Celebrating the weird and wonderful monsters of sportscar racing

Few disciplines of motorsport offer better possibilities to build a colossus of the track than sportscars. For Autosport's recent Monsters of Motorsport special issue, we picked out some of the finest (and not so fine) that have graced sportscar classics including Le Mans, Daytona and Sebring

Exactly how much horsepower Mark Blundell had under his right foot when he claimed pole position for Nissan at the 1990 Le Mans 24 Hours can never truly be known. But it was probably in excess of a monstrous 1100bhp. That goes a long way to explaining his six-second margin at the top of the timesheets.

The 3.5-litre twin-turbo V8 in the back of his Nissan R90CK was a big-boost qualifying special designed to give 900bhp or perhaps more. But the extra horses he had at his disposal when he set out on arguably the most famous single lap in Le Mans history early in final qualifying on Thursday night resulted from a technical problem.

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Author Gary Watkins

Gary Watkins has, for reasons best known to himself, devoted all his working life to covering sportscar racing. This season is his 33rd as a motorsport journalist, during which time he has reported on major long-distance events on four continents and approaching 80 24-hour races. He reckons a degree in political philosophy makes him well qualified for covering the sometimes Machiavellian world of international sportscars.

Gary, who also writes for Motor Sport, Autocourse, RACER and others, lives in Surbiton close to the former workshops of the Cooper Formula 1 team but spends more time on the road than at home for most of the year.