The 1988 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 56th Grand Prix of Endurance as well as the fifth round of the 1988 World Sports-Prototype Championship. It took place at the Circuit de la Sarthe, France, on the 11 and 12 June 1988. At their third attempt, Jaguar arrived with five cars to take on the strong Porsche works team of three cars, in their only race for the Championship season. The other potential rival was Sauber, now formally backed by Mercedes-Benz, but after a major high-speed tyre-blowout in practice, their two-car team was withdrawn.
From the start, it was a close duel between the two works teams. Even though Hans-Joachim Stuck had put in a blazing qualifying lap to lead a 1-2-3 grid for Porsche, it was Jan Lammers in his Jaguar who muscled his way up to the front. A blocked fuel-filter cost Klaus Ludwig two laps in the pole-sitting Porsche. Thereafter the chase was picked up by his team-mate Bob Wollek, and he took the lead in the fourth hour. Along with the third works car run by the Andretti family and the Joest Porsche, these four cars continued dicing well into the night, constantly swapping positions. However, this year the usual Porsche reliability was missing: the Andretti car lost three laps repairing their water pump, then Wollek's car retired just before half-time with a burnt-out engine. Jaguar did not have plain sailing either, as Boesel had retired at midnight with a broken gearbox. Meanwhile, hard driving by Stuck, Ludwig and van der Merwe had them back into the race, and the second half would be a duel between them and the Jaguar of Lammers, Dumfries and Wallace. A light shower late in the morning just added to the tension with Stuck, a wet-weather master, getting ever closer.
Once the rain eased though, the Jaguar drivers were able to stabilise the gap, and going into the last hour had a comfortable 1-lap lead. That was until the gearbox broke. Lammers, mindful of what Boesel had told him about his own cars demise, had the presence of mind to slam it into fourth and not change gear for the rest of the race. The last drama was their final pit-stop, but Lammers dropped the clutch and with a shove from his pit-crew, got back on the track. Ludwig, unaware of the dire situation facing the Jaguar, had little fuel left himself and could not put pressure on to force a mistake. Lammers led home a formation finish with his remaining two team-mates, as the track was invaded by delirious British fans. After twenty-four hours, the margin of victory was one of the tightest in the race's history - less than half a lap. The Joest Porsche had run like clockwork and finished third, nine laps behind.
There was another major milestone in this race. The small WM Secateva team had always built their cars for speed and never foresaw outright victory. Their current goal was to be the first car to break the 400kp/h barrier at Le Mans. Now with significant backing from Peugeot for their twin-turbo engine, they had their best opportunity. As the evening cooled, the two team-cars had already had several issues. Roger Dorchy was called in and the crew taped up all the vents to minimise air-friction and wound the turbo-boost right up. Knowing he only had several laps, Dorchy went out to give his best effort. On his second lap, he broke the radar speed-trap on the Hunaudières straight at 405kp/h (252mph). Sure enough, the engine soon gave up, but it was mission accomplished for the team.
Regulations
The French central and local governments cooperated to do major upgrades on the Hunaudières back straight. With laser technology, it was resurfaced with high-grip asphalt along its whole length, with a gradient of 2 percent. Over 12,500 tonnes of material was removed from the roadway, including a reduction of the problematic hump approaching Mulsanne corner. This all contributed to increase the maximum speeds of the cars, and following recent alarming accidents on the straight, it was also fitted with high, three-tier Armco fencing.[1][2] During practice, Porsche works driver Hans-Joachim Stuck commented:
"It's so smooth now it's like driving down the Champs Élysées in a Mercedes limousine."[3]
Concerned with the increasing impact of greater downforce, the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile) set maximum dimensions for the underbody ground-effect tunnels. The other change was to increase the fuel allocation for the C2 class up to 1815 litres – still quite restrictive, precluding the full power of turbo engines.[1] The ACO (Automobile Club de l'Ouest) cancelled the test day from the general lack of interest from the contestants over the past two years, given the cost for closing public roads.[1] This year, the race start was moved to 3pm to give the local spectators time to vote in the French elections held over the same weekend.
There had been notable changes in the organisation of the international racing bodies following the re-signing of Concorde Agreement in 1987. Max Mosley, recently-appointed president of FISA, convinced FIA president Jean-Marie Balestre to bring Bernie Ecclestone (co-signatory of Concorde for the rival FOCA group) into the fold as an FIA vice-president responsible for the sport's promotion.[1] This was a move that would have far-reaching ramifications for sports-car racing in the future.
Entries
Including the specialist racing manufacturers, there were fully 27 factory cars in the Le Mans entry list. They were headlined by the five Jaguars, up against Porsche, Nissan, Toyota and Sauber-Mercedes in C1, while Mazda had the GTP class to itself.
Porsche works team, now in Shell livery
Class
Quantity
Turbo+Rotary engines
Group C1
39 / 29
34 / 24
IMSA-GTP
5 / 3
3 / 3
Group C2
25 / 17
3 / 2
IMSA-GTXP
1 / 0
0 / 0
Total Entries
70 / 49
40 / 29
Note: The first number is the number accepted, the second the number who started.
Group C1
Porsche 962CK6 of Kremer Racing
Defending champion, Porsche, was now focused on its F1 TAG-engine program with McLaren and moving into the US IndyCar series (being directed by Al Holbert).[2][4] The works team had left the World Sportscar Championship in the middle of the previous year. They chose the prestigious Le Mans 24-hours as their only race in the championship this year. Three cars again were entered, along with a test-car, all decked out now in the red and yellow livery of their long-time sponsor Shell.[5] The engines were fitted with the new iteration of the BoschMotronic 1.7 engine-management system, giving 50 more horsepower.[3][6] A new chassis was given to Derek Bell and Hans-Joachim Stuck, bringing in Joest driver Klaus Ludwig as their third driver – one of the greatest driving combinations seen, with ten Le Mans victories between them.[4] Ludwig's erstwhile teammate Bob Wollek was partnered with Vern Schuppan and Sarel van der Merwe in a late-'87 chassis. The final car was the one that had taken pole position the year before. It was driven by the Andretti family: Mario Andretti back with his son Michael and this time joined by his nephew John. The winning car from 1987 was used as the T-car.[5]
The heavy lifting during the season for Porsche was carried by the loyal customer teams. The 3.0-litre engine had now been released to them and a number of the teams picked them up. Two of them went to Brun Motorsport, who had brought their cars from last year. Regular team drivers Sigala/Pareja/Schäfer had the lead car.[7] Team-owner Walter Brun stayed on the pit-wall this year, with his attention this season now also diverted by his EuroBrun foray into Formula 1, with his lead driver Oscar Larrauri.[8] The team had boycotted the Silverstone round, protesting the
Jaguar XJR-9
Porsche works team keeping the new Motronic system to itself.[8] By contrast, the Joest Racing team had their own 2.8-litre engines. With the two lead drivers commandeered by the works team, the first car was driven by their other drivers: Frank Jelinski and wealthy former-winner "John Winter" (Louis Krages) with Swede Stanley Dickens. The other car was a converted 956 chassis for David Hobbs/Didier Theys/Franz Konrad.[7] The Kremer brothers had two honeycomb/carbon chassis built by the British TC Prototypes company. The brand new 3-litre car was given to Nissen/Grohs/Fouché. The 2.8-litre WSP car was the modified K6 with its vertical fin, driven by Bruno Giacomelli and Japanese champions Kunimitsu Takahashi and Hideki Okada.[7] Vern Schuppan was running in a works car, but his team in the All-Japan Championship was entered this year. His drivers were the veteran crew of Brian Redman, Eje Elgh and Jean-Pierre Jarier.[7][8] The small Obermaier Racing team, that had done a giant-killing act the previous year to finish second, was back with Jürgen Lässig joined by Pierre Yver and Dudley Wood. In contrast, as an example of the fragility and expense of racing, the otherwise well-performing Richard Lloyd Racing team had to withdraw their entries when sponsorship fell through just days before the start of the season.[7][9]
Sauber C9
An adage was that it took at least three attempts for a manufacturer to win Le Mans – as evidenced by Ford and Renault, and longer for Porsche, Matra and Aston Martin. The notable exception was Ferrari who won at their first attempt – the inaugural post-war Le Mans in 1949. This sentiment was acknowledged by Tom Walkinshaw himself – in charge of the Jaguar team operations.[10] Following the example of Ferrari, Ford and Porsche themselves, this year Jaguar brought quantity as well as quality to the event, in their efforts to get the elusive victory. Tom Walkinshaw bought five cars and fourteen drivers to Le Mans. Their weapon this year would be the new XJR-9, designed by Tony Southgate.[11] The car featured a number of aerodynamic and mechanical improvements, including a reduction of the air tunnels to meet the new regulations. Covers over the rear wheels contributed an estimated extra 10% to the downforce.[12] Now fitted with a Zytek management system, TWR's engine-specialist, Allan Scott, was able to lift its output to 730bhp with a top-speed 15kp/h faster than last year's car.[13] Jaguar had entered this year's IMSA GTP series and to meet those regulations, was now sporting four 17" wheels all round.[14] One of the IMSA cars was brought across to join the three WSC cars, along with a new chassis destined for the USA.[14]
At the start of the year, Mercedes-Benz formally returned to motor-racing, in partnership with the Sauber team. The C9 design of Leo Ress got a major development, fine-tuning its aerodynamics and airflow with the new regulations. The refined 5.0-litre twin-turbo M117 engine could now put out well over 700bhp.[9] As a works project, a full team of engineers and personnel joined the pit-crew under new team manager Dave Price. The effects were immediate with strong results in the opening races from the improved reliability, including a victory at Jerez.[16][9] Team regular, and current championship leader, Jean-Louis Schlesser considered the Hunaudières straight too dangerous,[4][17] so his regular co-drivers Jochen Mass and Mauro Baldi were joined by James Weaver (whose usual ride with Richard Lloyd did not arrive. Mass was also cross-entered in the second car, with Klaus Niedzwiedz and Kenny Acheson. They were joined by Noël del Bello, and his older Sauber C8. He had recently received a pile of spare parts from Sauber and Mercedes-Benz, including the latest KKK (Kühnle, Kopp & Kausch) turbochargers. This boosted the car up to 355kp/h (220mph). His co-drivers were Belgian Bernard de Dryver and Swiss Bernard Santal.[18]
WM P88
Toyota had the new 88C model, built by Dome. It had been specifically designed around a new 3.2-litre turbo V8, but when that engine was not race-ready for Le Mans, they were retroactively fitted with the 1987 2.1-litre turbo-engine. Three cars were entered by TOM'S Racing although only two arrived. They would be driven by their regular combinations from the All Japan Endurance Championship: with Sekiya/Hoshino/Lees and Ogawa/Needell/Barilla.[19]Nissan had done considerable work developing its March 87G chassis, now badged as the Nissan R88C. The VRH30 was essentially a new engine, with a lot of effort put in to resolve the cooling issues that plagued the VEJ30, with smaller turbos and a new cylinder block.[20] The NISMO works team had two cars, one with works drivers Kazuyoshi Hoshino and Aguri Suzuki, joined by Takao Wada. The other had guest works-drivers Brit Win Percy and Australian Allan Grice, with Mike Wilds.[20] There were also two cars again co-entered by the Japanese Team LeMans and Italya Sport teams. Using March chassis, they were fitted with 3.2-litre turbo VG30 engines prepared by NISMO.[21]
Never in a position to challenge the big teams, the small WM Secateva team had always built its racing program around Le Mans. In recent years, their principal focus was to achieve something unique: to be the first team to reach 400kp/h on the Mulsanne straight. This could not be a target for race-winning teams as the fuel-consumption for such an engine would be prohibitive over 24 hours. The new design for the Projet Quatrecents was the P88, which had further aerodynamic refinements. The front and rear overhang were both shortened by 30cm and the internal venturi air funnels reduced. In this, they were assisted by specialist car maker, and co-sponsor, Heuliez. Denis Mathiot Compétition tuned the 2.9-litre engine, now fitted with twin Garrett turbos, to produce a massive 910bhp. A new chassis was built while the previous year's P87 was adapted to the new specification.[22] However, despite these updates, the cars were still heavier than the standard Porsche 962s with equivalent-sized engines, and over 40kg more than the works Porsches.[23]
Motivated by the third placing last year, Yves Courage's small local outfit proposed a major effort with five Cougar entries this year. The new C22 was purpose-built around the 2.8-litre Porsche engine unit, as used in the rival 962s. Small changes trimmed 40kg off its weight compared to the C20. It would be run by François Migault, Paul Belmondo and Ukyo Katayama. A chassis from 1987 was lengthened slightly, and fitted with a 3.0-litre Porsche turbo, as the C20B. Its drivers would be Pierre-Henri Raphanel and 1987 European Touring Car champion Roberto Ravaglia.[24] Two other C20 entries did not eventuate. The fifth car was an older C12 that Courage had bought back from its American owner. He converted it back to its original 1984 form and fitted a Cosworth DFL engine to enter it into the C2 class.[21]
A surprising entry was the Lancia LC2, an echo from the past. Originally built in 1983, two had been purchased by privateer Gianni Mussato in 1986. One was written off in testing, so he sent the other to Dallara Automobili for upgrade and development. After an unsuccessful year, he sold the car to Swiss Jean-Pierre Frey and his Dollop Racing Team that had latterly been racing in Formula 3000. Former Alfa Romeo F1 engineer, Pierluigi Corbari, reworked the suspension, brakes and aerodynamics to improve its handling. With a 3-litre Ferrari engine it had a top speed of 340kp/h (210mph).[25] After a 2-year hiatus, Tim Lee Davey returned with his C1 turbo-Tiga experiment. He had installed twin Garrett turbochargers to a Cosworth DFL engine – which necessitated moving the radiators to the nose of the car to accommodate them.[26]
Group C2
Defending C2 champions, Spice Engineering arrived with the new SE88 car. It was designed by Graham Humphreys as a customer-car and thus had to be multi-purpose for a variety of circuits. Five C2 chassis were built and another six GTP for IMSA. It was given improved aerodynamics and a narrower cockpit, now capable of 330kp/h (205mph). Two cars were entered by the works team, with one driven by owner/drivers Gordon Spice and Ray Bellm, joined by Pierre de Thoisy.[27] One of the customer sales went to Jean-Louis Ricci, who employed Chamberlain Engineering to run it. Ricci arranged for French veterans Claude Ballot-Léna and Jean-Claude Andruet as his co-drivers. Chamberlain also had his own, older, RE86C car with its 1.9-litre turbocharged Hart engine, that could be wound up to 650bhp to hit 350kp/h (215mph). Cosmik GP Motorsport bought an ex-works SE87C for Anglo-Greek owner Costas Los and South African Wayne Taylor. The final Spice was the RE86C of Graff Racing. This was the class-winning car from last year's race, that Jean-Philippe Grand had recently bought off Hugh Chamberlain.[27]
Chamberlain's Spice SE88C
The dominance of Spice was at the expense of Tiga Race Cars and although six of them were entered, only two arrived. Charles Ivey returned with his Porsche twin-turbo GC287. It would be driven by John Sheldon with first-timers Tim Harvey and Chris Hodgetts. Roy Baker brought over the GC286-Cosworth he had been running in IMSA, in its soft-pink livery, nicknamed the "Pink Panther". The team also fielded a large inflatable figure of the titular character, which they anchored to their fuelling rig and lit up at night. The limit of development of the 3.3-litre DFL could only get it up to 345kp/h (195mph) which gave away too much top-line speed to keep up.[28]
Argo JM19C
The Argo JM19 had been very successful in the IMSA series, particularly with the Mazda rotary engine. There were three of the cars entered in the C2 class, as the JM19C version, and all were fitted the 3.3-litre Cosworth DFL. The British PC Automotive team had entered a Royale-Alba in 1986, and Olindo Iacobelli raced it in 1987, but this year they converted to the Argo. Jean Massaoudi ran the racing school at Montlhéry and bought a new JM19C chassis. It was prepared by former Rondeau engineer Jean Montet, with an engine tuned by John Nicholson. Norwegian Rallycross champion Martin Schanche had raced an Argo with a Zakspeed turbo. However, after two years of unreliability he, too, converted to the Cosworth engine. He teamed up with Robin Smith again, and Robin Donovan.[29]
The number of C2 privateer-builds was lower this year. ADA Engineering had lost its second chassis in an accident at the end of the '87 season. A new 03 chassis was ready for Le Mans, and owner Ian Harrower brought in Jiro Yoneyama and Hideo Fukuyama as co-drivers after their own Jiro entry was not ready.[30] A sentimental entry admitted by the ACO was the final appearance at Le Mans of a Rondeau. Jean Rondeau, a Le Mans native, had the unique record of being the only person to win Le Mans in a car of his own company but had died in a road-accident in 1985. This M379C was built in 1979 as a works car before being sold to Jean-Philippe Grand. Now back for its tenth race, new owner, Swiss Pierre-Alan Lombardi, had veteran gentleman-racer Bruno Sotty join him as his co-driver.[31] Another small French driver-constructor partnership was Louis Descartes and Jacques Heuclin. After a good race in 1987, they returned to Le Mans with two cars including a new model. The ALD 04 was 100kg lighter than the 03, due to the greater use of Kevlar and a redesigned suspension. After a lack of success with the turbocharged Audi engine project, they reverted to the normally-aspirated 3.5-litre BMW engines. This improved its top speed up to 325kp/h (200mph). However, unlike Rondeau, who focussed primarily on the great race, the ALD team was running full seasons in the World Championship. Their second car was held on the reserve list.[31] Roland Bassaler had his SHS C6 for its fifth and final Le Mans. Ever the enthusiast, he gave his old workhorse a complete chassis makeover, getting it completed just in time for scrutineering, also sitting on the reserve list. The work was effective though, as the car could now get up to a top speed of 320kp/h (200mph).[32]
IMSA-GTP
Mazdaspeed had the IMSA-GTP class to itself when the two entries from the American Fabcar company did not eventuate. This year, a new model was presented – the Mazda 767, designed by Nigel Stroud. It was built around Mazda's new quad-rotor 13J-MWankel engine.[33] It put out around 600bhp and despite the extra length from fitting the fourth rotor, the compactness of the motors made no difficulty to accommodate it. In fact, the new chassis overall was shorter and narrower with stronger reinforcement of the engine bay for better rigidity. With new aerodynamics, downforce was increased by 30% and although the new engine was heavier, the cars were still lighter than the Group C cars.[33][8] Three cars came to Le Mans: last years drivers, Terada/Kennedy/Dieudonné had an older 757. Two of the new 767s went to the Japanese works drivers Yorino and Katayama. The former raced with Will Hoy and Hervé Regout and the latter with Marc Duez and David Leslie.
Practice and Qualifying
The first sensation of qualifying was when the whole Jaguar team failed initial scrutineering. It was found their rear wings were mounted too far back and made the overall length of the cars an inch too long. An easy fix for the team, but an unnecessary distraction.[14][34] The other sensation was the withdrawal of the fancied Sauber-Mercedes team. Testing at Monza had two serious tyre-blowouts at high speed. On Wednesday's second practice session, it happened again as Klaus Niedzwiedz went through the kink approaching the Mulsanne corner at 360kp/h (225mph). Despite fishtailing down the road, Niedzwiedz kept it off the barriers and got back to the pits. Considerable damage to the suspension and bodywork had been done by the shredded tyre and the team could not tell if it was due to a puncture or structural failure. Mercedes, still very sensitive from their involvement in the 1955 Le Mans disaster (the last time they raced at Le Mans), took the decision to withdraw the team to prevent any possibility of such a catastrophe recurring.[16][2][35][36][37]
Once again, the Porsche works team was untouchable and for the first time they lined up 1-2-3 on the grid, after a dominant first practice. It was Stuck who claimed pole with a blistering lap (3:15.6) fully five seconds faster than Wollek's pole time of the year before. The latter was second, after his laps were compromised passing traffic. Mario Andretti was just a thousandth of a second ahead of Brundle's Jaguar. Stuck's amazing lap in the very first session of qualifying quickly convinced Jaguar not to even bother trying to contest pole[38] and to conserve their cars: the other four Jags were in the top dozen, interspersed between the leading Joest and Kremer Porsches - and the two Toyotas that were proving very competitive this year. In qualifying 8th (3:25.4), Geoff Lees was 9 seconds quicker than Toyota's best time in 1987.[39][40][3]
There was a serious accident on Wednesday when Raphanel's Cougar lost its engine cover at full speed approaching the kink at Indianapolis. The car was fired into the barriers and wrecked, yet the team did an incredible job to have it ready again by Thursday afternoon. Co-driver Ravaglia, however, was very concerned and chose not to drive. His place was taken by French Formula 3000 driver Michel Ferté.[24] Both of the super-fast WMs blew their turbos during practice. The team claimed that Roger Dorchy had hit 407kp/h on the Hunaudières straight. Unfortunately, the ACO's speed-camera was not working at the time and it could not be verified.[22] The older P87 qualified 22nd (3:34.7) while the new P88 was a disappointing 36th (3:41.5).[40] In GTP, the new Mazdas qualified 28th and 29th with 3:39 laps, six seconds faster than the team's best time last year.[33]
The C2 class was rocked by the incredible lap put in by the Chamberlain Spice with its turbo engine. Nick Adams's time of 3:30.3 was ten seconds faster than they had achieved in 1987 and was good enough to put it 16th overall on the grid.[35] Their nearest competitor was Gordon Spice's own car with a 3:37.8, starting 26th, with the Cosmik GP SE87 next 3:40.1 (30th) and not far behind, in 32nd (3:40.7) was the Charles Ivey Tiga. At the back of the grid was the old SH6, in off the reserve list with a qualifying lap of 4:06.7.[40] In the Chamberlain Spice, American stuntman-driver Bobby Orr spun and stalled the car on his first flying lap. Instead of hitting the ignition switch he set off the inboard fire extinguishers. Chamberlain was so angry about it, he immediately replaced Orr with Richard Jones.[27] In the C2 Cougar, Thierry Lecerf was too slow to be qualified, so the car would only be raced by his co-drivers, Patrick de Radiguès and Moroccan Max Cohen-Olivar.[21]
Race
Start
Over 50,000 British fans had arrived for the race, spurred on by Jaguar's prospects. This swelled the crowd to 260,000, the biggest for the decade.[3] At the earlier 3pm start, on a hit afternoon, Stuck vaulted from the pole position into the lead. Lammers, from sixth on the grid, muscled past the other works cars into second place by the end of the first lap. That just provoked them and the four of them set a strong pace. Lammers took the lead on the sixth lap and, in fact, all four held the lead at some time in the opening shift. The other Jaguars were prowling near, running 5, 6, 8 and 9 after the first hour. The first hiccup was right on the hour when Nielsen planted his car into the gravel at Indianapolis, losing two laps. At 5.30pm, Ludwig lost minutes as he almost ran out of fuel in the Porsche Curves, just managing to get back to the pits, but dropping two laps and falling down to ninth.[41][35][42][38] It was later found to be due to a blocked fuel filter, that stopped the last third of the tank being accessed.[10][13]
The only serious accident in the race happened at 8.15pm, when Ukyo Katayama lost control of his Cougar in the high-speed Porsche Curves. It flipped over the guard barrier, into the catch-fencing, and burst into flames. Katayama emerged unhurt but severely in shock. He was left literally speechless – unable to speak in the hospital for two days.[43][24] Later in the night, the other Cougar also had a fire, when fuel was spilt during a pit-stop. Burning through the electrics put them out the race.[24]
A notable piece of history was made in the mid-evening. The WM team was having a poor race; with the second car already out having broken its CV-joint leaving the pit-lane. The new car had been delayed by a number of problems including the cooling, electronics, fuel pump and distributor.[22] With the night cooling down, at 9:30pm they brought the P88 back into the pits for a do-or-die attempt at the speed record. Every space was taped over to minimise sir resistance, and the twin-turbos wound right up to over 900bhp. Roger Dorchy took the car out, knowing he would only have a couple of laps but he took his chance and was officially clocked at an incredible 405kp/h (252mph) on the back straight.[44][45] And sure enough, the engine, starved of cooling air, blew up - but it was mission accomplished and a place in racing history – the first car to break 400kp/h at Le Mans.[6][22]
As night fell, at 11pm after seven hours, the Wollek/Schuppan/van der Merwe Porsche was leading the Lammers/Dumfries/Wallace Jaguar with the Andretti Porsche in third the only other car on the lead lap. The recovering works cars of Bell/Stuck/Ludwig and Brundle/Nielsen were 4th and 5th respectively, often travelling close together as they climbed back up the rankings.[14] Replacing the fuel pump in the Porsche finally solved their fuel problems. Strong driving by Derek Bell going into the night had got the car into third and onto the leaders' lap by midnight (although it cost them valuable fuel consumption).[10] The other three Jaguars (6th, 7th and 9th) and the two Joest Porsches filled out the rest of the top-10. The Japanese Group C cars had qualified well, but issues had dropped them out of contention.
In the C2 class, Wayne Taylor initially had a good lead (running 11th overall after one hour) until waylaid by a seized wheelbearing.[27] Dane Thorkild Thyrring moved into the class-lead in the second works Spice, until the rear bodywork blew off when Eliseo Salazar was travelling at speed and they, in turn, lost half an hour.[27] This brought the pole-sitting Chamberlain Spice to the front of the class. Ricci had been delayed early on when a short-circuit set off the internal fire extinguishers, but after that Ballot-Léna had driven back up through the field.[27] Meanwhile, the Spice/Bellm/de Thoisy car had been delayed by a faulty fuel-pump and a puncture but by 7pm they had moved up to the top of the class, from where they would not be headed.[27]
Night
In the first half of the race, the lead had changed 22 times between those leading four cars.[35][34] For nine hours, the Wollek and Lammers cars had vied for the lead, never more than half a lap apart and thrilling the spectators.[38] At times only seconds apart, weaving on the straights to try and break each other's slipstreams, and using the slower cars to eke out small gaps.[13] Gradually issues started cropping up for the leaders: Boesel retired the first Jaguar after 11pm, having stopped at Arnage unable to find any gears.[35][10] The American Jaguar lost three hours through the night having a gearbox and clutch rebuild.[46] Then at 2:45, Wollek suddenly slowed and brought his Porsche into the pits to retire – a severed fuel line had starved the engine and burnt our three valves of the flat-six engine.[35][10] In his 18th Le Mans, it was another failure for Wollek, retiring from a potential winning position.
Therefore, at the halfway point of 3am, the Jaguar had a solid lead. However, Bell, Stuck and Ludwig were driving hard, in second, and all through the night, their relentless pursuit continued. At midnight, John Andretti had lost three laps (falling to sixth) getting a water-pump replaced.[35][10][5] The family had got back to fourth by 4am, when Mario pulled in with a chronic misfire. Losing three-quarters of an hour, Michael took it out running on five cylinders in tenth spot, but they survived and eventually finished sixth.[5]
Morning
At dawn, the two leading Jaguars sandwiched the works Porsche, with the Joest car lurking near enough in fourth. Around 6.30am, Lammers had the misfortune to hit a bird and had to pit to have a new windscreen fitted.[35][46] This allowed the Porsche to take the lead, but only for a lap, as Stuck pitted straight away and team manager Peter Falk got the water-pump replaced as a precaution.[47] Brundle and Nielsen had also been charging hard and briefly got into second during that interlude. It would not last though, and when Nielsen pitted with steam blowing out the engine soon after 10am, they had to retire with a blown head-gasket.[35][46] At breakfast time, the Andretti Porsche suffered a similar problem to the sister-car and lost three cylinders, but managed to get going again albeit dropping more laps.[35][47]
Then at 11am, to complicate a tight situation, a light shower made the track wet and slippery. This sent the cars diving for the pits for their intermediate tyres, as it was heavier on the Mulsanne than on the main straight. However, it was just enough to ease the speed of the leaders and remove concerns on fuel consumption. With no significant period behind the safety cars, the relentless pace had made it a reasonable concern for a time.[48][10] Stuck used all his skill as a wet-weather expert to start reeling in the Jaguar. By midday, with the track drying, the Jaguar was able to extend its legs and maintain a gap of around three minutes.[10]
Outside of the C1 class, the GTP Mazdas were in a close tussle with the C2-leading works Spice and the other Japanese cars: at breakfast, Katayama's 767 was running 13th ahead of the Lees Toyota and Spice/Bellm. The other two Mazdas were next, ahead of the two Nissans with the Lancia rounding out the top-20. [40] Then it all fell apart for Mazda – just before 7am, both 767s came into the pits with broken exhausts and water pumps, losing several hours each with the repairs.[33] The Nissan of Hoshino/Wada/Suzuki had lost an hour overnight changing ignitions leads causing a misfire. They had resumed in 41st place but had steadily worked their way back through the field, all the way up to 14th until around 11am when a broken exhaust valve ended their race.
Finish and post-race
At 12.45, the Porsche came into the pits to replace the fuel-filter again, allowing the Lammers/Dumfries/Wallace Jaguar to get a consistent one-lap.[46][48] Then with only forty minutes to go, the gearbox broke on the Jaguar. Lammers felt a vibration immediately before it jumped out of gear, and mindful of the warning that Boesel had given him about what happened with his car, was able to slam the car into fourth gear and carry on.[46] He also had the presence of mind not to attempt to change gear for the rest of the race, but still had a final fuel stop to make. However, by slipping the clutch and getting a shove from his pit-crew, he was able to get moving. With a quarter-hour (4 laps) to go, under instruction from Walkinshaw, the other two remaining Jaguars lined up for a formation finish.[48][42] They were also there to protect their leader's back, and even punt him across the line if necessary if the gearbox completely gave up.[49] Unaware of the peril the wounded Jaguar was in, at the Porsche's last stop with a half-hour to go, Ludwig was told to save the car and conserve fuel.[5] Going onto the final lap, the gap was only 100 seconds.[13] However, Lammers was able to get home to take the victory in front of a euphoric British crowd who swarmed onto the track. The Porsche was about half a lap behind, with only 1½ litres of fuel left. Officially, the margin of victory was given as 180 metres – either way, it was one of the closest competitive-margins ever at Le Mans.[5][3][34]
Jaguar had finally broken the stranglehold that Porsche had had on the race – which they had won for the previous seven years in a row. Andy Wallace became only the fifth man to win Le Mans on debut.[42] The wining chassis #488 had not completed a race yet in the world championship, but found reliability at just the right time.[37] With no safety-car periods, the race distance was only a lap shy of breaking the 1971 race distance record (less than 3km).[17]
The Joest Porsche was third, nine laps back, waiting in vain for the works cars to falter. The car went eleven laps further than their winning car in 1985. The American-based Jaguar of Daly/Perkins/Cogan was a further two laps back in fourth after an untroubled run.[10] The other Jaguar, of Sullivan/Jones/Cobb finished 7th after having the whole rear suspension replaced not once, but twice, to fix an untraceable rear vibration.[10][47] The reliability of the 962C was proven again with 9 of the 11 entered cars finishing, and all those were in the top dozen places.[10] In finishing 11th, the Obermaier Racing team went 22 laps further than when they had finished second the previous year.[7] The Japanese teams fared better this year, with the lead Toyota coming home 12th and Nissan in 14th while all three Mazdas finishing in the GTP class (15th, 17th and 19th). It was the older 757 that led the team home (covering 18 laps further than in 1987) after the dual delays to the sister cars.
The C2 class winner: Spice Engineering
The works Spice team ran reliably finishing 13th, unlike so many of their rivals, and cruised to a 33-lap (480km) win in the C2 class. They almost caught the Toyota, and their only hindrance had been two pitstops in the first hour to fix blown fuses, and a driver's door left open. Their sister car had been running third in class, chasing the ADA team. However, soon after midday it was retired when the engine broke.[27] The ADA had pitted after the formation lap to get a new ignition box fitted, but after that had run extremely reliably and finished a distant, but deserved, second-in-class.[30] Not classified was the Rondeau. Sadly, in its farewell race, it had a troubled run. Electrical issues cost several hours during the night, and then in the morning another hour was lost replacing a rear suspension upright and gear selector. Despite a reliable drive after that, and running at the finish, Lombardi was just 5 laps short of the necessary 70% distance-mark to be classified.[31]
The success of the WM-Peugeot was capitalised on by the parent company, who named their new sporty hatchback the "405" in honour of the milestone achievement. Was the caution of the Sauber-Mercedes team over their cars justified?[37] It was impossible to tell. However, they had no further tyre problems in the rest of the season and went on to win four of the remaining six races in the championship. It was the first year in the Group C era (starting in 1982) that a Porsche had not won a single Championship race. After an enthralling, highly-competitive season with Sauber-Mercedes, Jaguar retained its Championship, not least due to the treble points for the Le Mans victory.[9]
At the end of the year, FISA announced its new format for the World Championship: it would be 12 races. Apart from the 24 hours at Le Mans, the other races would be 400-500km length to fit TV coverage. There would also be a 2-year transition to a new generation of 3.5-litre engines.[9] While a number of manufacturers expressed interest, Porsche took the opposite view – announcing their full works withdrawal from sports-car racing and the end of its support for their customer teams.[6]
Official results
Finishers
Results taken from Quentin Spurring's book, officially licensed by the ACO[50][23][51][52] Class Winners are in Bold text.
The 1996 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 64th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 15 and 16 June 1996. It was won by a Tom Walkinshaw-Porsche prototype run by Joest Racing with drivers Davy Jones, Manuel Reuter and Le Mans rookie Alexander Wurz completing 354 laps. While not being the fastest car on track, it hit the front in the first hour and aside from several pit-stop overlaps, was never headed as other teams hit mechanical troubles during the race. This was Reuter's second Le Mans victory, and the first for Jones and Wurz, who, at 22 years old, became the youngest ever Le Mans overall winner.
The 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 63rd Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 17 and 18 June 1995 in one of the wettest races in the event's history with about 17 hours of steady rain. The race was won by the #59 McLaren F1 GTR driven by JJ Lehto, Yannick Dalmas and Masanori Sekiya entered in the GT1 category. This was the first Le Mans win for a driver from Finland and for a driver from Japan. It was also McLaren's first win, at its first attempt. Such was the marque's dominance that its cars filled four of the first five places - Ferrari did it with its two cars in 1949, but other manufacturers like Jaguar, Porsche, Ford or Audi achieved their Le Mans fame only after 2, 3 or more years attempting their first win.
The 1987 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 55th Grand Prix of Endurance as well as the fifth round of the 1987 World Sports-Prototype Championship. It took place at the Circuit de la Sarthe, France, on the 13 and 14 June 1987. Jaguar was a strong contender, have won the four preceding rounds of the Championship. The Porsche works team had installed a new 3-litre engine into their 962s but their turbo engines would test their fuel economy.
The 1986 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 54th Grand Prix of Endurance as well as the third round of the 1986 World Sports-Prototype Championship. It took place at the Circuit de la Sarthe, France, on 31 May and 1 June 1986. This year saw the return of a full Jaguar works team, to take on the strong Porsche works and customer teams. However, with the fuel regulations relaxed, the turbo-charged cars would be able to use more of their potential power to outrun the normally-aspirated 6-litre Jaguars.
The 1985 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 53rd Grand Prix of Endurance, as well as the fourth round of the 1985 World Endurance Championship. It took place at the Circuit de la Sarthe, France, on 15 and 16 June 1985. The works Porsche team returned, with a Group C version of the 962. As favourites, they could expect from their customer teams and the works Lancias. In qualifying, Hans-Joachim Stuck set a new lap record in his works Porsche, with an average speed over 250 km/h for the first time. Mercedes returned for the first time in 30 years, as engine supplier to the Sauber team. The return was short-lived though, as the car got airborne in practice and crashed. With tighter fuel regulations this year from FISA, the teams would have to be more mindful of fuel economy and speed. However, from the start the Joest and Richard Lloyd Racing teams had the measure of the field. Working in tandem, Klaus Ludwig and Jonathon Palmer took turns leading and slipstreaming behind the other. Then at 9pm Jean-Claude Andruet had a major accident when his WM had a tyre blow out a high speed at the Mulsanne kink, sending him into the Armco barriers. Andruet was uninjured, but the race went behind the pace-cars for a half-hour as repairs were done. Just as the race resumed James Weaver pitted the RLR Porsche with an engine misfire. Traced to a faulty sensor, they returned to the race in 7th.
The 1984 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 52nd Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 16 – 17 June 1984. It was also the third round of the 1984 World Endurance Championship. There were two big stories going into the race weekend: the absence of the Porsche works team and their drivers, and the return of Jaguar. Bob Tullius had commissioned the new Jaguar XJR-5 to run in the IMSA series and entered two for Le Mans. Earlier in the year, FISA had announced abrupt changes to the fuel regulations to bring them more in line with IMSA. Porsche and Lancia objected strongly because of their strong investment in the existing rules. In the absence of dominant Porsche works team, the race was left wide open between Lancia and the number of strong Porsche customer teams.
The 1983 24 Hours of Le Mans was a motor race staged at the Circuit de la Sarthe, Le Mans, France on 18 and 19 June 1983. It was the 51st Grand Prix of Endurance and was also the fourth round of both the 1983 World Endurance Championship and the 1983 European Endurance Championship. The 1983 race was held eight days before the 50th anniversary of the inaugural race held in 1923.
The 1982 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 50th Grand Prix of Endurance, which took place on 19 and 20 June 1982. It was also the fourth round of the 1982 World Endurance Championship. As well as a significant anniversary, this was a watershed year for Le Mans, with the highly anticipated advent of the FIA's Group C regulations, the essence of which was to allow an open engine formula but a minimum weight for safety and a proscribed fuel allocation.
The 1981 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 49th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 13 and 14 June 1981. It was also the eighth round of the World Endurance Championship of Drivers, and the fifth round of the World Championship for Makes.
The 1980 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 48th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 14 and 15 June 1980. It was the seventh round of both the World Championship for Makes and World Challenge for Endurance Drivers. With neither the Porsche nor Renault works teams contesting the big Group 6 sports-cars for outright victory, it left the prospects open for a privateer victory from Joest, Rondeau or De Cadenet, or from Group 5 again, if they were to fail. The wet weather throughout the race further added to the uncertainty, reducing the advantage of the more powerful cars.
The 1979 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 47th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 9 and 10 June 1979. With no other major works cars this year, the Porsche team were the strong favourites to win. Their competition would be from Cosworth-powered Mirages and Rondeaus and a swarm of Group 5 and IMSA-class Porsche 935s. The other big talking point was the presence of Hollywood actor Paul Newman, driving for Dick Barbour Racing.
The 1978 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 46th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 10 and 11 June 1978. In many ways it was a continuation of the race from the year before – the two main protagonists would be the very evenly-matched works teams of Alpine-Renault and Porsche, with four cars each. The race was not valid for any championship.
The 1977 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 45th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 11 and 12 June 1977. The second year of the FIA Group 5 and Group 6 regulations, it produced an exciting race right up to the end. Porsche had withdrawn from the Group 6 Championship, citing a lack of broad competition. Renault, before their move into Formula 1, decided to put its main racing focus for the year onto Le Mans. The two works teams were the pre-race favourites.
The 1976 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 44th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 12 and 13 June 1976. This year the FIA introduced its new Group 5 and Group 6 regulations and the race was now open to nine distinct classes, although it was still not part of the World Championship seasons. Porsche introduced its new models, the 936 in Group 6, the 935 in Group 5 and the 934 in Group 4. In response, BMW had its modified 3.0 CSL in Group 5. It was the year that turbos arrived in considerable numbers, with over a dozen turbocharged entries, led by the Renault Alpine A442. It saw the arrival of French prototype manufacturers Jean Rondeau and Gérard Welter in a new GTP class and a first-time invitation to American IMSA and NASCAR entries.
The 1975 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 43rd Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 14 and 15 June 1975. Colloquially called the “Le Mans Economy Run”, stringent refuelling regulations were put in place. Unable to match the requisite 7mpg fuel economy the manufacturer teams from Ferrari, Alfa Romeo withdrew and Matra had retired from the sport at the end of 1974. Therefore, this only left Gulf and Ligier as front-running works-teams.
The 1974 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 42nd Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 15 and 16 June 1974. It was the fifth round of the 1974 World Championship for Makes. After Alfa Romeo had won the first race of the season at Monza, it had been Matra all the way and they came to Le Mans as firm favourites for a third consecutive outright victory, especially after Alfa Romeo withdrew its cars just before raceweek.
The 1972 24 Hours of Le Mans was a motor race staged at the Circuit de la Sarthe, Le Mans, France on 10 and 11 June 1972. It was the 40th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the ninth race of the 1972 World Championship for Makes.
The 1963 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 31st Grand Prix of Endurance in the 24 Hours of Le Mans series and took place on 15 and 16 June 1963. It was also the tenth round of the 1963 World Sportscar Championship season.
The 1956 24 Hours of Le Mans was a race for Sports Cars which took place on 28 and 29 July 1956 on the Circuit de la Sarthe. The race was won by Ron Flockhart and Ninian Sanderson driving a Jaguar D-Type for the new Ecurie Ecosse team. This race also marked the golden jubilee of the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) founded in 1906, however because of the previous year's disaster, celebrations were deferred to 1957 to go along with the imminent 25th anniversary of the race.
The 1954 24 Hours of Le Mans was a 22nd race for Sports Cars, and took place on 12 and 13 June 1954, at the Circuit de la Sarthe, Le Mans, France. It was also the fourth race of the 1954 World Sportscar Championship. The race was won by José Froilán González and Maurice Trintignant driving a Ferrari 375 Plus.
References
Clarke, R.M. - editor (1999) Le Mans 'The Porsche & Jaguar Years 1983-1991' Cobham, Surrey: Brooklands Books ISBN1-85520-483-5
Laban, Brian (2001) Le Mans 24 Hours London: Virgin Books ISBN1-85227-971-0
Spurring, Quentin (2012) Le Mans 1980-89 Yeovil, Somerset: Haynes Publishing ISBN978-0-85733-128-1
Williams, Richard (2023) 24 Hours – 100 Years of Le Mans London: Simon & Schuster ISBN978-1-3985-1722-6
Wimpffen, János (2008) Monocoques and Ground Effects Hong Kong: David Bull Publishing ISBN1-893618-97-8
External links
Racing Sports Cars– Le Mans 24 Hours 1983 with entries, results, technical detail and photos of every car. Retrieved 10 Sept 2023
Le Mans History– Le Mans entry-list and hour-by-hour placings (incl. pictures of every car, quotes, highest speeds per car, YouTube links). Retrieved 10 Sept 2023
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