Les 24 Heures Du Mans

I’ve always considered the 24 hours of Le Mans as kind of the Olympics of auto racing. Car crazy and wide eyed lunatics from all over the world gather in a small town a couple hours outside of Paris and literally fight each other for 24 straight hours. The fumes, the adrenaline, and the lack of sleep creates a sort of cocktail that not even the harshest chemicals of Columbia could touch. For years, men have fallen pray to the addiction. Some have won, some have died trying, and some keep trying.

This isn’t one of those races that a sane man can complain about… “It isn’t the same as it used to be,” he wants to say. “We did it better,” he’s tempted to belch. But in the end, he can’t. Le Mans is Le Mans – Time doesn’t change that. It was glorious then and it’s just as glorious now.

Of course, the latest running went down this weekend. The prototype classes were dominated by innovation – namely, German diesels. And the GT classes were mostly dominated by American power. The GT40’s, the Corvettes, the independent entries running big American v8’s, etc… The American Lunatics showed up.

Of course, we first showed up in 1960. Dick “The Dentist” Thompson drove his Corvette through the streets of Paris on his way to Le Mans. Laughter filled the air. The crazies from Germany, Italy, France, and Britain didn’t give us a chance in hell. The car was too damned heavy. The brakes sucked. There was no way a big overhead v8 could compete with the light rev happy Europeans. Those damned Americans in their Corvettes just didn’t get it.

Or did we?

Take 30 minutes out of your monday and watch this four part video. It just might be the best motion picture we’ve ever posted. Courtesy of the GM archive.