Série Internationale Du Mans
The History and Philosophy of Endurance Racing
Bugatti was a frequent participant in the early days of endurance racing.
As early as the 1920's, endurance racing had become a widely accepted component of automobile racing, including the pre-war Grand Prix series, where car manufacturers and some of the world's gutsiest drivers would compete to test the durability of their equipment, as well as the endurance of their drivers. While the majority of these races were held in regard as glorified test sessions, they quickly grew into fierce competitions with auto makers such as Bugatti and Alfa Romeo emerging from these early contests with the idea of creating specialized cars just for these events.
During the 1930's, companies such as Mercedes-Benz jumped into the fray and later in the decade these newly famed contests of speed and endurance eventually morphed into two distinct forms of competition. One series was eventually based on shorter distance races, which in turn saw mechanics and drivers move from the traditional two-seater machines to a single-seat racers which eventually included removing all of the fenders from the cars as an overall effort to reduce the weight of the cars.
This series evolved further into what is known today as the Formula One series with it's 2-hour maximum race distances. The other series continued with longer distance events which often included rally races through country sides over difficult terrains to test both the car and driver. As these longer endurance events increased in popularity eventually different divisions were created for touring cars, which were primary road cars and sports cars that were developed almost solely for the event itself.
The series began making regular stops at venues such as Targa Florio and Le Mans , which at the time were mostly dusty roads. As the Italian motor companies began their involvement, the series adopted a new class for even faster cars called Gran Turismo, which later became known as the GT Class.
After World War II, sports car racing emerged as a distinct form of racing complete with its own World Championship. In the 1950's, the teams competing in the sports car series were as well known as those in Formula One today; Ferrari, Aston Martin, Jaguar and Maserati. With these major players introducing more race-only entries, the touring car division was dismantled leaving the series with only dedicated race cars to compete. The series was gaining notoriety so much so, that top Grand Prix drivers would also compete regularly in the sports car series, but after accidents in the 1955 Le Mans and the 1957 Mille Miglia, horsepower levels were reduced in the interest of safety.
The 1960's found international interest in the series growing and other countries creating sports car series of their own. Germany, Italy, Britain, France, Japan and the United States were forming their own National Championship Series, which in turn would create crossover competitions at Le Mans and other significant length, high profile races.
"The Master" at work. Juan Manual Fangio driving a Mercedes 300 SLR during the ill-fated 1955 Le Mans 24-hour race.
Near the end of the sixties, a hard fought battle between Ford and Ferrari culminated in the introduction of the Prototypes Class, with Porsche, Alfa Romeo, Matra and Lotus also becoming major players to be reckoned with as the series grew.
The Prototype Class allowed manufacturers to enter purpose built racing cars with technology and performance that surpassed the cars in Formula One at the time, until the sanctioning body adopted guidelines for the division to improve competition and decrease costs. This in turn reduced the number of entries over the next few years, to the point where most prototypes were only entered in short distanced events, eschewing the longer distance races due to the energy crisis of the mid-70's, and rising competition costs.
With new rules set in place for fuel consumption rates, the Prototype division would soon rise to it's high point in the history of the sport.
After being soundly rebuffed by Enzo Ferrari during negotiations to buy Ferrari Henry Ford II often referred to as "Hank the Duece," made it his personal mission to beat Ferrari at their own game and eventually achieved success with a 1-2-3 sweep at Le Mans in 1966 with the now legendary
Ford GT40 Mk II.
During the 1980's, a class of cars known as Group C was introduced by the ACO, and featured closed-cockpit prototypes from Mercedes, Nissan, Mazda, Toyota , Jaguar and Porsche. With the use of these same cars in the United States in the IMSA Camel GTP Series, many teams would make the trek to the European endurance races filling the field with a large assortment of very competitive cars. Into the 1990's, a number of rules changes and the addition of open-top prototype cars in a second class saw Ferrari compete for the overall win.
As the Group C cars were phased out another class of prototypes were introduced which would use smaller engines and no turbo chargers unlike their Class 1 predecessors, but would have a lighter weight and in turn be quite nimble on tight, twisty courses against the straight line Class 1 cars. These cars would become known as Le Mans Prototypes, and given the designations LM-P1 for the turbo-charged cars, and LM-P2 for the lighter, less powerful cars.
In 1988 Jaguar put it's best foot forward with the dominant XJR-9 and won at Le Mans after a 31-year absence from the top step of the podium.
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The separation between these two classes was evident at first, but in recent years has closed significantly due to increased performance by Porsche with their RS Spyder LM-P2 entry. However, the reigning king over the past few years has been Audi's R8 LM-P1, which was virtually indestructible and unbeatable in the first half of this decade, and replaced the past 2 years by the diesel powered R10 which has incredible fuel mileage along with unheard of torque. The GT Class has also remained a permanent fixture in endurance racing throughout the years, and the introduction of a second class of large horsepower cars, known as the LM-GT1 class, has brought many fans to the races over the past decade. With the Chevrolet Corvette and Dodge Viper entries from the United States pitted against the Saleen S7R and Aston Martin DBR9 in recent years, the on-track battle have been memorable to say the least. With these cars producing well over 600HP on non-turbo-charged engines, it's easy to see why these are the fan favorites. |
While the existing GT Class culminated from everyday touring cars, the current LM-GT2 class contains such alluring entries as the Ferrari 360 GTC, BMW M3 GTR and the Porsche 996 GT3 RSR. The cars in this class don't appear very different from the showroom versions of themselves, but a peek in the cockpit and under the hood will show that the brawn is certainly not missing from these beauties.
Even with four classes of cars the name of the game is still endurance. To win in this series it takes more than just driving fast. From the early days of a cross-country race between towns to the 24 Hours of Le Mans one thing has remained the same, these cars are built to survive, but must be driven with the ultimate goal in mind. With endurance racing there's no such thing as a sure thing. To win, it takes the best mechanics, the best engineers, the best drivers, the best equipment… and the best of luck.
Welcome to the world of endurance racing! Speed still matters, but the real challenge is being consistently fast for the entire length of the race while keeping your car intact. It may sound easy, but as my math teacher used to tell everyone… ”If it was easy, then everyone could do it!”
