Oreca

ORECA (Organisation Exploitation Compétition Automobiles) is a French racing team, founded in 1973 and run by Hugues de Chaunac, former team manager of F1 team AGS. Oreca has had success in many areas of motorsport including Formula Three where drivers including Alain Prost, Jacques Laffite and Jean Alesi have won the French Formula Three Championship for the team a record 11 times.

Since the early 90s the team has concentrated on running sports cars and GT cars running a BMW operation in the French Supertouring Championship, winning the FIA GT Championship and the Le Mans 24 Hours in the GT2 class with a Chrysler Viper GTS-R and overall for Mazda 787B in 1991, on their second attempt and first after a decade; preparing the Renault Clio S1600 for rallying and winning the ice racing Andros Trophy with a Toyota Corolla driven by Alain Prost. More recently, Oreca have assisted Renault in building the new Megane V6 for the Renault Eurocup Megane Sport and fielding an Audi R8 in the 2005 Le Mans 24 Hours with support from Audi France. Also for 2006 Oreca ran the Saleen S7R in the Le Mans Series. The Oreca Saleen S7R had already won the 2006 Spa-Francorchamps Le Mans race.

Oreca 01

The Oreca 01 is a Le Mans Prototype built by Oreca Racing in 2009. It is to replace the Courage-Oreca LC70 raced previously by Oreca. It is powered by an engine from Japanese engine company AIM Power. It is a tuned Judd engine that develops 650 bhp 485 kW, all of which kicks in at 8000 rpm.

Racing

2009

Team Oreca Matmut-AIM debuted two Oreca 01's at the 2009 1000 km of Spa, the second round of the 2009 Le Mans Series season. It started off well with the #10 car qualifying fourth place. Unfortunately, Bruno Senna, driving the #10 car had a huge crash after completing 129 of the race winners 143 laps.The accident damage looked identical to the other #10 driver Stéphane Ortelli's crash at the 2008 1000 km of Monza which put him out of the running for the 2008 24 Hours of Le Mans. Luckily, the #11 car did finish, in fourth place getting five points.

At the 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans, the #11 car finished 5th. The #10 did not finish, dropping out after 219 laps.

2010

A single Oreca 01 was entered in the 2010 24 Hours of Le Mans alongside a Peugeot 908 HDi FAP, qualifying with a time of 3:29.506, putting it in 10th place. Despite the Lola-Aston Martins being favoured to win the "petrol" P1 class all 3 of them as well as all 4 Peugeots suffered reliability issues, the Oreca 01 was able to take an impressive 4th place overall, highest petrol-fuel finisher and behind only the 3 factory Audis.

Oreca 05

The Oreca 05 is a Le Mans Prototype built by Oreca in 2015.

The car was designed to compete in the LMP2 class. The car's first win came at the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans by Hong Kong-based team KCMG. A closed-top design, it incorporates several new mechanical and safety features not used in the Oreca 03 car. Zylon anti-intrusion panels are built into the frame that prevent any mechanical components from coming into the chassis in the event of an accident. The car is smaller than the normal LMP2 class; the 05's frame is 1900mm wide while most other cars have a 2000mm frame. The 05 has an electrical power steering system and an improved gearbox.

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