The Rondeau M378 is a Group 6 sports prototype race car, designed, developed and built by Automobiles Jean Rondeau, in 1978, and was their second car. It competed in one

World Sportscar Championship The World Sportscar Championship was the world series run for sports car racing by the FIA from 1953 to 1992. The championship evolved from a small collection of the most important sportscar, endurance, and road racing events in Europe and No ...

sports car racing event; the

1978 24 Hours of Le Mans The 1978 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 46th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 10 and 11 June 1978. In many ways it was a continuation of the race from the year before – the two main protagonists would be the very evenly-matched works team ...

. It was driven by Bernard Darniche, Jacky Haran,

Jean Rondeau (racing driver) : Jean Rondeau (13 May 1946 in Le Mans, France – 27 December 1985 in Champagné, Sarthe, Champagné, France) was a French race car driver and constructor, who won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1980, in a car bearing his own name, an achievement ...

, and its best result was a 9th-place finish at that year's event. It was powered by a , , Ford- Cosworth DFV V8

Formula One engine Since its inception in 1947, Formula One has used a variety of engine regulations. "Formulae" limiting engine capacity had been used in Grand Prix racing on a regular basis since after World War I. The engine formulae are divided according t ...

.The

chassis A chassis (, ; plural ''chassis'' from French châssis ) is the load-bearing framework of an artificial object, which structurally supports the object in its construction and function. An example of a chassis is a vehicle frame, the underpart ...

is an

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It has ...

-reinforced

steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...

spaceframe, covered in a

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cloth ...

panel body. This drove the rear wheels through a Hewland 5-speed

manual transmission A manual transmission (MT), also known as manual gearbox, standard transmission (in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States), or stick shift (in the United States), is a multi-speed motor vehicle transmission (mechanics), transmission ...

. This meant it was very light, with the total weight coming to .

References

{{reflist Group 6 (racing) cars Sports prototypes