Sportscar racing was, for a long time, a very open series in
terms of chassis design and engine choice. Teams could design cars from
scratch, and then stick whatever engine they pleased into the chassis.
You could have a whole grid of cars in the same category
competing against one another powered by V8s, V10s, diesels or even
turbocharged four-cylinder engines.
The key was a good chassis: something that handled well, had
good aerodynamic efficiency, and wasn’t too difficult to drive over long
distances. One of the cars that did this best was the venerable Pescarolo 01.
Pescarolo Sport was no stranger to international sportscar
racing, having been active since 2000 and notching up a number of podiums and
victories across Europe and the USA using cars bought from French manufacturer Courage
Competition.
In 2007, the ACO changed the competition regulations for Le
Mans that left teams scrambling to design new cars for the upcoming season.
Pescarolo Sport decided to use a car of their own design to fulfil these regulations.
This was a from-the-ground-up car that used the very latest technology and was,
with admirable financial savviness, eligible for both LMP1 and LMP2 categories.
This new car was designated the Pescarolo 01 and was one of the
most competitive non-factory LMP cars ever made.
Over it’s eight year career (which is a long time for a prototype
sportscar) the 01 managed to bloody the noses of some of the biggest teams at
the time. In its debut season, the 01 took on the also-newfangled Peugeot 908
LMP1 in the Le Mans Series, and took a number of podium finishes, frequently
splitting the two factory Peugeots.
An all-French driver lineup at Le Mans in 2007 also took third
overall with customer team, Rollcentre Racing, bringing their 01 home in fourth.
The 2008 season saw the LMP1-spec 01 take on Audi Sport at
the height of their powers, and the LMP2-spec 01 fought Porsche’s
factory-backed RS Spyders. Compared to these competitors, the 01 was outgunned,
but excellent reliability and pace saw the Pescarolos home as the next best
finishers after Audi and Peugeot in LMP1 and Porsche in LMP2.
2009 and the EVO update of the 01 saw the car take second
overall in the 2009 Le Mans Series behind Aston Martin. Fellow French team, OAK
racing campaigned LMP2-spec 01s in 2009 where they achieved a third-in-class
finish at Le Mans.
OAK racing kept on with the 01, and in 2011 they fielded
four 01s: two in LMP1 and two in LMP2. This showed the true versatility of the 01
design as the chassis fundamentals were so good it enabled both the V10-powered
LMP1 version and V8-powered LMP2 car to both be reliable, fast and easily to
drive.
At this stage, OAK had taken over the design, production and
commercial side of the cars as Pescarolo had entered financial difficulties.
OAK focused on LMP2 racing, where the 01 was still competitive after the exodus
of the Porsche factory team. At this stage the car was rebranded as the OAK
Morgan due to a sponsorship deal, but the car was still mechanically a
Pescarolo 01. 2013 saw a season full of success for OAK, with their LMP2 taking
a class win at Le Mans and the LMP2 title in the Asian Le Mans Series and in
the World Endurance Championship.
This success was a rather fitting end to the era of
open-topped sportscar racers. By this point, the factory LMP1 teams had all
adopted a closed-cockpit design style, and by 2017 all LMP2s had to be
closed-cockpit in design. Regulations also stipulated that chassis could only
come from four manufacturers: Dallara, Oreca, Multimatic and Ligier.
This needn’t be too upsetting however and not the end of
what we’d call the privateer sportscar. When OAK racing took over the logistical
side of running the Pescarolo 01s, a new company was built: Onroak Automotive,
which is now known as Ligier. The same Ligier which now builds Lamborghini’s
top-flight endurance racer, the SC63.
The legacy of the Pescarolo 01 continues in that car.
Kerbside 