The biggest race in the world? The 24 Hours of Le Mans is this weekend.
The biggest race in the world? The 24 Hours of Le Mans is this weekend.
全球最盛大的赛事？勒芒24小时耐力赛本周末开赛。
One of motorsport’s three biggest races takes place this weekend in France. It is the annual 24 Hours of Le Mans, an endurance race that, together with the Indianapolis 500 and the Monaco Grand Prix, make up the ‘triple crown,’ an unofficial achievement that only the late Graham Hill can claim to have won. 本周末，赛车界三大赛事之一将在法国举行。这就是一年一度的勒芒24小时耐力赛。它与印第安纳波利斯500英里大奖赛（Indianapolis 500）和摩纳哥大奖赛（Monaco Grand Prix）并称为“赛车三冠王”，这是一项非官方的成就，目前只有已故车手格拉汉姆·希尔（Graham Hill）一人曾获此殊荣。
This year, 62 different cars take the start, racing on a mix of permanent race track but also public roads that for the rest of the year are how locals get to the supermarket or the local McDos. It’s not the oldest race in the world, but it’s up there—it was first held in 1923, and this year will be the 94th running. 今年共有62辆赛车参赛，赛道由永久性赛道和公共道路混合而成，而这些公共道路在一年中的其他时间里，是当地居民去超市或麦当劳的必经之路。虽然它不是世界上最古老的赛事，但历史相当悠久——它始于1923年，今年将迎来第94届比赛。
It was started as a way to give the automotive industry a grueling test for their new machinery and has remained the area of motorsport with the most road relevance. Disc brakes crossed over from aerospace to road cars at Le Mans, and better brakes continue to be tested there today, but it’s also where companies like Porsche and Audi and Toyota proved new hybrid technology, brake-by-wire systems, direct-injection engines, and advanced headlights, to name but a few. 这项赛事最初是为了给汽车工业的新机器提供严苛的测试，至今仍是与民用汽车关联度最高的赛车领域。盘式制动器正是从航空航天领域通过勒芒赛场进入民用汽车的，如今更先进的制动系统也在此进行测试。此外，保时捷、奥迪和丰田等公司也在这里验证了混合动力技术、线控刹车系统、缸内直喷发动机和先进的前大灯技术等，不胜枚举。
This year, the 62 cars are split across three different classes, each crewed by three drivers who take shifts at the wheel. Some of the drivers are pros—among the world’s very best. But plenty are amateurs; in the past, lots of dentists, oddly enough. But with the cost of racing these days, it’s the tech bros. The Ruby on Rails creator, the co-founder of GitHub, and the co-founder of Crowdstrike are all racing in the LMP2 class. And Valve’s Gabe Newell owns the Aston Martin team that is competing in both Hypercar—with the outrageous-looking and -sounding Valkyrie—as well as in LMGT3, where his son Gray will be one of the drivers. 今年，这62辆赛车被分为三个不同的组别，每辆车由三名车手轮流驾驶。有些车手是世界顶尖的职业选手，但也有不少业余爱好者；过去，参赛者中有很多牙医，这很奇怪。但随着如今赛车成本的增加，现在的主力军变成了科技圈大佬。Ruby on Rails的创始人、GitHub的联合创始人和Crowdstrike的联合创始人都在参加LMP2组别的比赛。Valve的加布·纽维尔（Gabe Newell）拥有的阿斯顿·马丁车队不仅参加了Hypercar组别（驾驶着外观和声浪都极其震撼的Valkyrie），还参加了LMGT3组别，他的儿子格雷（Gray）将担任该组别的车手之一。
Hypercar
超级跑车组（Hypercar）
The top class, with the fastest cars, is called Hypercar, contested by factory teams and all-professional driver lineups. We’ve written about Hypercar quite a lot over the past few years, together with the closely related GTP class that races in IMSA’s WeatherTech series over here. These are closed-roof mid-engined prototypes, most of them hybrids purpose-designed to go racing. 最高组别、速度最快的赛车被称为Hypercar，由厂商车队和全职业车手阵容参赛。过去几年我们写过很多关于Hypercar的文章，以及与之密切相关的、在美国IMSA WeatherTech系列赛中竞技的GTP组别。这些赛车是封闭式座舱、中置引擎的原型车，大多数是专为比赛设计的混合动力车型。
Ferrari, Peugeot, and Toyota each designed their cars completely in-house to a set of regulations called LMH, which allows them to put the electric hybrid motor at the front axle, although the cars can only use this temporary all-wheel drive above 93 mph (150 km/h). Ferrari might have won every Le Mans since the introduction of Hypercar in 2023, but it hasn’t won a race in the World Endurance Championship since the French race last year. 法拉利、标致和丰田都根据LMH规则完全自主设计了赛车，该规则允许它们将电动混合动力电机安装在前轴上，尽管赛车只有在时速超过93英里（150公里/小时）时才能使用这种临时四驱系统。自2023年Hypercar组别引入以来，法拉利可能赢得了每一届勒芒冠军，但自去年法国站比赛以来，它在世界耐力锦标赛（WEC）中还未赢得过任何一场比赛。
Aston Martin also builds its car to LMH, but the Valkyrie started life as a road car, designed by F1 legend Adrian Newey. But it had to lose the road car’s hybrid system and quite a lot of power and aerodynamic downforce in order to comply with the LMH ruleset. Ironically, the Valkyrie is perhaps the truest car competing in the Hypercar class—when the category was first proposed by the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (which organizes the race), the idea was to get racing versions of road-going hypercars like the Valkyrie or Mercedes’ AMG-One. At least until everyone realized how expensive and difficult that might be; only Aston Martin remained up for that challenge. 阿斯顿·马丁也按照LMH规则制造赛车，但Valkyrie最初是一款由F1传奇人物阿德里安·纽维（Adrian Newey）设计的公路跑车。为了符合LMH规则，它不得不舍弃了公路版的混合动力系统，并损失了相当多的动力和空气动力学下压力。讽刺的是，Valkyrie或许是Hypercar组别中最“纯粹”的赛车——当西方汽车俱乐部（ACO，赛事组织方）最初提出这一组别时，初衷就是让像Valkyrie或梅赛德斯AMG-One这样的公路超级跑车推出赛道版本。至少在大家意识到这有多昂贵和困难之前是这样；最终只有阿斯顿·马丁坚持了下来。
The bulk of Hypercar—Alpine, BMW, Cadillac, and now Genesis—are cars built to LMDh specifications, imported from IMSA in Daytona Beach, Florida. But those OEMs aren’t responsible for all of the car. The central carbon-fiber chassis or spine comes from one of four different builders (Oreca, Dallara, Multimatic, Ligier), and all LMDh cars must use the same transmission, hybrid motor, and hybrid battery. The automakers then design the bodywork and bring their own engines and software to the party. Hypercar组别中的大多数赛车——如Alpine、宝马、凯迪拉克以及现在的捷尼赛思（Genesis）——都是按照LMDh规格制造的，这些规格源自佛罗里达州代托纳比奇的IMSA赛事。但这些汽车制造商并不负责整车的所有部分。中央碳纤维底盘或骨架来自四家不同的制造商（Oreca、Dallara、Multimatic、Ligier），所有LMDh赛车必须使用相同的变速箱、混合动力电机和电池。汽车制造商随后负责设计车身，并提供自己的发动机和软件。
LMDh is a cheaper approach than LMH, but it’s also notable that during the first three years of the class, which was introduced in 2023, an LMDh car has yet to actually win Le Mans, a fact that almost certainly explains the absence of Porsche from the top category in 2026. If all that sounds a bit complicated, that’s sportscar racing for you. To keep performance level between all the different cars, the sport uses a process called “balance of performance” to handicap machines into equality, with a maximum power output of 670 hp (500 kW). LMDh比LMH更经济，但值得注意的是，自2023年该组别引入以来的前三年里，还没有一辆LMDh赛车真正赢得过勒芒冠军，这一事实几乎肯定解释了为什么保时捷在2026年将缺席该顶级组别。如果这一切听起来有点复杂，这就是跑车赛的常态。为了保持不同赛车之间的性能水平，该赛事使用一种称为“性能平衡”（Balance of Performance）的机制来限制赛车性能以达到平等，最大功率输出被限制在670马力（500千瓦）。
Things will get slightly less complicated in 2030, I think. Earlier today the ACO and IMSA, together with the FIA (which is in charge of the World Endurance Championship, along with stuff like F1) announced that in 2030 there will be a unified class for Le Mans, WEC, and the WeatherTech championship. All-wheel drive is out; all cars will have to be rear-wheel drive hybrids. But you can either build the entire thing yourself (like LMH) or use an approved spine and hybrid system as a starting point (like LMDh). 我想，到2030年情况会稍微简单一些。今天早些时候，ACO和IMSA，连同国际汽联（FIA，负责世界耐力锦标赛以及F1等赛事）宣布，2030年勒芒、WEC和WeatherTech锦标赛将采用统一的组别。四驱系统将被取消；所有赛车都必须是后轮驱动的混合动力车。但你可以选择完全自主制造（如LMH），或者使用获批的骨架和混合动力系统作为起点（如LMDh）。
LMP2
LMP2组别
LMP2 cars are sports prototypes one step down from the Hypercars. Originally there were four different makes, from the same manufacturers as those LMDh spines—LMDh was developed from what was going to be the LMP2 replacement—but the Oreca 07 proved to be so much better than the other three that no one races a Ligier, Dallara, or Riley-Multimatic anymore. The cars all use the same 4.0 L Gibson V8 making 600 hp (447 kW), and there’s no hybrid system. These cars also have more aerodynamic… LMP2赛车是仅次于Hypercar的运动原型车。最初有四个不同的品牌，来自与那些LMDh骨架相同的制造商——LMDh正是从原本计划替代LMP2的方案中发展而来的——但Oreca 07被证明远优于其他三款，以至于现在没有人再使用Ligier、Dallara或Riley-Multimatic的赛车了。这些赛车全部使用相同的4.0升Gibson V8发动机，功率为600马力（447千瓦），且没有混合动力系统。这些赛车还拥有更多的空气动力学……