aggie_corvette

Vid of LeMans drive around in 1956.

http://syjmauco.free.fr/Videos/Le_Ma...aguar_1956.mpg


Thought you racers would appreciate it.

90pololt4

Fantastic. I did not know they had made any in car video from back then. My first race I can remember seeing any broadcast of was the 1955 LeMans race. Thanks for the memories as Jaguar has always been one of my favorites.

micro

thanks

69427

Very interesting! The lack of fencing and the closeness of the trees had to be rather intimidating at speed. 175mph on that track took cajones.

xsiveone

Thanks for the video!

They were real men back in those days. Drivers were often killed.

Just the year before at Le Mans in 1955, the worst accident in racing history happened and killed 77 people. A Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR driven by Pierre Levegh ran into the back of a much slower Austin-Healey on the front stretch near the pit area. When the car hit, it lauched it into the air into an earth bank. The car desintigrated and parts flew into the grandstand. If you watch the race footage, you can see the engine sailing along the grandstands at eye level. Apparently, it decapitated people. It was horrific. What was worse was that the car was largely made out of Magnesium. When Magnesium is ignited, it burns very intensely and can be accelerated with the use of water in the attempt to extinguish the flame.

Out of respect, Mercedes-Benz withdrew the remaining cars in the race (driven by Stirling Moss, Fangio, etc..) and after winning the Formula One and Sports Car championship that year, they pulled out of motorsports until 1987.

Think about how awful this was. This was not too long after WWII with a German car launching into the stands and killing 80 people in France.

M-B has had a horrible track record, especially at Le Mans. If you'll recall, in 1999 M-B had the CLR prototypes that kept getting airborne. Formula One's Mark Webber flipped two cars. Peter Dumbreck's car took off like an airplane and somersaulted off the track into the forest. It completely left the track. Thankfully, no one was hurt. M-B withdrew all of their cars from the race though that year.

I'd like to find video of both of the incidents (1955 crash and the 1999 flipping). If anyone knows of a similar video posted on the internet, please post them.

xsiveone

Here's some footage from the 1955 Le Mans race.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuBkKV5tMVc

Here's the video on the M-B CLR flipping in 1999 at Le Mans.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBGOW...elated&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1O112...elated&search=

Here's a cool onboard video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv8LZ...elated&search=

xsiveone

Sorry if I've hijacked the thread. It's a cool video and it just got me thinking about Le Mans.

parkerracing

There's something you don't see at your typical HPDE.....ONCOMING TRAFFIC!

The old footage was shot with movie cameras on high speed film not video.

micro

A Sauber C9 with a turbocharged Mercedes-Benz 5.0 liter V-8 won a Le Mans in 1989.