WTF1 Lists The 7 Craziest Stories From The History Of Le Mans: Video

TopSpeed

By Jonathan Lopez

Published Jun 19, 2017

Testing the limits of man and machine makes for some wild tales indeed

Let’s be honest – the 24 Hours of Le Mans is pretty much one of the most insane races of all time. Just think about the underlying concept for a second – put dozens and dozens of cars on a high-speed track (the roster this year includes 60 entries), with four different categories and huge speed differentials between them, then let ‘em have at it for 24 straight hours to see who comes out on top. With a premise like that, prospects are high for the creation of some epic stories and nail-biting finishes. And since 1923, that’s exactly what’s come out of the Circuit de la Sarthe. This weekend, the 85th running of the event is about to go down, and the motoring world is on the edge of its seat to see which drivers and teams will take home the win. As such, we’re bringing you this three-minute, 51-second video from WTF1 to help whet your appetite.

The video spans a good deal of Le Mans history, listing such notable stories as Jacky Ickx’s protest to the “Le Mans-style” start, all the way up to last year’s heartbreaking near-win for Toyota. There’s also a few interesting surprises included, like the story from 1933 detailing Alfa Romeo’s chewing gum fix for a leaky fuel tank. Suffice to say, you’d need one very lengthy documentary to cover all the great stories from this iconic motorsport event, so make sure to list your favorites in the comments below.

Continue reading for the full story.

The Full Story

Without a doubt, the 24 Hours of Le Mans is fertile ground for the creation of motorsports legends, and that’s no different in 2017. As of this writing, Toyota managed to set a new lap record of 3:14.791 during qualifying, putting driver Kamui Kobayashi and the No. 7 TS050 on pole position.

After last year’s disappointing loss to Porsche, Toyota isn’t holding anything back. Is this the year the Japanese manufacturer finally takes top honors?

The race officially kicks off Saturday, June 17th, at 3 PM local time. And don’t forget to check out our coverage of the 2017 24 Hours of Le Mans next week. In the meantime, you can check our race preview here.