South Korea's forgotten Genesis project will hope to surpass

You'd think Genesis would grow to be the primary South Korean manufacturer to compete within the 24 Hours of Le Mans when its upcoming LMDh arrives on the grid in 2026. But you're improper. Thirty years before the planned appearance of the Hyundai brand on the Circuit de la Sarthe, one other campaign by a automotive manufacturer from an Asian country took place.

SsangYong attacked the French enduro in 1996. It was intriguing, not least since it was prepared by a former Formula 1 driver who had a Le Mans victory on his CV.

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Bertrand Gachot, the 1991 Le Mans winner with Mazda who had enjoyed (or perhaps endured) a nomadic F1 profession in Onyx, Rial, Coloni, Jordan, Larrousse and Pacific, was within the means of hanging up his helmet and on the lookout for a brand new profession opportunity , when he was recruited by a manufacturer that was just entering Europe. It began selling cars within the UK in 1994.

“I wanted to give up my driving career and go into business,” says the Belgian, who raced at Le Mans in 1994 and 1995 with Honda during his final F1 seasons with Pacific. “I felt like I did what I had to do, I had my time.”

To do that, he went to South Korea with Ko Gotoh, who was a shareholder in Pacific and, as Gachot says, “had interests all over the world.” The meeting with SsangYong resulted in a request to take the brand, which was founded in 1988, to Le Mans.

“They were an emerging brand and wanted to change their image, which until then had been more focused on things like trucks,” recalls Gachot, whose time in F1 will at all times be remembered for the race he didn't enter, relatively than any of the 47 during which he participated. did – Michael Schumacher made his Grand Prix debut with Jordan at Spa in 1991, when the house driver was jailed for assaulting a London automotive driver. “They asked if we could take them to Le Mans and gave us a very small budget. It was a crazy project.”

Gachot (left) desired to stop driving after two difficult seasons in F1 with Pacific, but was lured by the brand new Le Mans project

Photo: LAT Photographic

Gachot claims that the proposed deal was not for a seven-figure sum and included just one condition: any automotive that was taken to Le Mans and was named SsangYong needed to be powered by a Mercedes engine. This was possible because of technological connections with the German manufacturer and using its drive units in your entire product range.

Gachot's response to SsangYong's request was to go for a unusual mid-seat LMP2 chassis manufactured by Welter Racing, one among which took pole position at Le Mans in 1995. He installed a turbocharged two-liter, four-cylinder Mercedes engine instead of the unique Peugeot unit.

Gachot struck a cope with Nicholson-McLaren Engines within the UK to convert a four-cylinder Mercedes road engine right into a racing powerplant. “I asked them what they needed and they said, 'Five blocks, but they need to be taken out of the scrapyard,'” he recalled.

It now had an engine to suit the 1994 WR chassis – requiring only minor changes to the engine mounts and pump link – but no assembly.

The reason for the strange request? Cast iron engine blocks grow to be stronger over time as they undergo heat cycles. Therefore, the predominant BMW turbocharger castings that took Nelson Piquet with Brabham to the F1 World Championship in 1983 weren’t entirely recent. Stories of BMW engine guru Paul Rosche's employees urinating on the blocks to in some way speed up the aging process may or will not be true.

“Nicholson-McLaren built us a very good engine, very powerful,” explains Gachot. It now had an engine to suit the 1994 WR chassis – requiring only minor changes to the engine mounts and engine case – but no assembly.

“We didn't have a single screwdriver,” recalls Gachot, who teamed up with Jean Messaoudi, who once competed at Le Mans, to create a structure that may make the automotive drivable. “We created a kind of virtual team: we rented everything and brought in mechanics I knew from F1.”

Gachot obtained an entry to the race under his own name, preceded by the acronym PGM: it stood for Pretty Good Management, and this was the corporate under which he operated as a racing driver. However, the slot he received from the race organizer, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest, only secured him entry into what we now call Test Day. Back then it was a competitive session, at the very least for some competitors: Gachot would have needed to pass pre-qualifying at the tip of April if SsangYong were to enter the race week in June.

Nicholson-McLaren Engines converted a Mercedes road engine right into a racing unit for Gachot's SsangYong WR

Photo: John Brooks

It didn't work out as planned. Gachot, the one driver who sat behind the wheel of the WR-SsangYong within the preliminary qualifying, didn’t make it to the race. An afternoon problem, which the creator remembers was not disclosed on the time, caused the automotive to stall on the track, but was hit by one other entrant – one among the factory WRs! He wouldn't have the opportunity to get back on target.

This just isn’t the tip of SsangYong's Le Mans story. Gachot and the automotive returned to the location in September to participate in an event generally known as the Autumn Cup on the Bugatti everlasting circuit.

What WR Gachota could and couldn’t show at this event just isn’t entirely clear, partly because he admits that his memory of the project after 30 years is somewhat shaky, and in addition because contemporary reports, including Autosport, were short and sweet. The diverse field didn't require much coverage: entries were limited, although the four-hour event featured Courage Competition with a pair of Porsche-powered LMP prototypes and a factory WR lineup.

Speaking to Autosport, Gachot was initially convinced that his WR's appearance on the Le Mans grid occurred before pre-qualifying day, relatively than after. He remembers a throttle problem that actually occurred in the course of the Bugatti event, and insists that the WR-SsangYong LM94 ran one among the 2 two-hour races.

His memories usually are not supported by Autosport or the history books. However, the SsangYong P2-powered Gachot shared with Emmanuel Clerico set the second-fastest qualifying time behind the Welter Racing entry, just over nine-tenths behind.

They finished eighth in the primary series, but didn't see the checkered flag within the second. This could have been attributable to the throttle problem Gachot mentions.

This was the tip of SsangYong's preliminary program at Le Mans. This didn’t extend the contract with Gachot – the next 12 months the corporate was taken over by Daewoo initially of its peripatetic existence. Over the years, the brand got here under the control of Mahindra and Shanghai Automotive and is today generally known as KGM, which stands for KG Mobility.

The Belgian continued to race a bit – in 1997 he took part in just a few rounds of the All-Japan GT Championship and returned to Le Mans in his customer Porsche 911 GT1 – but that very same 12 months he began importing the Hype energy drink to France. In 2000, he became the corporate's general director.

Gachot returned to Le Mans for the ultimate time in Kremer's Porsche 911 GT1 in 1997, following the tip of the SsangYong project

Photo: LAT Photographic

But he has fond, if blurry, memories of his time working with a South Korean automaker that almost all people have never heard of.

“You know the story: the older you are, the faster you are,” he says. “I hope I don't join that club, but on that little Bugatti track we were fast against the massive cars.

“I'm sure we were leading at one point before the problem, but I definitely remember leaving the track happy that we had proven something. We were disappointed, but we knew we did well. Our little pack was super fast.”

Despite the dearth of success, Gachot has fond, if vague, memories of the SsangYong WR project

Photo: John Brooks