24 hrs of Le Mans

[LateFan]

One of the reasons I like the LM is because I saw this car, the 250LM Stradale Speciale, which is the only one, driven a block and loaded into a closed trailer to be flown to Europe for a show. I only realized the full significance of the car after it rolled away and I looked it up. It was small, like a Dino, and sounded fantastic. The plex rear window has compound curves and is very complex - building just one of those windows is nuts. The interior is all red leather everywhere. The seats are almost in the middle of the car. The workmanship was unbelievable.

Ferrari built 32 LMs, and this is the only street version built. All of them were raced except this one. It was built especially by Pininfarina for the Paris Motor Show. Enzo needed to sell more LMs in order for it to qualify in the GT class.

I didn't have a camera or phone with me, and I'm sort of glad I didn't. The guys in the shop and the guys loading it knew I knew it was important, and we just talked about it and watched as it moved down the street and into the semi. I think they told me more since I wasn't snapping pictures. It's a repair shop here that stores exotics for the owner and other collectors. I completely lucked out when I came by - it was only outside for maybe 10 minutes. I parked in the street with my flashers to help block traffic.

Text I found after I saw it:

"This 1965 Ferrari 250 LM Stradale was debuted by Pininfarina in 1965. The white and blue stripes had been chosen to appeal to American consumers. By the close of the show, Pininfarina claimed they had received orders from customers to produce the car but this example was the only one to ever be created.

This one-off creation with chassis number 6025 was created by Pininfarina as a road car. The wheelbase was lengthened to 2600 mm allowing more interior space for its occupants. This was untraditional for a Ferrari automobile since even their road-worthy cars were still intended to be raced. By expanding its wheelbase, Pininfarina was well on the way to producing a luxury automobile. Extra space was cut into the roof allowing more head room for the passengers as they entered and exited the vehicle.

After its inaugural debut at the Paris Motor Show in 1965, Pininfarina had hoped for more interest in the car, but with only 16 solid requests, the idea to create this version of the 250 LM was abandoned. The 250 LM continued to be produced, amassing a total of 32 examples."

[LateFan]

1965 winner Ferrari 250LM. I always thought these were cool. It's Enzo finally trying to keep up with the switch to mid-engine. He tried to get this car past the FIA as a production car, even though he wasn't able to build the full 100 required. He then said it was just a variation of the front-engine 250GT, so those production numbers should count.

The FIA said...um...no.

He tried to bully them and boycott events, but in the end it was a car stuck between classes and had to run with prototypes, where it was slower.

In 65, the prototypes all dropped out, leaving Luigi Chinetti’s NART team 250LM first overall.

In 1966 the 250LM was finally homologated as a sports car, but only after it was outdated by the GT40.





None of that fiberglass shit - that's real aluminum torn to shreds!

[LateFan]

On a way more cheerful note, here's Derek Bell driving a lap in his Porsche 956. Before the Mulsanne and Dunlop chicanes, and before all the big runoff areas were added.



Another of my favorite race cars, the 956 / 962 dominated sports car racing for many years. Developed in 1981, the 956 was lengthened to move the drivers feet behind the front wheel centerline for safety, and a roll cage was incorporated into the aluminum structure. That version was called the 962, and almost 100 were built for factory racing and privateers. Kremer built a carbon fiber tub version.

It was slippery, with a lot of downforce built in to the underbody. it was stable, fast, and reliable.

Air-cooled (EDIT - is that right?) turbo, flat-6 2.8 derived from the 935. Later 3-liters.

Raced at Le Mans between 1984 to 1994, winning in '84, '85, '86 (Stuck / Bell / Holbert), '87 (same drivers again), and '94 in a highly modified car. In '88, the 962 placed 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11, missing out to the Silk Cut Jaguar XJR-9LM. Often they got 5 of the top 10.

"Derek Bell, a 5-time Le Mans winner, drove the 962 to 21 victories between 1985 and 1987, remarked that it was "a fabulous car, but considering how thorough (Norbert) Singer (the designer of the 962 and head of Porsche's motorsport division at the time) and the team were, it was really quite easy to drive." "

(my son and I built a model of this #17 once)

[LateFan]

Hawthorne's Jaguar and the #19 Fangio Mercedes 300SLR with its air brake open in the Esses..

[LateFan]

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

I think that's been one of the better bits of film out there, with the funky microphone set-up around his neck.

Also interesting to note that this is the very guy, and the very car, that many believe caused the huge tragedy the year before with the Mercedes, and then went on to win.


Mike Hawthorn was driving the new Jag with modern disk brakes, which were way better than anything else on the track in 1955. The Mercedes 300 SLRs were powerful, light, and high tech, but had drum brakes (engineers devised a huge air brake on the rear lid to slow them down and save the drums - pics later).

The pits were out on the track - no wall separating them. The Jag was coming down the main straight and confused the signals from the pit as far as which lap to stop on. At the last second, he decided to stop, cut across to the right and stood on his disk brakes right in front of a guy named Macklin in an Austin Healey.

A Frenchman named Levegh in one of the Mercedes was coming down the straight from behind on the left at full speed. He was in front of Fangio in the primary Mercedes and didn't want to hold him up as they went past Hawthorn's Jag.

Macklin in the Healey slammed on his brakes to avoid hitting the fast slowing Jag, but had nowhere to go. He swerved left out into the main part of the straight, slightly out of control. Levegh was going all out to catch the Jag and not hold up Fangio behind him. With no time to brake, he swerved slightly left just as the Healey came across in front of him. Levegh's Mercedes hit the left rear fender of the steep sloped Healey rear deck. The ramp shape of the car, tire hitting tire, and the massive speed differential launched the Mercedes into the air right in front of the main grandstands. It hit the top of the earth berm and a concrete stairwell in the spectator area, ripped to pieces and cartwheeled down the berm launching pieces. The suspension, engine, and some of the shell were catapulted into the crowd horizontally, killing over 100 people. There is no official toll - some say 80, some 130.

Somehow Macklin managed to survive without major injuries, with the back of his Healey flattened. The car hit the pit wall, killing one and injuring several others. It slid backwards in front of Fangio's Mercedes, who narrowly missed it.

The remaining piece of the Mercedes landed on the top of the berm and exploded in front of the crowd. The entire chassis was made of magnesium and burned white hot. Emergency crews sprayed water on the flaming wreck, which only made the flames explode hotter. It burned for hours while the race continued. The official's excuse was that the chaos of the crowds leaving would hamper the ambulances trying to reach the hundreds injured.

Keep in mind this is only 10 years after WWII. With German cars leading a French race, it was very touchy. It took several hours for the Mercedes leadership in Germany to be informed of the magnitude of the disaster, and how it would look if they won this race. The Mercedes team withdrew from the race in the middle of the night. They contacted Jaguar to inform them, and suggest it would be best to withdraw as well, as it was fairly clear their driver has caused it. Jaguar refused, Hawthorn was instructed to say nothing, and went on to win under a black cloud. "The French press carried photographs of Hawthorn and Bueb celebrating their win with the customary champagne and treated them with scorn." Fangio never raced at Le Mans again.

The grandstands and guardrails were completely reconfigured after the accident, although the pits remained unprotected clear into the 70s. This is just downstream of where the Ford Chicane would be added to slow cars down in the 60s.

The Mercedes factory withdrew from all forms of racing. France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany and other nations temporarily banned motorsport. Some say Hawthorn was haunted by the accident, but he never spoke about it publicly. He died 4 years later at 29 in a road accident in his hot rod Jaguar 3.4 sedan. Hawthorn's 1958 autobiography implied that the accident was Macklin's fault. Macklin had the front row seat as it happened, and began a libel action against Hawthorn to clear his name, but it was unresolved when Hawthorn died.


It was the perfect storm, but brought on by a total lack of safety systems in place. That car in the air didn't brake, and was going maybe 150mph.


Engine, front subframe, suspension, and much of the shell flew into the crowd,




It seems more like a small airplane crash, with a debris field fanning out.


This is from a short grainy video. It quits as the car comes right at it into the crowd. No one knows what happened to the photographer.


Warning - this isn't pleasant... At one point early on, you can see either a puff of brake dust, or the Healey locking up it's wheels, or braking in the dust from being so close to the right wall, before he swerves left.

[ELVA164]

Unfortunately, I don't think that happened back then. It's really a shame as I'd love to see more footage of '60s F1. I think Jim Clark would be a lot more respected if he was filmed and interviewed as much as Senna was.

Here's a quick one Ford made though:


Graham Hill wasn't thrilled, as he took the exclusive testing burden Since Clark was a tax exile at the time. Jimmy shows up at Zandvoort (having never driven the car, which was completely different than the outgoing Lotus 43), does a few practice sessions, and wins the race.

[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

[mrsleeve]

Ahhhh the good ol days,

[ELVA164]

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

[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]

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]

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!

[LateFan]

You mean the horse and buggy suspension?
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Take a wrecked Cobra chassis, fit a plywood body buck mock-up, fabricate tubing, fit a body, go racing!
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[ELVA164]

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

[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/motorspo...a-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 -