The Cougar C20 was a

Group C Group C was a category of sports car racing introduced by the FIA in 1982 and continuing until 1993, with ''Group A'' for Touring car racing, touring cars and ''Group B'' for Grand tourer, GTs. It was designed to replace both Group 5 (motorspor ...

sports car prototype used in

sports car racing Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing that uses sports cars with two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be either purpose-built Sports prototype, sports prototypes, which are the highest level in sports car racing; or grand to ...

from 1987 to 1990.

Development history and technology

The Cougar C20, a closed Group C prototype, was developed by Yves Courage in 1987 and prepared for the respective races by his own racing team, the

Courage Compétition Courage Compétition was a racing team and chassis constructor company now owned by Oreca, based in Le Mans, France, near the Circuit de la Sarthe. It was founded by Yves Courage, a French race driver who ran hillclimbs before founding the comp ...

. Powered by a 3-liter Porsche 6-cylinder turbocharged engine, the race car made its debut at the 1987 1000 km Monza race. The vehicle was driven by Joël Gouhier and

Hervé Regout Hervé Regout (born 4 November 1952) is a Belgian racing driver. He competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans nine times between 1980 and 1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of ...

, who finished ninth overall after eleventh place on the grid.

Racing history

The greatest success for this type of vehicle was third place overall in the 1987 24 Hours of Le Mans, driven by Regout, Yves Courage, and Pierre-Henri Raphanel. In 1988, the C20B brought an evolutionary step to the racetrack. Both variants were used in parallel for a year, and from 1989, the B version was Courage's emergency vehicle for two years. However, this vehicle was only rolled to the start four times. 1988 at the 1000 km race of Monza and in Silverstone, as well as 1989 and 1990 at the 24-hour race of Le Mans. At Le Mans, the cars were entered in the smaller prototype class - the C2 class. There was a victory in this class in 1989 by Jean-Claude Andruet, Philippe Farjon, and Shunji Kasuya.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cougar C20 Le Mans Prototypes 24 Hours of Le Mans race cars Rear-wheel-drive vehicles Mid-engined cars Sports prototypes Cars introduced in 1987 C20 Cars powered by boxer engines Group C