Le Mans’ newspaper “Le Maine Libre” revealed last week that Yves Courage is about to come back in motorsport spotlights with a very ambitious program: an electric Courage car. When we met him last December (here), Yves Courage talked about an “important project” which is now come true.

We now can unveil the outlines of this project since Yves Courage kindly asked the Squadra Company, in charge of management, financing and public relations, to give this information to us. Here are the details about Electric Technology and Innovation for Competition (ETIC) project!

The objectives are crystal clear: “First of all, we want to give the general public a different view of electricity from short-life battery and poor performances. The 24 Hours of Le Mans race, synonymous of performance and durability, is a good carrier. Then we want to take up a technological challenge with an avant-garde and civic and competitive image for its protagonists and partners.”

This project is in line with the context of energy saving and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, since 72% of these emissions come from cars in France. Yves Courage and its partners are aware that motorsport, which is often criticized because of pollution, has to make progress and give the lead in the search of new technologic solutions to ensure its future. Keeping this in mind, they started the ETIC project, keen on electric engine, which allows a new approach of motorsport with a necessary innovation from all angles.

The ETIC’s pioneers are of course Yves Courage, who is the designer and Technical Manager of the project, Paul Belmondo, very well-known by race-fans for his past in F1 and Endurance with among others Paul Belmondo Racing’s Courages C65as well as his job as a TV consultant, in charge of Sport Management, and Didier Sommereau and Jean-Michel Pappolla, both partners in Squadra company.

This project aims at entering the 24 Hours of Le Mans and Le Mans Series championship with two prototypes from 2010. These two cars will be run by a new organization, Courage Technologies, so the Courage adventure restarts less than two years after Courage Compétition ended. Didier Sommereau told us that this organization will be settled in Le Mans.

Courage Technologies’ organizational chart is as follows:
- Yves Courage: CEO and Research and Development Manager
- Jacques Duchemin: General Manager
- Jean-Claude Rose: Chassis Team Engineer
- Jean-Claude Chesneau: Integration of Electronic Components Team Engineer

The car
- Courage LC75e (provisional name) compliant with current ACO LMP2 rules.
- Weight: 747 kg; Chassis: ACO crash-test homologated carbon; Rims: aluminum and tires: Michelin.
- The LC75′s chassis is the same as the LC70′s one, so it is easy to swap to LMP1 class if the car is too heavy.
- This Courage LC75e will be used as a laboratory and demonstration car. Yves Courage still has got a LC75, ready to be assembled. This chassis should be presented to the media – with an electric engine – during the second half of 2009.
- Design of the electric engine in the chassis and all the outlying components is already done. The engines are ready for delivery.
- Four big companies are part of the project: one for tire/suspension, another one for the electronic part and chassis integration, a third one for the engines and a fourth one as an energy provider.
- ETIC allows itself four months after the budget is finalized to end the first stage, which is the demonstration car being able to run.

The electric engine: 4 TM4 engines
- TM4 electro-dynamic system
- The Canadian Group TM4, Hydroquébec and Dassault’s subsidiary, is the engine partner
- Founded in 1998, TM4 is in charge of the development of technologies and know-how of Hydroquébec and its research institute IREQ
- Introduction of 4 TM4 transverse engines with a Courage ETIC 1 restrictor
- A special engine will be build to give an uncompromising result in the second stage of the project
- Engine power: 148 Kw; Torque: 680 Nm/ engine
- Engine speed: 10, 000 RPM
- Weight without battery: 112 Kg
- Transmission Courage ETIC1

Energy
- Due to the required performance, only a combination of technologies will provide, after being developed, the needed power.
- The technical architecture for the power supplying should be a fuel cell in association with an energy recovering system and the last generation of Lithium-Ion battery.
Estimated schedule
- 2009: building and development of a demonstration car with Courage chassis Le Mans-homologated LC75 (LMP2 class). 2009 will be a development period to lead to a V1 prototype.
- 2010: the LC75e prototype must run several laps of the 24 Hours of Le Mans’ 2010 track at an average lap-time of 3’40. It will be used as the development basis for the LC75e2 prototype.
- 2011: 2 electric prototypes LMP2 LC75e2 are built to enter the 24 Hours of Le Mans. They are on the entry list of the Le Mans Series and 24 Hours of Le Mans with the ambition to finish the race with a good result.
- 2012: 2 prototypes are on the entry list of the 24 Hours of Le Mans and Le Mans Series aiming at finishing in the first 6 of the class.

Didier Sommereau answers a few questions raised by that project.

Has this project been shown to the Automobile Club de l’Ouest?
“Yes, of course.”

How did they react?
“Very positively, as you can imagine. The ACO is always seeking motorsport innovations that can be later used for road-cars, like disc brakes for instance. Our project couldn’t but catch their attention, as the local authorities’ one.”

Lots of technical problems should arise. Will the batteries, for example, lose power during a stint?
“Probably, if there were batteries only. This is why ETIC project put together several components: fuel cell, super cap and Li-ion batteries, to keep an almost consistent efficiency.”

Will the batteries have to be replaced?
“Maybe, but it is not sure yet. There still are some unknown factors like the size of the batteries. The cooling system for the batteries and the engine is a very important point. The supplying with hydrogen has to be specially designed.”

Are there any safety problems? With hydrogen for instance?

“This field has improved a lot. There already are 3g-resistant Hydrogen tanks and even more than that for aeronautics and aerospace. We need a fully safe system, which is expensive. Anyway, the first tests with the demonstration car will bring problems to light so we can cope with them.”

Is Paul Belmondo a kind of Team Manager?
“Absolutely. Paul felt like coming back to this side of motorsport after being a consultant. He wants to be back on track and work on development. He competed in the Andros Trophy but he is back on his loved prototypes. He will drive the car and test a few drivers.”

Didier Sommereau also gave us a scoop: Yves Courage, on top form, is opening a Vintage Department, focused on prototypes and GTs VHC’s storage and maintenance. This Department can house 25 cars. Yves Courage also offers his customers two weekends on a track every year. Being Porsche approved for these engines, this new Department shall draw Porsche owners!

We would like to warmly thank Yves Courage and Didier Sommereau, who told us that we should know more about this project by the end of March. We will follow closely this innovative project.

Claude Foubert and Cécile Bonardel