Le Mans : Race for endurance since 1920s
 |
| A photo of a Le Mans race car from 1920s |
The Le Mans is one of a kind racing event that began in the 1920s when the concept of mass produced cars were just being conceived . The Le Mans also called the 24 hours of Le Mans is by far the oldest known endurance racing event . It is one of the most prestigious racing events and often referred to as the Grand Prix of Endurance and Efficiency . The race is one of the three stages , the other two being Indianapolis 500 and the Monaco Grand Prix.
 |
| A photo from the early days of Le Mans |
 |
| The first invitation to automakers for Le Mans |
Beginning from 1923 the race was held in a small French town called Le Mans. Both public and specially built roads were a part of it. Earlier races were dominated by the French , British and Italian drivers with cars from Bentley , Bugatti and Alfa Romeo.
From the 1930s Alfa Romeo and Bugatti began using cars that were extremely aerodynamic to run down the Mulsanne straight at high speeds.
The race then went on a ten year halt due to the outbreak of the world war II .
The Le Mans was not held for over a decade now . This ten year span gave several automakers an opportunity to enter their cars into the race . Mercedes Benz , Peugeot , Porsche , Ferrari , Renault , Aston Martin and Jaguar had now become popular names in the race. Ferrari and Porsche began dominating the leaderboards and from 1964 Ferrari won four consecutive Le Mans title.
Most cars by now had gone from an open coupe design to a closed coupe , this helped the aerodynamics and thereby helped reach speeds of upto 320kmph at the Mulsanne. Ford who was the only overseas competitor took this to be an opportunity to prove the efficiency of the car they had built . Ford went on to win the 1970 title with the GT-40 .
 |
| Mirage a self made car that won the 1975 title |
From the 70s the game changed substantially and so did the design of the cars . The race took turns to more extreme speeds given the new design . From the 70s privateers were also allowed to enter as drivers and as manufacturers into the race . Though Porsche was dominant throughout the decade , Renault too won titles and for the first time in the Le Mans history debutant privateers began winning the race with self made cars .
 |
| Renault Alpine the car that brought back the glory to France after 25 years in 1978 |
The 80s saw the entry of the Japanese cars that dominated the roads those days.But , Porsche still dominated the race . They created cars that were much lighter and affordable too. This encouraged several privateers to start their own racing teams and purchase cars from Porsche .
Among the Japanese teams Nissan , Toyota and Mazda only Mazda could win a title to its name in 1991. Nissan and Toyota remained passive racers. The 1991 victory by Mazda ended the three year streak of Porsche and paved the way for Peugeot to re-enter the race and win in 1992 and 1993.
From 1994 to 1999 automakers like Mercedes , Porsche , Toyota , Panoz and Lotus began competing in the GT segment of the race . In 1999 GT cars were put against Le Mans prototypes for the first time . The Le Mans prototypes were built by BMW , Audi and Ferrari . In this race the prototypes had an upper hand and the BMW went on to register its one and only victory . Mercedes pulled out of the of all sports car racing followed by all other teams as production and maintenance costs were high. Only Cadillac and Audi remained .
In 2003 Cadillac too pulled out , all efforts by Panoz , Chrysler and MG to beat Audi went in vain. Audi by now had bought Bentley and won three consecutive years before the Corvette racing team beat them.
By 2005 Audi had already got 5 wins to its name and was ready to introduce a diesel powered prototype. This was the only diesel powered vehicle to win a title to its name . By then a new category of race was added , called LMP1 . Aston Martin , Peugeot and Toyota also joined the LMP1 category.Peugeot finally won another title to its name after ten long years.
In the 2010 endurance race Audi chose to go all reliability for all its cars while Peugeot went for all speed and ended up damaged with severe mechanical problems while Audi secured positions 1, 2 , 3.
The 2011 and 2012 races were marred by accidents . Of the three entries by Audi two had crashed out while one went on to win in 2011. In 2012 the only entry by Toyota was flipped over in the Mulsanne and had to retire paving the way for Audi's brand new hybrid prototype to win race.
Porsche and Nissan returned to the game in 2014 with new LMP1 cars. In 2015 Porsche won the Le Mans with the 919 hybrid.
The Le Mans is one such racing event that helps automakers identify their flaws and create better cars for the common man . Such races also help smaller automakers test their new engines and grow on reliability. Personally Toyota's 40 year presence in the Le Mans is the secret behind its death proof engine reliability and years of work has proved it.
 |
| Audi's 5 R15 e-tron , 3 time winner |
In 2003 Cadillac too pulled out , all efforts by Panoz , Chrysler and MG to beat Audi went in vain. Audi by now had bought Bentley and won three consecutive years before the Corvette racing team beat them.
By 2005 Audi had already got 5 wins to its name and was ready to introduce a diesel powered prototype. This was the only diesel powered vehicle to win a title to its name . By then a new category of race was added , called LMP1 . Aston Martin , Peugeot and Toyota also joined the LMP1 category.Peugeot finally won another title to its name after ten long years.
In the 2010 endurance race Audi chose to go all reliability for all its cars while Peugeot went for all speed and ended up damaged with severe mechanical problems while Audi secured positions 1, 2 , 3.
The 2011 and 2012 races were marred by accidents . Of the three entries by Audi two had crashed out while one went on to win in 2011. In 2012 the only entry by Toyota was flipped over in the Mulsanne and had to retire paving the way for Audi's brand new hybrid prototype to win race.
Porsche and Nissan returned to the game in 2014 with new LMP1 cars. In 2015 Porsche won the Le Mans with the 919 hybrid.The Le Mans is one such racing event that helps automakers identify their flaws and create better cars for the common man . Such races also help smaller automakers test their new engines and grow on reliability. Personally Toyota's 40 year presence in the Le Mans is the secret behind its death proof engine reliability and years of work has proved it.
 |
| Porsche 919 Hybrid prototype , 4 time winner |
