2016 Le Mans 24 Hours - All Summary of the race
The first race was held on 26 and 27 May 1923 and has since been performed every year in June, with exceptions occurring in 1956 when the race was held in July and in 1968, when it was held in September, because of political turmoil in the country in spring see May 1968 the race was canceled twice once in 1936 and Great depression 1940-1948 World war.
The 12 Hours of Sebring 24 Hours of Daytona and 24 Hours of Le Mans were once seen as largely the trifecta of sports car racing; Driver Ken Miles was the only driver to win all three in the same year, but for an error in the command team of Ford GT40 team at Le Mans in 1966, which won him the victory, although he finished first.
The race takes place on a semi-permanent track, which in its current configuration is 13,650 km long mid 8482, using mainly country roads that remain open to the public for most of the year Over the years, several sections built for this effect have replaced the normal roads, especially Porsche curves section which bypasses the dangerous former section Home White, between buildings permanent Bugatti Circuit surrounds the facilities at the departure arrived.
Usually about 50 race cars at the same time in a number of different categories and classes of current classes are LMP1 and LMP2 for Le Mans prototype and LM GT1 and LM GT2, Gran Turismo or classes GT The winner is the car that covers the greatest distance 24 hours of uninterrupted running This rule seems obvious, but the 1966 race saw a surprise winner among the three Ford GT40 that led Ford ordained the first 1 car slow down to let the 2 and catch up to 5 cars to create a photo opportunity 1 with three GT40 crossing the line 1, 2, 3, finishing staged, just meters away, however, the car 2 which had covered the same number of turns 360 was pronounced the winner, as it began more behind on the grid and thus covered a little more distance in the same time.
In addition, a car must cross the finish line after 24 hours to classify, which leads to dramatic scenes where damaged cars are waiting in the pits or on the verge of closing the track to the line arrival for hours, then restart their engines and crawling around the track one last time to finish after 24 hours and be enrolled in a distance of finish, rather than dismissed with DNF DNF.
In recent years, each car has a crew of three pilots Before 1970 only two drivers per car were allowed and even solo driving was permitted, in the first decades until the early 1980s, most cars was raced with a crew of two pilots in 1952, the French Pierre Levegh was alone and appeared to be the winner, but has an offset error in the last hour that made the win a Mercedes-Benz 300SL Luigi Chinetti won in 1949 with passage 23 5:00 behind the wheel in 1950, Louis Rosier won the race with his son Jean-Louis Rosier who drove the car for two laps.
Traditionally, the race starts at 16 00 on Saturday, although in 1968 the race started at 14 00, due to the lateness of the race on the calendar, and 1984 when the race started 15 00 because of French general election conflict in 2006, the ACO scheduled a 17 00 start time Saturday, June 17 in order to maximize television coverage between matches of the FIFA world Cup.
The races used to begin with what became the Le Mans start cars are lined up on one side of the track, the drivers of the other When the French flag dropped to 16 00, the drivers ran on the track for their cars, entrances and started This has become a security problem after the introduction of seat belt harness in 1967, which had to be properly secured, preferably by mechanics that the time drivers entered the first curves with unfastened belts and locked their belts in line if possible.
In 1969, for its first 24 Hours of Le Mans, a young Belgian talent and winner of Grand Prix F1, Jacky Ickx made a pointed demonstration of the danger of this start method, when instead of running across the track to his machine, he walked slowly toward her, then entered his car and locked the safety belts properly Unfortunately on the first lap of the race, the rider privateer John Woolfe was killed Despite starting from the last position with Ford day GT40 Ickx managed to win the race in a dramatic final 24 hours later, only 120 meters Interestingly, while driving a Porsche 911 in Paris, after the race, Ickx was involved in a road accident where he escaped unharmed after wearing her seatbelt.
Thus, the traditional Le Mans practice was partially discontinued the following year in 1970; This year, cars were still lined up in echelon formation along the pit straight, with engines off, but the drivers were strapped before the start of the starting 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 and called the Indianapolis start.
The Le Mans start is also the reason why the left hand drive cars for the Porsche street continue to have their ignition switches to the left of the steering column rather than the more usual location on the right side which allowed the driver to start the engine with the left hand while engaging 1st gear with the right hand, pressing the clutch with your left foot and step on the gas with the right foot at the same time allowing the Porsche to get off the starting line faster than other racecars.
Unlike many other races where the cornering speed and acceleration is more important, the top speed is a critical parameter to compete in Le Mans This led to special body designs like the Long Tail body set developed 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 for a Jaguar Type C race at Le Mans in 1953. The Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR unused drum brakes in 1955, but had an additional opening hood that was used as resembling a parachute pneumatic brake.
The car reached an impressive speed on the Mulsanne in 1971, during the practice of the night, a Porsche 917 LH L ang h eck - long tail, driven by young talent from Mexico Pedro Rodriguez 1968 winner Le Mans, clocked at speeds maximum of 398 km h, or about 249 mph, which until today is the highest speed recorded at Le Mans.
In 1970, speed was reduced after the introduction of new regulations that reduced the size and engine power, while the evolution of aerodynamics allowed the engineers to improve the speed on a lathe by increasing downforce and increasing the speed in curves and reducing the top speed this evolution, resulting in less stress on the car, was also favored by drivers because it made the car easier to drive, which leads to weaker forces in the acceleration and braking while the reduced speed in line required less attention and gave more relaxation to the driver which is an important advantage in a 24-hour run.
Late 1980s, the fastest car yet reached impressive speeds In 1988, a WM P87 powered by a turbocharged PRV engine and driven by Roger Dorchy reached a speed of 405 km h 251 7 mph early in the race This performance generally considered to be not significant, however, because it was considered a media coup by a team research budget car has been given to the next level with all the air ports registered, accordingly, the engine fell But soon after next year a Sauber Mercedes C9 reached a top speed of about 400 248 km h 5 mph without special adjustment during the race, and FISA felt that it had become dangerous.
Both were therefore put baffles in place in time for the 1990 running at lower top speeds.
Le Mans is also known for the worst accident in the history of motor racing, the Le Mans disaster in 1955 in which more than 80 people, including Levegh were killed in shock following this disaster, many major and minor races were canceled in 1955, as the great Prix races in Germany and Switzerland.
At the end of the season, winning world championships in Formula One and sports cars Mercedes withdrew from motor racing in general, and did not return until 1987 that the current owner DaimlerChrysler's Mercedes brand Corporation, is always aware and sensitive to the incident was highlighted by their withdrawal in 1988, after the Sauber-Mercedes has been the high-speed accident due to tire failure, and in 1999 after their CLR sports prototypes took the backflipped air and three times at Le Mans.
Similar accidents involving a Porsche 911 GT1 and a BMW V12 LMR happened at Road Atlanta during races under license BCA-Petit Le Mans in 1998 and 2000, respectively.
The most successful brand in the history of 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 type C and type of cars D with victories in 1951, 1953, 1955, 1956 and 1957 where D-type Jaguars finished 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 6th the turn of the century saw a new power come in powered Audi R8 V8 victories in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2005 Bentley Speed 8, 2003.
In taking a personal spat between the two company owners, Ford won the race four times from 1966 to 1969 with its GT40, built for the express purpose of beating Ferrari, after founder Enzo Ferrari supported on an agreement to sell its business Ford.
The only Japanese company to win the race so far has been Mazda won the 59th race in 1991 with its 787B rotary engine prototype Toyota almost took the overall victory in 1999, but mechanical woes in the last hour relegate in the background.
In 2005, Tom Kristensen set a record of seven wins, including six in a row, beating the legend Jacky Ickx which has a total of six victories Kristensen could not extend his series the following year his car came in third while the sister car won.
In 2006, the Audi R10 TDI LMP1 entered by Joest Racing became the first diesel car to win -engined the 24 Hours of Mans winning car has also improved the record configuration during the post-1990 round with 1, 380 However, this fell away record of all time set in 1971 by more than 200 km.
The 24-hour race in Le Mans was also made famous in a 1971 film, simply titled Le Mans produced by and starring Steve McQueen This film remains a classic that is always appreciated by racing fans it was filmed on the circuit during the race in 1970 using a real race of the day cars, like Porsche 917 Ferrari 512 and Lola T70 car camera Porsche 908 used for the filming of fact participated in the race and finished 9th, but it has not been classified, since he had not quite covered the distance between stops to change film rolls.
There was also a French movie where the second half of the film focuses on the called Michel Vaillant comic popular French book, the hero of motorsport race 24 Hours of Le Mans The film was released in late 2003, after entered Panoz and Lola for filming purposes as actual entries in the 2002 edition of the endurance race.
Also the TV displays the most, the episode entitled The race involves boys competing in the Le Mans 24 hours.
Since 1990, the Mulsanne was interrupted by two chicanes; before 1990 - WM Peugeot has reached 405 km h in 1988, a Sauber Mercedes C9 hit 401 km h in 1989, a Porsche 908 hit 394 km h in 1971, a Porsche 962 C and Jaguar XJR 9 hit 391 km h in 1988 Porsche 956 reached 384 km h in 1987.
The first race in 1923 was won by a Chenard-Walcker who completed 128 laps.
24 hours of Le Mans, hours, team.