24 Hours of Le Mans
The 24 Hours of Le Mans (24 heures du Mans) is the world's most famous sports car endurance race, held annually at Circuit de la Sarthe near Le Mans, France, in the French Sarthe département. It is organised by the Automobile Club de L'Ouest (A.C.O).
This article focuses on a general overview of the event. Additional info can be found at
A related event is also held for motorcycles, see Motorcycle 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Overview
The first race was held on May 26 and 27 1923 and has since been run annually in June, with exceptions occurring in 1956 (July) and 1968 (in September, due to nationwide political turmoils in spring; see May 1968), and was cancelled only in the years 1936 (economy) and from 1940 to 1948 (World War 2).
The race is run on a semi-permanent track which, in its current configuration, is 13.650 km (8.482mi) long, utilizing mostly country roads that remain open to the public a majority of the year. Over the years, several purpose-built sections replaced the normal roads, especially the Porsche Curves section which bypasses the dangerous former Maison Blanche section between buildings. The permanent Bugatti Circuit surrounds the facilities at start/finish.
Usually, around 50 cars race simultaneously in a number of different categories and classes, from dedicated prototypes to street cars, the overall winner being the car that has covered the greatest distance in 24 hours of continuous racing. This rule appears obvious, but the 1966 race saw a surprise winner. Ford expected a level finish with two GT40 Mark II crossing the line at the same time in a staged finish, but the car that made the worse time during practice was pronounced the winner, as it had started further behind on the grid and thus covered a bigger distance in the same time. In addition, a car must cross the finish line after 24 hours to be classified, which leads to dramatic scenes where damaged cars leave the pits to crawl around the track one last time in order to finish or, sometimes, less dramatic scenes where damaged car's drivers are confident enough in the ability of the engine to start again and simply stop on the border of the track close to the finish line, waiting for the last lap to restart their engine and cross the line.
In recent years, each car has a team of three drivers. Before 1970 only two drivers per car were allowed, and even solo driving was permitted in the early decades. Until the early 1980s most of the cars were raced with a two-driver team. In 1950, Louis Rosier won the race with his son Jean-Louis Rosier, who drove the car during only two turns. In 1952, Frenchman Pierre Levegh competed alone and looked like the winner but made a shifting mistake in the final hour which handed victory to a Mercedes-Benz 300SL.
Le Mans start
Traditionally, the race starts at 16:00 on the Saturday, although in 1968 the race started at 14:00 because of the lateness of the race on the calendar, and in 1984 the race started at 15:00 due to the conflicting French General Election. In 2006, the A.C.O. has scheduled a 17:00 start time on Saturday, June 17 in order to maximize television coverage alongside the enormously popular FIFA World Cup, which has scheduled games for 15:00 and 18:00.
The races used to begin with what became known as the "Le Mans start": cars are lined up on one side of the track, drivers on the other. When the French flag dropped at 16:00, the drivers ran across the track to their cars, entered and started them. This became a safety issue after the introduction of safety belt harnesses in 1967, which needed to be properly strapped, preferably by mechanics. At that time pilots entered the first curves with unfastened belts and locked their belts in the straight, if possible.
In 1969, for his first Le Mans 24 hours, a young Belgian talent and F1 GP winner, Jacky Ickx, made a pointed demonstration of the danger of this start method, when instead of running across the track to his machine, he slowly walked, then entered in his car and locked the safety belts properly. Sadly, in the first lap of the race, the privateer racer John Woolfe was killed. Despite starting in the last position with an outdated car, Ickx managed to win the race in a dramatic finish 24 hours later by only 120 meters. Interestingly, while driving a Porsche 911 to Paris after the race, Ickx was involved in a road accident where he escaped unharmed, having worn his seatbelt.
So the traditional Le Mans practice was partially discontinued the next year in 1970; for this year, the cars were still lined up in echelon formation along the pit straight, with engines off, but the drivers were strapped in prior to the start. On the starter's signal, the drivers could start their engines and start the race. In 1971, a full rolling start was introduced, as used in the Indianapolis 500, thus called the "Indianapolis Start".
The Le Mans start is also the reason why left-hand-drive Porsche street cars continue to have their ignition switches on the left of the steering column rather than on the more customary location of the right-side: this enabled the driver to start the engine with left hand while engaging the 1st gear with the right hand, depressing the clutch with left foot and stepping on the gas with right foot simultaneously thus allowing the Porsche to get off the starting line more quickly than other race cars.
The circuit
The Circuit de la Sarthe is a non-permanent track using local roads that remain open to the public most of the year. Since 1965, a smaller but permanent Bugatti Circuit was added which shares the pit lane facilities and the first corner with the famous Dunlop bridge with the longer version.
The track has undergone many modifications over the years. It was most famous for its long straight, a part of the RN138 (Route Nationale 138 — National road 138) known locally as Ligne Droite des Hunaudières, or in English as the Mulsanne Straight. The circuit, in its present configuration, is 13.650 km (8.482 mi) long. Over the years, several purpose built sections replaced the normal roads, especially in 1972, when the Porsche Curves section bypassed the dangerous former Maison Blanche section between buildings.
Near the end of this straight past the Mulsanne Kink was an infamous hump, which gave flight to a Mercedes-Benz CLR in 1999 during warm-up. The same problem had occurred on the straightway between the Mulsanne and Indianapolis corners for another CLR during practice and the race. The hump was lowered during the winter before the 2001 race, again in the interest of safety. Although the hump remains, it is greatly diminished from what it was.
Two chicanes on the Mulsanne Straight were consequently put in place in time for the 1990 race to lower top speeds. A new chicane was introduced past the Dunlop Bridge for 2002.
As it stands, the Circuit de la Sarthe is perhaps the second longest racing track in existence, behind the Nurburgring Nordschleife. Considering the "green monster" is no longer used for sanctioned races, La Sarthe is home to the longest laptimes, even as a "high speed track." Teams competing frequently refer to Le Mans as a race where up to 85% of the time (including pitstops) is spent on full throttle, meaning immense stress on engine and drivetrain components. However, the times spent reaching maximum speed also mean tremendous wear on the brakes and suspension as cars must slow from over 200 mph to around 65 for the end of Mulsanne in a short distance. Downforce in the era of Group C cars helped braking to some degree but presently cars are tending towards low downforce to seek higher speeds in the face of power limiting regulations.
Car design
Unlike many other races where the speed in curves is more important than top speed, top speed was a critical parameter for being competitive in Le Mans. This led to special body designs like the "Long Tail" bodies pioneered by Charles Deutsch and Robert Choulet. Braking at the end of the Mulsanne Straight is also critical; the first use of disc brakes on a car was in a Jaguar racing in Le Mans. The Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR still used drum-brakes in 1955, but had an additional opening hood which was used as "air brake".
The cars were reaching impressive speed in the straight: in 1971, during night practice, a Porsche 917 LH was clocked at a top speed of 386.004 km/h, or about 239.852 mph.
During the 1970s, top speeds decreased after the introduction of new regulations that reduced the size and power of the engines, while the evolution of aerodynamics allowed the engineers to improve the speed on a lap by increasing downforce and thus increasing speed in curves and reducing top speed. This evolution, which brings less stress on the car, was also favored by drivers because it made the car easier to drive, leading to less violence in acceleration and braking while reduced speed in the straight required less attention and gave more relaxation to the driver. On a 24 hours race these are important benefits. But, by the late 1980s, the fastest cars were again reaching impressive top speeds. In 1988 a WM P87 powered by a turbocharged PRV engine and driven by Roger Dorchy reached the speed of 405 km/h (251.7 mph) during the race. This performance is generally considered as non-significant because it was a media coup by a team seeking budget: the car was tuned for top speed with all air orifices taped, as a result the engine broke soon after. But the next year a Sauber Mercedes C9 reached a top speed around 400 km/h (248.5 mph) without any special tuning during the race, and the FISA felt that it had grown unsafe.
Two chicanes were consequently put in place in time for the 1990 race to lower top speeds.
Accidents
Le Mans is also known for the worst accident in the history of motor racing, the Le Mans 1955 disaster, in which over 80 people were killed. In the shock following this disaster, many major and minor races were cancelled in 1955, like the Grand Prix races in Germany and Switzerland.
At the end of the season, having won World Championships in Formula One and Sports Cars, Mercedes withdrew from motor racing generally, and did not return until 1987. That today's DaimlerChrysler Corporation, owner of the Mercedes marque, is still aware of and sensitive to this incident was evidenced by their withdrawal 1989, after the Sauber-Mercedes suffered high speed crash due to tyre failure, and in 1999 after their CLR sports prototypes caught air and backflipped three times at Le Mans.
Similar accidents involving a Porsche 911 GT1 and a BMW V12 LMR happened in the United States during ACO-licenced IMSA races in 1998 and 2000, respectively.
Successful marques and drivers
The most successful marque in the history of the 24 hour race is Porsche, with 16 overall victories (including seven in a row, from 1981 to 1987), followed by Ferrari with nine (including six in a row, from 1960 to 1965). The early years were dominated by Bentley and Alfa Romeo, with four consecutive wins from 1927 to 1930 and from 1931 to 1934 respectively. The 1950s were dominated by Jaguar with their C-type and D-type cars with wins in 1951, 1953, 1955, 1956, and in 1957 where D-type Jaguars finished 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 6th! The turn of the century saw a new power arrive in the Audi V8 powered R8 (wins in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2005) and Bentley Speed 8 (2003).
In a personal spat between the two companies' owners, Ford won the race four times (1966 to 1969) with its GT40, built for the express purpose of defeating Ferrari, after founder Enzo Ferrari backed out of a deal to sell his company to Ford.
The only Japanese company to win the race so far has been Mazda, which won the 59th race in 1991 with its rotary-engined 787B prototype. Toyota almost took the overall win in 1999, but mechanical woes in the final hour relegated them to second.
In 2005, Tom Kristensen set an absolute record of seven victories including six in a row, pulling ahead of legend Jacky Ickx who has a total of six wins.
In the movies
The 24 hours of Le Mans race was also famously featured in a 1971 movie, titled simply Le Mans, produced by and starring Steve McQueen. This film remains a classic which is still appreciated by racing fans. It was filmed on the circuit during the 1970 race using genuine racing cars of the day, like Porsche 917, Ferrari 512 and Lola T70.
Even a Porsche 908/02 Spyder equipped with heavy 35mm movie cameras was entered in the race, to provide real racing footage from the track. The #29 car was entered by non-racing Solar Productions and driven by Porsche's own Herbert Linge and Jonathan Williams. They qualified 34th at 4:03,7, about 25 seconds and 11 secs slower than their two sister cars which were going for real. In the race, the heavy and big cameras slowed them down, as well as the frequent stops to change films. At the end, the camera car was still running, but not classified as it did not cover the required distance. Due to the heavy rain, only 7 cars were classified, with the camera-less #26 sister car coming in 3rd.
Winners
- See main article: List of Le Mans 24h winners
External links
- Le Mans official site
- Club Arnage
- Planetlemans
- Maison Blanche — fan site
- Mulsannes Corner — fan site
- The-Paddock.net Le Mans and sportscar racing news and pictures
- Cars and Races — posters and photos
- Racing Sports Cars — historical photos and information
References
- Le Mans 1965 in Automobile Historique n°48 May 2005 (in French)
- 24 heures du Mans 1973 in Automobile Historique n°49 June/July 2005 (in French)
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