24 hrs of Le Mans

[ELVA164]

That last one doesn't look good...

[LateFan]

[ATTACH]109109[/ATTACH]

[LateFan]

It always rains at Le Mans...





(Side note trivia - the wipers on the 917 were adapted from a Boeing 727)

[LateFan]

Real roads - the trees at Tertre Rouge
[ATTACH]109135[/ATTACH]

No outside help allowed
[ATTACH]109136[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]109137[/ATTACH]

..and check it out! ...Hans Hermann was a badass!
[ATTACH]109138[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]109139[/ATTACH]

[LateFan]

I hate it when that happens...

[LateFan]

I always like the pits and the garages

[LateFan]

Cobra Daytona Coupe
1964 Le Mans, 4th overall, 1st in GT behind three Ferrari prototypes.

The early GT40s were unstable and crashing in practice, while this car was skunking people right out of the box.







Not entirely Le Mans - related, but this is a great story...

http://www.roadandtrack.com/motorsports/a26376/coupe-de-grace-shelby-daytona-coupe-story/

A car designed and built by a handful of guys in a matter of weeks, faster than the Ferraris of the time, almost as fast as the prototypes, and it wins the World Manufacturer's Championship, with very little support from Ford. Then as the GT40 program started to succeed, it was dropped like a hot potato with no development - the test mule was the race car.

All the names are there - Shelby, Ken Miles, Pete Brock, Bob Bondurant, Gurney, many others.

Interesting that Ken Miles secretly had a Daytona coupe modified with GT40 brakes and engine, but it was shut down for fear it would embarrass the GT40.

Something I never knew - the same rule that allowed the existing SWB 250GT to be rebodied as a GTO, allowed a Cobra roadster to become a Daytona coupe. Way more slippery than the roadster, way faster. Pete Brock was just a kid, and using aero science principles, and the old timers wanted no part of this weird car - until it went fast.

Longish but good interview with Brock -

[ELVA164]

It is a great story! Pretty amazing a truck could go so fast.

[LateFan]

You mean the horse and buggy suspension?
[ATTACH]109166[/ATTACH]

Take a wrecked Cobra chassis, fit a plywood body buck mock-up, fabricate tubing, fit a body, go racing!
[ATTACH]109167[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]109168[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]109169[/ATTACH]

[LateFan]

I read that Gurney insisted that Bondurant stay in the car for the finish, so he could experience coming in for the win. Wut a guy!

[ELVA164]

Dan Gurney is probably my favorite American driver/racing personality.


Overall goes to Jim Clark by about a million miles. Coincidentally that was the gap to second place for him a lot :p

[LateFan]

Kind of long, and fairly corny British piece on the '68 race. The first few minutes are a great in-car practice lap in a GT40. There is fantastic original footage all through it of some great cars - 908, GT40, Matra, Alpine, Alfa, 911, little GT cars.

It's pretty clear the factory 908s were expected to win, and the GT40s start well back. But during the night the Porsches start to fail (as well as most of the GT40s). This is Porsche learning what it takes to build a car that can run at the front the whole 24 hours.

Look at the practice lap and the complete lack of any kind of guardrails. And then rows of tree trunks down the straight with white stripes painted on them. Also nutty how they just pushed stalled and wrecked cars up against the walls and said good luck missing these!

(Also it's a not-very-disguised Ferodo brake commercial)

[ELVA164]

Awesome! Here's a great piece from the D-type days. Flying down the Mulsanne with cyclists? Sure, why not!

[mrsleeve]

Ahhhh the good ol days,

[ThatOneEuroE30]

Would be cool to find a recording of one of these races in its entirety (or as long as the cameras rolled) think it would be cool to see old csl , 2002's and what not racing from back in the day