(engine revving)
- Ferrari, Aston Martin, Porsche, the Dodge Viper,
this car beat them all
and beat them so bad that some of them
had to quit their class within racing.
How did it do it?
And what does it take to do something like that?
We're about to find out.
I'll tell you just how dominant this car was.
What's up, guys?
I'm Felipe and we're gonna go bumper to bumper
on possibly the coolest Corvette ever.
This C6.R Corvette that won Le Man.
(upbeat music)
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- Before the brand new mid-engine Corvette
put the fear in Ferrari in the land of spaghetti,
Corvette Racing was already slapping
that Italian ass with the Corvette C6.R
in the world's most famous endurance race,
the 24 Heures of Le Mans.
Not only is it one of the most prestigious races
of all time, it's also one of the most grueling.
If you've seen Ford V. Ferrari,
you kind of know what I'm talking about.
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Because endurance racing is one of the toughest
forms of racing out there,
just finishing is a big accomplishment.
In a 24 hour period, you encounter changing
weather conditions, sometimes even
peeing your pants on purpose,
a little bit more on that later.
It kind of happens.
It's the ultimate test of man and machine.
So, when you win one, it's kind of a big deal.
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The five years that Corvette Racing
ran this car at Le Mans, it won it's class three times.
The other two it placed second.
Back in the states there was another
endurance race series that the C6.R raced in.
The American Le Mans Series or ALMS.
Born out of the spirit of the 24 Heures of Le Mans,
this C6.R raced at tracks across the nation,
following the same rules as Le Mans.
Also, I say raced in quotes because, well,
yes, it did race on a track
and, yes, it did have some competition
but you almost couldn't really call it a competition.
Kind of like me in Call of Duty.
In it's first ALMS season in 2005,
the Corvette Racing C6.R won the championship
by winning all but two races.
The next year Dodge dropped out of the series
and the C6.R again took the championship.
In one more year, Saleen gave the old Irish goodbye
and yes, the C6.R won the championship.
And in it's final year, Aston Martin
said (beep) it, we're not racing the whole season.
And again, this car brought home the title.
And when you win that much, when you dominate
the competition the way this car did,
it's kind of like when you beat your brothers
so bad that you make 'em rage quit.
After this car dominated the ALMS,
ended up dropping the GT1 class.
So, why did everyone else act like
a bunch of squares and just stop racing?
What made this C6.R such a good race car?
This yellow monster was built by Pratt and Miller.
And since 1999, they've been one of GM's
official racing teams.
Building fast AF Vettes, ATSVs, and GTOs to name a few.
Winning races and championships along the way.
The P&N team know every good race car needs
a solid foundation.
And this C6.R is no exception.
So, let's start with the first thing
a race team tackles when they decide to
build a race car, the chassis.
If the CL.6 chassis is your standard UNSC soldier,
the C6.R is a freaking master chief.
The racer frame rails on this beast
are made of hydroformed steel.
The P&N team wanted to stiffen things up a bit,
so they integrated the roll cage into the chassis
by welding it into the frame rails.
So the C6.R gets a banger chassis, great.
But, you can't win races without a good handling car.
The production C6 uses a composite leaf spring system
but for a race car, that's impractical.
The C6.R uses Penske adjustable coil over shocks
with remote reservoirs.
The control arms are also custom
and made from chromoly steel.
Steel is used to cover cast aluminum
because it can withstand more G forces.
(engine revving)
There's a few ways this C6.R dropped
a couple pounds to be super light.
Any time you can reduce your unsprung weight,
it's a win for the race car overall.
This yellow beast sits on one piece forked
magnesium BBS 18" wheels.
13" wide in the rear and 12.5" wide up at the front, damn.
Helping the car come to a stop are carbon ceramic
disks with AP Racing four piston calipers on the front
and the rear.
And not only to carbon ceramic brakes
reduce unsprung weight but they can withstand
much higher temperatures.
And they don't suffer from brake failure
as often as normal brakes do.
What this all means is that he can brake harder
and later when going into the corners.
(engine revving)
Where do you design the shape of your race car
when you want it to hit speeds
close to 200 mph?
Well, apparently you use fluid dynamics software
developed for freaking missiles.
Using that software, engineers altered
the shape of the car to provide optimal airflow
at high speeds.
At the front of the car, sadly, gone are the
popup headlights from the C5
and while the popup headlights are great
for songs like (upbeat music).
♪ Pop up, up and down headlights ♪
- They aren't great for aero as they create drag.
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The material all of these body panels
are made out of, well, it's carbon fiber.
The total weight of the car is around,
you know, 2,400lbs depending on who's driving it,
that's about 10 Vances or eight Nolans.
I don't know about you guys but I'm done
with the body, I wanna go look at the
LS that's under the hood.
The part that I've been waiting for all day,
under the hood is this LS7, 7.0L small block
making 590 horse power
and 640 pound feet of torque.
Seven liters!
That's the amount of milk that Nolan drinks in the morning
and then in the afternoon,
guess we just have to eat our cereal pretty dry.
If you think this is the same LS7 in the C6 Z06, it's not.
They share the same name and overall LS architecture
but this is an all out race motor
built by Katech Race Engine Development,
the custom LS7 gets CNC ported cylinder heads,
a billet steel crank shaft, titanium balancing rods,
and Nikasil coated cylinder bores.
Nikasil is a type of electro-deposited coating
that allows aluminum cylinders
and pistons to play nice with each other.
A carbon fiber intake box fed by two ducts
brings in air necessary to bring the motor to life.
Inside each of those ducts houses a restrictor plate.
If you guys take a very close look at this,
you can actually notice that the inlets
for the air has a large diameter
which then narrows down and what that does,
well, it limits the amount of horsepower
according to the FIA sanctioned rules for
the Le Mans series.
It's a little bit more on the even playing field
with the rest of its competitors
in the GT1 category, or whichever category
they're actually racing in.
If we were to remove those, well,
the horsepower goes all the way up
to close to 800 horsepower.
The motor revs out at 6200 RPM.
Although it rarely exceeds 5k,
because the engine uses high lift,
short duration camshafts, it gets high torque at lower RPM.
(upbeat music)
The exhaust exits under the doors,
it's really cool, it's like the OJ Vipers.
And it's the perfect place for auditory ear-gasms,
according to the internet.
All right.
There's one last thing left.
Let's go check out the inside of the car.
This is the coolest car I've ever sat in.
Inside the C6.R, it's very race car.
I mean, race seat with five point harnesses, check.
Removable steering wheel, check.
Air conditioning, check.
Oh yeah, race cars run hot inside the (beep) pit.
Temperatures range from 165 to 185 degrees fahrenheit.
So, to cool the drivers down, an AC system
is installed right where the passenger's seat would be.
It's that thing right there.
A large suction fan is used in the rear of the car
to take hot air out as inlets integrated
into the mirrors to keep fresh air flowing in.
Not only does it keep the driver cool
but also all of the electronics
which there's a ton of them in this car.
This car was piloted by three drivers.
You had Johnny O'Connell,
Jan Magnussen, who happens to be the father
of Kevin Magnussen, if you watch F1.
And the third driver was Antonio Garcia,
which, you know, pretty rad, Spanish driver.
And they all had to share this (beep) pit.
So, throughout the race, they're all taking turns
driving behind the wheel.
And you can't just, you know, go to the pits to pee.
So, what do you do?
You just let it flow.
And then you sit in your homie's pee for the next run.
There's two things on this steering wheel,
one of them is missing, one of them is on it
that I find very interesting.
The first on is, there's a map of Le Mans
right on the wheel cause, you know,
during racing, you can get pretty delirious.
So, you can ask your engineer, hey,
what corner am I approaching?
And he'll be like, dude, you're on fifteen.
And be like, sick, all right,
there's a couple hairpins coming up
and you kind of prep your mind
and you're ready for it.
But the other one is, there's no paddle shifts
behind the wheel.
This thing still has a sequential shifter
which is not very common any more.
Unless you're a rally driver or Ken Block.
I'm staring at the switch that I really wanna hit.
It's the ignition switch but, unfortunately,
we can't start the car.
You see, this is a full blown race car
and because the engine's made out of metal,
well, it's all kind of compact together.
You're actually supposed to hook up a
coolant heating system that allows the engine
to come back up to operating temperature
which gives you clearances everywhere else
that you need for things to actually flow
and move as they should inside the engine
without damaging anything.
And unfortunately, we don't have that machine with us.
But take my word for it, this car sounds amazing.
Look at this clip that Bruce Meyer shared with us
when he took the car to Thermal with his son.
(engine revving)
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Pratt and Miller only built six C6.Rs.
This is number 007.
It was retired after it won the 24 Heures of Le Mans
in 2009 under crew chief Dan Binks
whom is still the crew chief
and is helping develop the new C8 Corvette
for endurance racing.
This C6.R is in the same condition it was
when it left the race track for the last time.
Heck, it still has the champagne stains
and look at all this dirt and like road funk.
It's so cool.
The C6.R marked the end of an era
when Corvette racing dominated the American Le Mans series
since they debut it in 2005,
it has won 38 races, making it the winningest
GT1 car in the series.
And second all time regardless of its class.
If you were ever curious what the most badass
Corvette race car looked like,
well, you're looking at it.
And I'm sitting next to it.
This is it.
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Myself, personally, and the rest of the Donut crew
would really like to thank Mr. Bruce Meyer
for allowing us to come to his garage,
hang out, and film his car.
Also, huge, huge, huge thanks to Tom Kenny
for all his help making this shoot happen.
He helped us move all the cars around,
and that was pretty amazing
and kind of put the whole thing together for us.
Underneath that sick 24 Heures of Le Mans sticker
is that little hole.
You bring this in, this is hooked up to a hose,
and it's filled with nitrogen.
You pop it in this little hole
and that jacks the whole car up.
Then you can take your actual gun
and start changing out your tires during your pit stop.
That's pretty sick.
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