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 company. Following the purchase of Courage by Oreca in 2007, Yves Courage has refounded the company as Courage Technology in 2010, attempting to develop electric racing cars. C02‐02 is the second Cougar ever built out of a total of just some 11 chassis. Produced by Yves Courage and his famous racing concern Courage Competition, the Courage C26S was fitted with a Cosworth DFL V8 engine. It was first entered in the C1 class by main sponsor Primagaz at Le Mans in 1984 where, driven by Courage/Michel Dubois/John Jellinek, it retired with oil pump failure after 153 laps. The same year it was also rented to Budweiser Racing/John Jellinek for a couple of races in the IMSA Championship in America, and in 1986 it was temporarily sold to America where it was modified and renamed a JRE-¬‐SR71 before returning to Courage Competition. The car then served as a backup works car until 1988, by which time it had evolved into a C12, before running in the C2 class at Le Mans the same year, again entered by Primagaz; driven by Max Cohen-Olivar/Patrick de Radigues it took the flag but was not classified having only covered 273 laps after long delays. Chassis C02¬‐02's next appearance in the 24 Hours was the following year where it returned to the C1 class as a C22LM with Porsche 962 power and Porsche transaxle; it again encountered ill fortune when Patrick Gonin/Bernard de Dryver/Bernard Santal retired after 168 laps with an electronics failure. The car's final contemporary Le Mans outing came in 1991 as a C26S, powered by a 2.8 litre Porsche 962 engine, in the C2 class; alas, crewed by Chris Hodgetts/Andrew Hepworth/Thierry Lecerf, it was perilously close to the minimum weight limit and was disqualified from the race at the post qualifying weigh
