Aco Le Mans (2024)

FAQs

How to win 24 Hours of Le Mans? ›

The 24-Hours of Le Mans follow a simple rule:

the car that covers the greatest distance in 24 hours is the winner. It is the ultimate endurance test for man and machine. Each year, more than 250,000 enthusiastic spectators flock to 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The circuit puts very special stresses on man and machine, not only because of the top speeds exceeding 300 km/h that are reached on the almost five-kilometre Mulsanne straight, despite two chicanes. The combination of permanent race track passages and country roads also poses very tough challenges.

Recent News. 24 Hours of Le Mans, probably the world's best-known automobile race, run annually (with few exceptions) since 1923 at the Sarthe road-racing circuit, near Le Mans, France. Since 1928 the winner has been the car that travels the greatest distance in a 24-hour time period.

Held annually since 1923 on the Circuit de la Sarthe in Le Mans, it's a race that tests the limits of drivers and machines over a gruelling 24 hours, starting at 4pm on the Saturday and running non-stop, through the night, until the following afternoon.

"The fastest top speed recorded at Le Mans is 405 kmh. This was in 1988 by Roger Dorchy in a WM Peugeot P88. The record was set on the Hunaudieres straight on the section after the Nissan chicane. " (The chicanes were built in 1990.) 240 mph McLaren F1 Road Car Shatters Top Speed Record.

Which is faster: an F1 car or an LMH/LMDh car? While F1 and WEC cars are both capable of hitting speeds in excess of 200mph, F1 have the edge on LMH/LMDh cars when it comes to pace across an entire lap. When F1 visited Imola for the 2024 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Max Verstappen was fastest in qualifying with a 1m14.

From 2021, the new top class in the FIA World Endurance Championship – including the 24 Hours of Le Mans – is called HYPERCAR.

Since then, speeds in the Mulsanne Straight have varied between 320 kph and 340 kph, and thanks to the chicanes, the official 405 kph clocked in 1988 may remain a permanent record at Le Mans.

Miles famously missed out on winning at Le Mans when he gave up a dominant lead in an effort to ensure a tied finish with the second-placed GT40 — to underline their defeat of the previous victorious Ferrari team. But the Bruce McLaren-driven car was deemed to have driven further and was awarded the victory.

“Mans” sounds like if you said “yeah man” in a Jamaican accent, but the “n” is nasal and not fully pronounced. The “s” – being at the end of the word and not followed by a word beginning with a vowel – is, of course, silent.

Do Le Mans drivers sleep? ›

Arriving rested at the 24 Hours of Le Mans is a key objective to achieve, not to mention the ability to recover energy during the race itself. Each driver's bed is only a few metres from the pit box, located inside the motorhome dedicated to the Ferrari crews.

There was a swansong performance for that car, however, when Hall drove it in the second post-war Le Mans 24-hour race in 1950, becoming the first (and only) man to drive solo for the entire distance, despite having a co-driver in the pits ready to take over.

Considered one of the most prestigious races in the world, the winner of the Le Mans 24hr race is the car that covers the greatest distance in 24 hours is the winner. All teams must rotate three drivers through the car during the race, with no single driver behind the wheel for more than 14 hours in total.

The Dakar Rally is said to be the “world's toughest motor race”. Two weeks of racing through punishing terrain, extremes of temperature lie ahead to challenge the competitors of the infamous off-road endurance race.

Since 1991, at the initiative of a man named Bernard Warain, a cast of the winning driver's feet, hands and signature are taken before the following year's race and put in a bronze car-wheel shaped plaque that is placed into the pavement in Le Mans' Saint Nicholas district.

Porsche currently holds the record for most Le Mans wins at 19, ahead of Audi (13) and Ferrari (10).

He could frequently be seen at vintage events. Since Hill the pioneer, ten other American drivers have won the 24 Hours of Le Mans: Carroll Shelby, Masten Gregory, Dan Gurney, AJ Foyt, Hurley Haywood, Bill and Don Whittington, Al Holbert, Price Cobb and Davy Jones.

Considered one of the most prestigious races in the world, the winner of the Le Mans 24hr race is the car that covers the greatest distance in 24 hours is the winner. All teams must rotate three drivers through the car during the race, with no single driver behind the wheel for more than 14 hours in total.