Taylor says Corvette is best he’s ever driven at Le Mans
Corvette Racing’s C7.Rs qualified only sixth and tenth for Saturday’s start of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but both Jordan Taylor and Jan Magnussen say their car’s handling is far better than last year.
Photo by: Nikolaz Godet
Antonio Garcia’s best lap of 3:51.484 was 0.647sec off GTE Pro-class pole time, set by Aston Martin, while the #64 car was a further half second adrift.
However Garcia and co-drivers Magnussen and Taylor said they were satisfied with the #63 car’s performance .
Said Garcia: “We have a good car and I had a good run, working a bit on getting the car ready for the race. We have a fast car, and more so we had no major issues. We’ll now sit down and see how we can further improve our car for the weekend.”
Magnussen added: “The balance of the car is really, really nice; the best we’ve had all week, and that’s the most important thing to me. The track developed really a lot since yesterday, and with the races and practice sessions they had all day today a lot of rubber was laid down. The difference compared to last year is so big when I felt uncomfortable in the car.
“Now the car is so good; it’s easy to play around with the brake balance and such, which gives you confidence.”
Taylor was even more enthusiastic, saying: “We made some good changes and we now have a good idea on how the car will behave in the race.
“This definitely is the best Corvette I’ve ever driven here in the past six years. It is fast and comfortable and that is exactly what you want.”
Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner and Marcel Fassler admitted that their focus wasn’t on qualifying at all, Gavin commenting: “I think we are in a positive spot; we’ve managed to keep in step with the evolution of the circuit.
“I’m really confident that we will have a good strong, raceable car that will be able to compete with anyone. We’ve stuck to our plan the last two days, and they’ve been very good ones. We’ll see what the race brings, but right now this is very positive.”
The combination of Milner, Gavin and Taylor won the GTE Pro category in 2015 – Milner’s second class win, Gavin’s fifth and Taylor’s first. It was Corvette Racing’s eighth victory since 2001.
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