with a straight longer than, which is roughly the length of the Döttinger Höhe straight on the Nürburgring Nordschleife. The chicanes have successfully limited top speeds on the Mulsanne, with most of the leading cars topping out at approximately during qualifying and during the race. The Nissan R90CK is notable for achieving the highest straight line speed on the Mulsanne Straight at the Le Mans circuit following the installation of these chicanes. Mark Blundell reached a speed of 366 km/h during qualifying when the twin-turbo system's wastegate was stuck shut, leading the engine to produce well over its regular output of 1,000 bhp. The exact power increase remains unknown.
Spectator access
In the past, spectators could obtain magnificent views of cars racing along the straight during the Le Mans, including while dining at various restaurants—such as Restaurant de 24 Heures and Les Virages de L'Arche—located very close to the road. However, in 1990, the viewing experience obtained at both restaurants was diminished with the introduction of the chicanes. Today, due to safety concerns, spectators are kept well away from the edge of the straight by marshals and police, and while dining guests can still hear the cars pass, their view is obscured by green covers attached to the safety fencing.
As a namesake
Three Bentley cars are named after the straight and nearby villages: the Hunaudières concept car, the Mulsanne, and the Arnage.
