Out of the blue: Indian Le Mans Project

[Mihai]

http://www.courage-competition.com/htmgb/indian_project.html

A project initiated by the Indian automotive magazine Overdrive. One can only speculate if they have financial backing or they just want to raise publicity on them or on the Le Mans 24h race.

http://www.courage-competition.com/general/LC70-inde2.jpg

[harsha]

never heard of an Indian Le Mans project before....but i am just ignorant on Le Mans and A1,have any of the other indians heard of this before

[viper_man]

I had heard a little on this before from my partners family (they are Indian), but I didnt beleive it at first and havent really heard too much else about it.

The car itself is absolutely stunning, the idea? A bit of a longshot.

[harsha]

sounds like a big hoax to me,will be a glad if i am proved wrong though,but i really don't think that it will happen.....

[luvracin]

There is so much automotive engineering being done in India under contract(ie: outsourced from Europe/USA) or for the local market that I really don't see this as far fetched.

There is ALOT of upcoming engineering talent there. A Lemans project seems entirely logical.

[Sleeper]

Looks like an interesting idea but I doubt it would be too competative if they use a courage in LMP2, but wouldnt be too bad in LMP1.

[Mark in Oshawa]

If they bought a chassis and got some people together sure, why not? I hope it happens. It is about time for India to enter the world's sporting community in a sport that isnt soccer or cricket. For the second largest nation population wise to not have a burgeoning motorsport community would be a life. 20 years from now, I suspect Indians will be all over in the sport....

[Mihai]

Indians are still to enter the world soccer community (nowdays they suck big time at this sport). And I don't think they will rock the world of motorsports in the next two decades either. The Chinese are much more advanced. But a Le Mans entry would be a great achievement for the subcontinent. India has quite a few good racing drivers like Narain Karthikeyan, Karun Chandok, Parthiva Sureshwaren or high-school student Armaan Ebrahim (let's hope he will finally score a point in A1 GP this year).

[Rover V8]

Looks like an interesting idea but I doubt it would be too competative if they use a courage in LMP2, but wouldnt be too bad in LMP1.

Don't forget that if it happens this year, they're not going to have to worry about Porsches or Acuras in LMP2. The Barazi Courage, although not as quick as RML's Lola, was LMS champion in P2 last year, and the Indian project will use the new LC75, run by the Courage factory team. If they can get a couple of quick drivers on board, I don't see any reason why they shouldn't be pretty competitive.

[Mark in Oshawa]

Mihai, I didn't say they would dominate, but in 20 years I expect to see Indians in the sport. Mechanics, engineers, drivers...maybe an owner or two. No nation really dominates in racing anyhow...

[eloyf1]

Narain Karthikeyan was interested on Le Mans, so it's possible...

[captin 1 VXR]

very intresting

[Mihai]

Narain Karthikeyan was interested on Le Mans, so it's possible...

Well, he's not going anywhere with Williams, that's for sure, since most of the limited testing programme that Williams is doing this year will be done by the two race drivers and by Nakajima junior (damn you, Toyota!). The only chance for Karthikeyan to reestablish himself as a race driver is to focus on the remaining rounds of A1 GP series and to try to find a drive elsewhere.