24 hrs of Le Mans

[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.

[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.

[LateFan]

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

[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]

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]

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."

[ELVA164]

Yeah, hopefully it will always be the worst motorsport-related incident. In a similar vein regarding Dunlop disc brakes, Jaguar MkII sedans had a plate on the rear which warned other drivers of its braking performance.

[ELVA164]

Jeez, you posted a lot in the interim! Fun fact about the 962: the 956 wasn't changed for safety, at least not mainly. IMSA saw its domination in Europe and outlawed it due to the position of the driver's feet. They hoped this would dissuade Porsche from bringing a car to America, but it only ended up creating an even better version of an already great car.

[LateFan]

You want corny, here's another one. All very proper BBC flag waving.

But I stuck with it, and there is fantastic color footage of so many great cars - Ferrari, Jag, Allard, Cunningham, Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin...and a bunch of famous drivers. Some good Cunningham footage.



I think it's interesting that in the mid-50s, no one mentions the little Porsche 356s, which are just cleaning up in GT with tiny 1500 engines. But there's a bunch of them in this footage. Little upstart company!

I don't see anybody putting any belts on.

[LateFan]

In a similar vein regarding Dunlop disc brakes...

Funny! My Alfa has Dunlop brakes and they're SHIT! I'm getting rid of them! Finicky, won't stay in adjustment, slow reaction, and rear pads are $100. By '68 - 69, they all came with Ate brakes, so you just change calipers and swap a later rear axle assembly, and get a LS rear end as a bonus. I'm grinding off grime and old paint as we speak!

[ELVA164]

I don't see anybody putting any belts on.

Cool!

And that was well before belts were en vogue. The popular idea then was it was safer to be thrown away from the car than caught up in it when it crashed.
.....Interesting.

Funny! My Alfa has Dunlop brakes and they're SHIT! I'm getting rid of them! Finicky, won't stay in adjustment, slow reaction, and rear pads are $100. By '68 - 69, they all came with Ate brakes, so you just change calipers and swap a later rear axle assembly, and get a LS rear end as a bonus. I'm grinding off grime and old paint as we speak!

It's all relative! Interestingly, the very first Dunlop brakes on the Jaguars (older than yours) didn't even have removable pads! You had to remove the caliper from the rotor and pull them out of the little reliefs made for them. Someone at Dunlop must have realized how stupid that was and along came the slide-out pads.

But yeah, the Ate stuff is way better. Hold onto the original pieces though!

[LateFan]

Fun fact about the 962: the 956 wasn't changed for safety, at least not mainly. IMSA saw its domination in Europe and outlawed it due to the position of the driver's feet.

Something fun I learned about it by building an accurate model - the flat 6 is mounted as low as possible of course, but the tail end of the engine-tranny assembly is tipped up quite a bit, to get it out of the way of the ground effect tunnels rising towards the back. It's a pretty ingenious design - that's Norbert Singer. I also read it has way way more downforce than the 917, at a fraction of the drag.

Hold onto the original pieces though!

shit...do I have to? Some WD-40 and put them in a big zip-lock?

[LateFan]

Night at Le Mans is cool....

Yellow lights - GT cars, white lights - prototypes


One dot means first in class..


Three dots third..

[ELVA164]

Something fun I learned about it by building an accurate model - the flat 6 is mounted as low as possible of course, but the tail end of the engine-tranny assembly is tipped up quite a bit, to get it out of the way of the ground effect tunnels rising towards the back. It's a pretty ingenious design - that's Norbert Singer. I also read it has way way more downforce than the 917, at a fraction of the drag.

shit...do I have to? Some WD-40 and put them in a big zip-lock?

That is pretty clever. I'm not surprised how much better than the 917 it is; that design was much less informed and honestly cobbled together at times.

Yes, those bits make a difference in value for sure if they're original to the car.

[bumada]

Ok. I'm about to photo dump from when I went to Le Mans 2 years ago. I'm no photographer but I tried my best to take good pictures. Also, this laptop that has all my pictures on it runs like shit so let's hope for the best for these upload speeds.