Group C 1100BHP Pole Position Lap 1990 Le Mans – Blundell Nissan
In EVO Magazine issue 157 Mark Blundell writes about his Group C experience at Le Mans in 1990 with the Nissan R90CK. He details his pole position lap, the things that happened over the week, how he ended up going for the qualifying time and what the car was like to drive with probably over 1,100bhp!
He establishes his route to Le Mans that year and gave a real sense of what that week was like for him and the Group C Nissan team, when everything seemed to be going wrong.
“Every input was pure reflex – things were coming at me everywhere I looked. For about 50 percent of the lap I felt like I was on the verge of a massive accident.”
Blundell on His 1990 Pole Position Lap at Lemans in the Group C Nissan R90
The Blundell takes us through his qualifying run which ended up with him putting the car on pole by 6 seconds. The wastegate was jammed closed, overboosting the engine, the team told Blundell to pit and not bother with the lap, Blundell disagreed (his earphones mysteriously fell out..).
Blundell says because of the running problems, he had no idea how much power the car actually had until he came on to the pit straight to start his qualifying lap. He had no idea of his braking points because he had never travelled that fast down the straights, 238mph between the chicanes on the Mulsanne!!
More info on the R90CK from Wikipedia
More info on Mark Blundell from his official website
More info on Le Mans from Wikipedia
