Next Saturday, June 13, exactly at 10 o'clock in the morning (15 hours in France) will be the start for the 77 th edition of the famous "24 hours of Le Mans, one of the most traditional races and charming the world. Will be 55 cars in four different categories who fought for 24 hours by one of the most coveted titles of the motoring world.

May 26, 1923, 16 hours. Standing in the circuit of La Sarthe, near the town of Le Mans, started up the first edition of the race to reach an unimaginable prestige, both for its organizers, is for the few spectators that witnessed and their pilots. The objective of the Automobile Club de l'Ouest-was held a competition whose character contribute to the development of technical progress and promote the development of the car. The proof should combine strength and speed of cars and for that nothing better than a race that durasse 24 hours.

The first edition had 33 cars and was won by André Lagache / René Leonard leading a Chenard & Walcker Sport. Everything was very different at that time and one of the items of the regulation that sent the riders rose hood of their car after 5 rounds of proof and covered at least 20 rounds of hoods closed. In the pitstops own pilots had to refuel and change tires for cars, one by one.

It debuted in 1925 as a kind of release that became an emblem of Le Mans. With the boxes, the cars were parked in the spine, with the engine off and lowered hood, across the runway the pilots were aligned, each in front of your car. By lowering the flag of departure, the pilots ran to their cars, took their places and tore for the 24 hour race.

The first winner of Le Mans


Over the years the race was getting more famous by becoming a single global event. Today is the oldest, concurrida, expensive and most prestigious race of speed and endurance for sports cars and prototypes in the world. No other race or class of car has created and developed many new products and parts for the car ride and 24 hours of Le Mans. Almost all manufacturers of cars on the planet have already invested much time and real wealth to beat them, but few succeeded. Winning at Le Mans is write your name forever in the history of motoring.

But as in all areas, Le Mans has its tragedies. Many lives were lost in their 13.650 km of track. The biggest story of the car accident happened in the 1955 race, when a Mercedes, after reaching into a full Healey, took off like a rocket, colliding with a ravine alongside the runway, rolling over several times and is desintegrating on the crowd. In a few seconds 82 people were killed and 76 others were mutilated. Mike Hawthorn was the winner, but almost nobody remembers that.

Few people know, but Ayrton Senna almost ran at Le Mans. In 1984, year of debut in F1, he came to a race, the 1000 km of Nurburgring with a Porsche 956 of JOEST. That year Senna and Bellof were considered prodigies in the motoring world. The race was valid for the World of Brands. At that point had been the epic GP of Monaco. Senna was not as successful as 2 months before in a race where all the pilots F1 ran with a Mercedes 190. Not that the car or the fellow team were bad, quite the contrary. The car was a Porsche 956, entered by Reinhold Joest. The companions of the team were Henri Pescarolo, who had won until that time Le Mans four times (including that same year, a month before), and Stefan Johannson, rapid pilot Swedish.

Ayrton Senna


In practice, the trio only managed to mark the 9th time. Would have to dispute the evidence against two cars of the Porsche factory, and two sections, and the Porsche teams Fitzpatrick, Kremer, Lloyd and Brun. Although it rained, the car lost 7 laps in eight boxes, problems with the clutch and Senna finished the race in 8th place. After that, Senna never ran out of F1, not to be a test with the Formula Indy to Emerson Fittipaldi in the early 90th But he liked the experience: "It's heavier than an F1, but is very fast"

The length of the track is 13.650 kms, USA and part of the Bugatti circuit is largely composed of roads. The most famous passages are curves Tertre Rouge, Mulsanne, Arnage, White House and especially the line of Hunaudières: extension of 5 km where the prototypes achieved and maintained a speed of over 400 km / h for a minute. But this line was divided into three parts through the installation of two haze in 1990. This measure was necessary because some cars aerodynamically insufficiently loaded, in order to achieve greater speed, and just tend to go in that stretch. Aggravated even the fact that when rodavam at speeds to 400 km / h (the record was established at 405 km / h), the tires were subjected to very intense pressure, which led to extreme distortion and total collapse if they were not in good condition. In addition, the brakes get very cold at the end of this road and many cars simply could not reduce the speed enough to make a curve and went Mulsanne straight. The situation was even worse because this could happen at night and in the midst of the GT cars, which run about 100 to 150 km / h slower.

The individual record for victories by the Danish driver Tom Kristensen is with eight triumphs, and the record of manufacturers is the Porsche, which won sixteen times. The record of the distance and the highest average speed over 24 hours remains unbeaten since 1971, when the Porsche 917K of Helmut Marko and Gijs Van Lennep traveled 5,335 kilometers to the average of 222.304 km / h.

- Le Mans Prototype 1 - LMP1 (LMP900 previously) (Audi R8)
- Le Mans Prototype 2 - LMP2 (formerly LMP675) (Courage Judd)
- Le Mans Gran Turismo 1 - LMGT1 (Aston Martin DBR-9)
- Le Mans Gran Turismo 2 - LMGT2 (Ferrari F430)