Jive-Bomber submitted a new blog post: Animation of the Day: "LE MANS 1955 - Deadly Competition" Continue reading the Original Blog Post
I read about this the other day and I look forward to watching it. From what I have read the Mercedes teams had a very fast car, but due to the war, Mercedes was still playing catch up when it came to brake design and steering which also led to the crash.
Hawthorn caused the crash with his ass-move late braking the pit entrance. He was in the lead, there was no reason. ETA: Le Mans is an endurance race, not a sprint race. Sprint races are about how fast you can go. Endurance races are about how slow you can go and still win. Hawthorn lost focus.
When Hawthorn slowed to pit, Lance Macklin in his A-H moved left to avoid him and Levegh ran over his left rear which launched him into the crowd.
May I add to the above correct descriptions of the accident that, I believe, Hawthorne's Jaguar had disc brakes which were new that year. Stopping distances were unexpectedly shorter so following drivers were caught out and didn't react in time. Macklin was forced to move to his left to avoid the suddenly slowing Jaguar. At those speeds you can't suddenly move just one lane. Macklin apparently moved one and half lanes into the path of the Mercedes.
The actual footage of this is heartbreaking and almost killed the race. The one redeeming factor was improved safety rules.
I really like how this is done in kind of dark, muted colors - I think that represents how horrible the accident really was.....
The film is beyond excellent. Amazing, the high quality stuff that's out there that we don't even see. I'm curious about the story behind this film. Surely it wasn't done for money. Although it covers aspects of a profound tragedy, the message at the end is uplifting. I knew nothing about John Fitch when I watched this but the ending brought soldiers to mind, specifically the honor code amongst pilots, regardless of affiliation. I shouldn't have been surprised then to learn that he flew a P-51 toward the end of WWII. Fascinating. All of it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Fitch_(racing_driver)
What a beautifully crafted film. Leave it to you Jay to find stunning animation for us, thank you. A clever way to portray such a tragedy, very tastefully done.
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