The origin story of the Le Mans 24 Hours
A century ago, the Le Mans 24 Hours burst into life – even if it wasn’t actually meant to be a race...
The Grand Prix d’Endurance – now known as the Le Mans 24 Hours – was devised by the Automobile Club de l’Ouest as an endurance trial for production cars. That was never going to work…
Right from the start of the inaugural event – in cold, squally weather at 4pm on Saturday 26 May 1923 – it was clear that the frontrunners fundamentally disagreed with the ACO’s view that this was not a race. The drivers of the three fastest cars fought an intense, 19-hour battle for supremacy – despite the fact that there was literally nothing to be won.
Share Or Save This Story
DTM 2024 entry list: Who is driving in the DTM this year?
Mercedes taking action to cure F1 car's “underlying balance” problem
Quartararo: Yamaha MotoGP satellite team "must be an extension of the factory"
Pedrosa says 'unexpected' MotoGP return pushed by "interesting" testing data
The Le Mans oddities that have added to the race's legend
The Peugeot rookies who conquered Le Mans but missed out on F1
Why the stars have aligned to bring Aston Martin back to the top class at Le Mans
Inside Toyota’s alternative path to the future of motorsport
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
