Our Le Mans

Our Le Mans

Author: Hans Hamer

Publisher: Delius Klasing Verlag Gmbh

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9783667111128

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-Documents the friendship between Steve McQueen and his Le Mans co-star Siegfried Rauch -Includes photos of Rauch's family album, as well as original photos of the film set and of rare documents -Features interviews with contemporary witnesses Steve McQueen: actor, filmmaker, racing driver - and friend. Siegfried Rauch, who plays McQueen's unyielding rival in the film classic Le Mans, was a close friend of the actor in real life. Rauch takes us through this book and, for the first time, tells us how it was: what McQueen was like, the time he ate sauerkraut at the Rauch's, or played with their children - and how he became their godfather. Rauch shows a different, private side to the 'king of cool'. The other stars of Le Mans have their say as well: the real racing drivers. Herbert Linge reminisces about the Porsche 908 - which belonged to McQueen - that Linge drove as a dolly during the race. Hans Herrmann and Richard Attwood tell about their victory in the Porsche 917 - the first Porsche overall victory at the Sarthe. Stuntman Dr. Erich Glavitza, who also prepared the cars, explains what happened in 1970 during the shooting in 'Solar Village', and David Piper, who lost a leg during the production. This unique book offers completely new insights into the filming of what has become a cult classic.


Le Mans 1949-59

Le Mans 1949-59

Author: Quentin Spurring

Publisher: Evro Publishing Limited

Published: 2014-09-15

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780992820961

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This was a very important period in the Le Mans story. Ferrari and Jaguar raced to stake claims as the foremost manufacturers of high-performance cars. Mercedes-Benz came back from war-ravaged Germany and again set the standards in race-car engineering. Aston Martin finally won at its 20th attempt. Enormous crowds - approaching half a million people - saw the first rear-engined saloons to compete at Le Mans, and the first mid-engined sports-racing cars, and the first diesels. On-track performance soared. In 1949 the fastest car hit 135mph on the unique Mulsanne straight. Before the end of the 1950s, top speeds exceeded 180mph. This fascinating book tells the stories of these increasingly potent racing cars and conveys the punishing nature of an incomparable event - the ultimate test of the mental and physical abilities of the fragile individuals who make up racing teams, be they drivers, engineers, strategists or mechanics. Highly detailed year-by-year coverage of the decade's ten races, giving over 30 pages of information and photographs for each year. - Official status provides a number of unique features, including the reproduction of the full-color race poster artwork for each year and photographs from the ACO's archives. - The images include rare color, and the emphasis is on photographs that enthusiasts will not have seen before. - The story of each race is told through photographs and an accompanying commentary. - Complete data for each year includes technical regulations, entry list, circuit changes (with diagram), lap chart, full results and category awards. - The whole work is beautifully designed and presented. - The 1950s was a decade of post-war recovery, with defeated Germany providing only one of the period's race winners - Mercedes-Benz in 1952. Britain, by contrast, took six victories – five for Jaguar, one for Aston Martin.


Go Like Hell

Go Like Hell

Author: Albert J. Baime

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 0618822194

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By the early 1960s, the Ford Motor Company, built to bring automobile transportation to the masses, was falling behind. Young Henry Ford II, who had taken the reins of his grandfather's company with little business experience to speak of, knew he had to do something to shake things up. Baby boomers were taking to the road in droves, looking for speed not safety, style not comfort. Meanwhile, Enzo Ferrari, whose cars epitomized style, lorded it over the European racing scene. He crafted beautiful sports cars, "science fiction on wheels," but was also called "the Assassin" because so many drivers perished while racing them.Go Like Helltells the remarkable story of how Henry Ford II, with the help of a young visionary named Lee Iacocca and a former racing champion turned engineer, Carroll Shelby, concocted a scheme to reinvent the Ford company. They would enter the high-stakes world of European car racing, where an adventurous few threw safety and sanity to the wind. They would design, build, and race a car that could beat Ferrari at his own game at the most prestigious and brutal race in the world, something no American car had ever done.Go Like Helltransports readers to a risk-filled, glorious time in this brilliant portrait of a rivalry between two industrialists, the cars they built, and the "pilots" who would drive them to victory, or doom.


Porsche at Le Mans

Porsche at Le Mans

Author: Glen Smale

Publisher: Motorbooks International

Published: 2021-12-21

Total Pages: 327

ISBN-13: 0760369054

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Looking back on 70 years of the legendary marque at one of the world's greatest races, Porsche at Le Mans is authoritatively written and packed with photos, history, and results.


Art of the Le Mans Race Car

Art of the Le Mans Race Car

Author: Stuart Codling

Publisher: Motorbooks

Published: 2013-12-15

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780760344378

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Le Mans is one of the longest-running and most spectacular endurance races in the history of motorsport. Spanning from the first 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1923 to the present day, Art of the Le Mans Race Car takes the reader through a visual review of 90 years of significant, stunning racing machines. Featured cars include racers from Bentley, Talbot, Alfa Romeo, Cunningham, Jaguar, Ferrari, Porsche, McLaren, and Audi, to name but a few. Striking studio photography specifically commissioned for this book from James Mann, one of the world's leading car and motorcycle photographers, highlights the functional art of race car engineering, allowing readers to lose themselves in the myriad of mechanical details within. Each car includes a profile setting out its place in Le Mans history, accompanied by historical images and commentary from drivers, designers, and engineers. Written by renowned journalist and broadcaster Stuart Codling, Art of the Le Mans Race Car offers a fresh, visually breathtaking telling of the beautiful vehicles that have graced the world's most beloved endurance race.


Mr Le Mans

Mr Le Mans

Author: Tom Kristensen

Publisher: Evro Publishing Limited

Published: 2021-05-18

Total Pages: 432

ISBN-13: 9788797260302

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Between 1997 and 2014, Tom Kristensen won the world's toughest motor race, the Le Mans 24 Hours, a record nine times and finished on the podium on five more occasions. Every time his car made it to the finish, in fact, he was in the top three. It is no wonder that this great sports car driver is known as 'Mr Le Mans' to motorsport fans around the world. Now retired from racing, Kristensen shares in this book his deepest personal reflections and insights from inside and outside the cockpit. He looks back on more than 30 years spent striving for perfection in racing and tells of the battles and setbacks that sometimes seemed impossible to overcome, including a terrible accident in 2007. Climbing the racing ladder, from karting into Formula 3 single-seaters, including championship titles in Germany (1991) and Japan (1993), then Formula 3000 and a Formula 1 testing role with Tyrrell. Winning as an underdog on his first visit to Le Mans, in 1997 driving an elderly Joest-run privateer Porsche in which he impressed all onlookers with a night-time charge to vanquish Porsche's factory-entered favourite. His second Le Mans victory came in 2000 on his maiden drive for Audi in the R8, a car that was to become all-conquering. Kristensen won the next five editions of Le Mans, four times with Audi and once with Bentley (in 2003), his last victory in this sequence taking him past Jacky Ickx's previous record at the Circuit de la Sarthe. His eighth win came in one of the all-time classic contests at Le Mans, in 2008, a rollercoaster of a race in which his ageing diesel-powered Audi was never expected to beat the fancied works Peugeots. One more victory with Audi in 2013 sealed his reputation as a true legend of Le Mans. His story includes exploits at other racetracks all over the world, none more prolific than Sebring, home of America's long-established classic endurance race that Kristensen won six times. Personal reflections together with contributions from notable observers -- including English journalists Gary Watkins and Charles Bradley -- complete a truly rounded portrait of the man and his achievements. Voted 'Sports Book of the Year' when originally published in Kristensen's native Denmark, this thoughtful memoir is now available in English.


Derek Bell

Derek Bell

Author: Richard Heseltine

Publisher: Porter Press

Published: 2018-08-14

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781907085659

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Derek Bell’s name became inextricably linked with that of Porsche during his long and hugely successful career as a racing driver. In this new 276-page book, Bell collaborates with renowned motorsport author Richard Heseltine to give the reader a very personal insight into his experiences racing for the legendary German marque. The approach taken by this latest publication from Porter Press International is to look at every race Bell drove for Porsche, in detail and with revealing comments from the book’s subject. Light is cast on Bell’s most prestigious victories with Porsche - four of his five in the Le Mans 24 Hours, three in the Daytona 24 Hours, two in the World Sportscar Championship - and many more besides. Bell describes the Porsches he raced, from the fearsome 917 to the iconic 956, 962, and 911. And he shares his thoughts on the now-legendary drivers he raced with, including six-time Le Mans winner Jacky Ickx, the famously flamboyant Hans Stuck, and two immense talents who lost their lives to the sport, Jo Siffert and Stefan Bellof. The overall effect is a fascinating trip back in time to a golden era for Porsche and sports car racing as a whole.


Le Mans 1923-29

Le Mans 1923-29

Author: Quentin Spurring

Publisher: Evro Publishing Limited

Published: 2016-04-15

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781910505083

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Officially licensed with the ACO, the organisers of the annual Le Mans 24 Hours race, this sumptuous book is the sixth title in a decade-by-decade series that is building up into a multi-volume set covering every race. This title covers the seven 24 Hours races of the 1920s, plus, as a prologue, all the events held at the Le Mans circuit during the period 1906-23. Each running of the 24 Hours is exhaustively covered in vivid photographs, an insightful commentary providing more detailed information than has ever been published about the period, and full statistics. Compiled by an acknowledged authority of this legendary race, this series of books is treasured by all enthusiasts of sports car racing. - The 1920s saw a fascinating variety of machinery from 55 marques, three of which won: Bentley (1924 and 1927/28/29), Chenard-Walcker (1923) and Lorraine-Dietrich (1925/26). - Above all this was the era of Bentley and the famous ‘Bentley Boys'. - Highly detailed year-by-year treatment of the decade's seven races, giving unprecedented depth of information and photographic coverage for each year. - Official status provides a number of unique features, including the reproduction of photographs and full-colour race poster artwork from the ACO's archives. - The emphasis is on photographs that enthusiasts will not have seen before. - The story of each race is told through photographs and an accompanying commentary. - Complete data for each year includes technical regulations, entry list, circuit changes (with diagram), full results and category awards. - The whole work is beautifully designed and presented.