v1.4 by RAC 2025
Bunch of car performance tweaks for the IMSA GTU Renault Le Car Turbo (1981 Renault 5 Turbo Alpine) variant, Added IMSA Areo

v1.11.1 by ACTK
Fix driver3d.ini, Add AO skins, Add LODs, Add data to data.acd, Add main_geometry.vao-patch

Orginial "GeroDa74 Release"

DESCRIPTION

Patrick Jacquemart, the director of Renault Racing in the United States, participated in the GTU Class of the 1981 IMSA series with a heavily modified Renault 5 Turbo Alpine nicknamed "Le Car". Renault's effort showed promise early in the season but the rear engined 5 Turbo suffered from persistent handling problems and the team took a break from the hectic race schedule at mid-season for some concentrated development work. The Renault's 1430 ccm 4-cylinder turbo engine was producing 260 bhp at 7000 RPM, and 298 Nm of torque at 4500 RPM. The turbo pressure was set at 1.38 bar which kept the car's displacement at just under 2 liters (engine displacement x turbo pressure).

The vehicle was taken for a private testing session at Mid-Ohio. With Jacquemart at the wheel, it went out of control at the end of the longest straight, hit an embankment sideways and missed the Turn 7 right-hander. The car then struck a sandbank head-on, as confirmed by Police deputies. Jacquemart suffered a fracture in the base of the skull, and was pronounced dead on arrival at Morrow County Hospital in Mount Gilead, OH. Jacquemart was the heart of the team, and after his death the program was suspended for the remainder of the year. An engineer, he was French citizen and resided at Kenton, Michigan. Patrick Jacquemart was third-five years old.

Jacquemart was a close friend of fellow competitor Jim Downing. Jim was the brother in law of Dr. Bob Hubbard, a physician who had worked for several years at General Motors in a group that developed injury measurement technology. Talking with Jim of Jacquemart's accident Dr. Hubbard determined that Jacquemart was fatally injured because in the impact his body was restrained but his head was not and that caused the basilar skull fracture. That resulted in Dr. Hubbard's first development of a safety device to restrain the head relative to the torso, in a way that wouldn't add injurious loads to the neck. That device is nowadays known as HANS device.