Mulsanne Straight

The Mulsanne Straight (Ligne Droite des Hunaudières in French) is the name used in English for a formerly 6 km (3.7 mi) long straight of the Circuit des 24 Heures around which the 24 Hours of Le Mans auto race takes place. Since 1990, the straight is interrupted by two chicanes, with the last section, that includes a kink and a hump, leading to the sharp corner near the village of Mulsanne.

When race meetings are not taking place the Mulsanne Straight is part of the national road system of France. It is called Ligne Droite des Hunaudières, a part of the route départementale (for the Sarthe département) D338 (formerly Route Nationale N138). The Hunaudières leads to the village of Mulsanne which is the reason for its English name (though the French Route de Mulsanne is the name for the road, and straight, between Mulsanne and Arnage, with the Indianapolis corner in between).

After exiting the Tertre Rouge corner, cars would spend almost half of the lap at full throttle, before braking for Mulsanne Corner. The Porsche 917 long tail, used from 1969 to 1971, had reached 362 km/h (225 mph),. After engine size was limited, the top speed dropped until powerful turbo engines were allowed, like in the 1978 Porsche 935 which was clocked at 367 km/h (228 mph). Speeds on the straight by the Group C prototypes reached over 400 km/h (250 mph) during the late 1980s. At the beginning of the 1988 24 Hours of Le Mans race, Paris garage owner Roger Dorchy driving for Welter Racing in a "Project 400" car dubbed the WM P87, and powered by a 2.8 litre turbocharged Peugeot V6 engine, which sacrificing reliability for speed (the car was out after just 53 laps or approximately 4 hours with turbo, cooling and electrical failure), was clocked by radar travelling at an all-time race record 405 km/h (252 mph).

...
Wikipedia