1956 24 Hours of Le Mans

The official enquiry into the 1955 Le Mans disaster found severe deficiencies in the track layout along the main straight and for quite some time there were serious concerns for the future of the race. However, the ACO took all the recommendations on board and was able to convince the French government for continuation. The extensive renovations cost FF300 million, moving 70000 cubic metres of earth[2][3] and meant the race was delayed 7 weeks to the end of July.

The pit straight was redesigned: it was widened by 13m (giving room for a deceleration lane), the small kink removed by straightening the approach, and the Dunlop curve realigned, steepened and eased, moving the Dunlop Bridge. This all had the effect of shortening the lap by 31 metres. The grandstand was demolished and rebuilt with new spectator terraces beyond a ditch between the track. The postwar pits were also torn down and a new 3-storey complex built giving more space for crews and with hospitality suites above (although there was still no barrier out to the racing line). This limited the number of starters to 52, down from 60.[4]

Elsewhere on the track, the Indianapolis and Maison Blanche corners were also widened and resurfaced, and a dangerous hump on the road after Arnage was removed. A new “signalling pits” was built just after the Mulsanne corner (in the same place Bentley had used 20 years earlier with a phone-link back to the pits) so as to reduce crew congestion and driver distraction on the critical pit straight area.[4][5][6]

Regarding new regulations, the ACO also set a number of new restrictions with a view to limit maximum speeds. Prototypes were now given a maximum engine size of 2.5L. Production cars had to have 50 units “built, sold or provided for”[7] and were still unrestricted in engine capacity. These new limits put the ACO out of step with the FIA and hence the race was dropped from the 1956 World Sportscar Championship. Full-width windscreens, at least 200mm, high were also mandatory further trimming top-speed. Other effects to encourage economy limited all fuel tanks to a maximum size of 130 litres, and the liquids replenishment (fuel, oil, water) window was extended again, from 32 to 34 laps (458 km / 284 miles) meaning a minimum practical fuel economy of 10.8mpg would be needed. Finally, drivers were now only allowed to do 72 consecutive laps and 14 hours in total.[8]

Although Mercedes-Benz and Cunningham had withdrawn from racing, there was still strong support from the car manufacturers and 14 sent works-entries.[9]

To some surprise, Jaguar and Aston Martin were able to present cases to the ACO that their current cars qualified as production models. Jaguar brought three of its updated D-types (now 130 kg lighter and up to 275 bhp), the lead car of Mike Hawthorn / Ivor Bueb equipped with fuel-injection.[10] Their other drivers were the experienced Jack Fairman and Ken Wharton, and Paul Frère with new team-member Desmond Titterington. The team arrived in red-hot form after a comprehensive 1-2-3-4 result at the Reims 12-hour race. The reliable ally, Equipe Nationale Belge, fielded a new production D-Type. It also saw the arrival of Scotsman David Murray (racing driver)’s new Ecurie Ecosse under team manager Walter “Wilkie” Wilkinson. Murray's drivers were fellow-Scots Ron Flockhart and Ninian Sanderson, stepping up from the smaller classes. In the absence of the big Cunninghams and Talbots this year, the Jaguars had the S-5000 class to themselves.

Two true production cars, privately entered into the race, were a Jaguar XK140 and a gull-wing Mercedes-Benz 300SL.

Aston Martin returned with a pair of the DB3S, nominally production models but allowed non-standard components.[11] Again, a strong driver line-up was represented, including Stirling Moss (now a works driver for Maserati, which was not at Le Mans this year) with Peter Collins and Roy Salvadori with Peter Walker. The team, having abandoned its Lagonda project, instead arrived with its own new 2.5L prototype – the DBR1/250. Its smaller engine still managed to produce virtually the same power (212 bhp) as its big brothers. It was driven by F1 drivers Reg Parnell and Tony Brooks

Ferrari 625 LM driven by de Portago and Hamilton.

Ferrari, without the production facilities to compete with the British, instead had to create a new 2.5L ‘prototype’ for, essentially, the one-off race at Le Mans. Engineer Vittorio Jano developed last year's 2.5L S-4 grand-prix engine and put it into a chassis adapted from the new 500 TR (the inaugural version of the “Testarossa”). Called the 625 LM, it gave 225 bhp giving a maximum speed of 230 km/h – 10 km/h slower than the Jaguars. Team drivers were race-winner Maurice Trintignant and Olivier Gendebien, Phil Hill and André Simon and Spanish noble 'Marquis' Alfonso de Portago with Duncan Hamilton (fired from Jaguar for ignoring team orders at the Rheims race once too often).[12][13] Although the 2.0L V12 in the 500 TR was considered too weak by the factory to take on the Jaguars, there were three private-entries including a second car for the Equipe Nationale Belge.

Like Ferrari, French manufacturers Gordini and Talbot could not produce enough to meet the ACO requirements and therefore would have to enter their cars as prototypes. Gordini had two 2.5L cars and a smaller car in the S-1500 category. The larger cars trialled different engines: one using the 2.5L Straight-8 in the Grand Prix cars, and the other a new, more powerful, Straight-6 version (giving about 230 bhp).[14] Talbot, now in receivership and in a change of tack, had adapted the 2.5L grand-prix engine from the Maserati 250F to their new sports cars. Two cars were entered for Jean Behra with Louis Rosier and Jean Lucas with pre-war Maserati veteran Geoffredo “Freddie” Zehender.[15][13]

Three works Lotus 11 entries, in front of the team's race transporter.

After their great success in the previous race, Porsche returned in force with new cars: a pair of 550A Coupés and a 356 Carrera production model. The new car had famously recently beaten the bigger works Ferraris and Maseratis in the non-Championship Targa Florio. The factory also supported a further a pair of older, privately entered 550 RS spyders and a 356A. Competing in the S-1500 class were a pair of private Maseratis and Colin Chapman’s Lotus 11 with the new FWB-Climax engine. His two other cars still used the smaller 1098cc FWA-Climax engine. The other entrants in the S-1100 class were Cooper’s T39 using the same Climax engine, and a tiny French RB fitted with an OSCA 1093cc engine.

For once the smallest, S-750, class was not the preserve of the French. Italian manufacturers Stanguellini and Moretti both sent two-car entries, and OSCA a single car. They were up against a strong DB-works entry of four cars, and three Monopoles. Panhard had closed its racing department after the 1955 disaster and appointed Monopole, effectively as its works team.

Over the flying kilometre on the Mulsanne straight, the following top speeds this year were recorded this year:[16]

This year there were only the two practice sessions assigned – on the Wednesday and Thursday. Hawthorn set the fastest lap of 4:16.0 early on. Titterington was barely 3 seconds slower but then he demolished his car in an accident, forcing the team to prepare the spare car for the race.[17] The best Moss could do in the Aston Martin was a 4:27[18] Meanwhile, the team was also finding the fuel consumption of their prototype DBR1, easily the noisiest car in the field, was excessive and therefore needed to trim it back to be able to get through the race.[11] Most of the other larger cars were also doing checks on their fuel consumption for the new regulations, and having to adjust their engine settings accordingly[19]

As a comparison, some of the lap-times recorded during practice were:[18]

Results taken from Quentin Spurring's book, officially licensed by the ACO[27]

Pos	Class	No	Team	Drivers	Chassis	Engine	Laps
1	S 5.0	4	Ecurie Ecosse	Ninian Sanderson Ron Flockhart	Jaguar D-Type	Jaguar 3.4L S6	300
2	S 3.0	8	Aston Martin Ltd.	Stirling Moss Peter Collins	Aston Martin DB3S	Aston Martin 2.9L S6	299
3	S 3.0	12	Scuderia Ferrari	Olivier Gendebien Maurice Trintignant	Ferrari 625 LM	Ferrari 2.5L S4	293
4	S 5.0	5	Equipe Nationale Belge	Jacques Swaters Freddy Rousselle	Jaguar D-Type	Jaguar 3.4L S6	284
5	S 1.5	25	Porsche KG	Graf Wolfgang von Trips Richard von Frankenberg	Porsche 550A Coupe	Porsche 1498cc F4	282
6	S 5.0	1	Jaguar Cars Ltd.	Mike Hawthorn Ivor Bueb	Jaguar D-Type FI	Jaguar 3.4L S6	280
7	S 1.1	36	Lotus Engineering	Reg Bicknell Peter Jopp	Lotus 11	Climax FWA 1098cc S4	253
8	S 1.1	33	Cooper Car Company	Ed Hugus John Bentley	Cooper T39	Climax FWA 1098cc S4	252
9	S 1.5	30	C. Bourillot (private entrant)	Claude Bourillot Henri Perroud	Maserati 150S	Maserati 1497cc S4	245
10	S 750	40	Automobiles Deutsch et Bonnet	Gérard Laureau Paul Armagnac	DB HBR-5 Spyder	Panhard 747cc F2	231
11	S 750	45	Automobiles Deutsch et Bonnet	Jean-Claude Vidilles Jean Thépenier	DB HBR-5 Coupé	Panhard 747cc F2	225
12	S 750	46	Automobiles Deutsch et Bonnet	André Héchard Roger Masson	DB HBR-4 Spyder	Panhard 747cc F2	220
N/C *	S 1.5	34	R. Bourel (private entrant)	Roland Bourel Maurice Slotine	Porsche 356A	Porsche 1290cc F4	212
13	S 1.1	41	Just-Emile Vernet	Jean-Marie Dumazer Lucien Campion	VP 166R	Renault 845cc S4	210

• Note *: Not Classified because of Insufficient distance covered

Pos	Class	No	Team	Drivers	Chassis	Score
1	S 750	40	Automobiles Deutsch et Bonnet	Gérard Laureau Paul Armagnac	DB HBR-5 Spyder	1.166
2	S 1.5	25	Porsche KG	Graf Wolfgang von Trips Richard von Frankenberg	Porsche 550A Coupe	1.159
3	S 750	45	Automobiles Deutsch et Bonnet	Jean-Claude Vidilles Jean Thépenier	DB HBR-5 Coupé	1.135
4	S 1.1	36	Lotus Engineering	Reg Bicknell Peter Jopp	Lotus 11	1.118
5	S 1.1	33	Cooper Car Company	Ed Hugus John Bentley	Cooper T39	1.114
6	S 3.0	8	Aston Martin Ltd.	Stirling Moss Peter Collins	Aston Martin DB3S	1.113
7	S 3.0	12	Scuderia Ferrari	Olivier Gendebien Maurice Trintignant	Ferrari 625 LM	1.110
8	S 750	46	Automobiles Deutsch et Bonnet	André Héchard Roger Masson	DB HBR-4 Spyder	1.110
9	S 5.0	4	Ecurie Ecosse	Ninian Sanderson Ron Flockhart	Jaguar D-Type	1.101
10	S 5.0	5	Equipe Nationale Belge	Jacques Swaters ‘Freddy’ Rousselle	Jaguar D-Type	1.041

• Note: Only the top ten positions are included in this set of standings. A score of 1.00 means meeting the minimum distance for the car, and a higher score is exceeding the nominal target distance.[28]

Pos	Class	No	Team	Drivers	Chassis	Score
1	S 750	40	Automobiles Deutsch et Bonnet	Gérard Laureau Paul Armagnac	DB HBR-5 Spyder	1.166
2	S 1.5	25	Porsche KG	Graf Wolfgang von Trips Richard von Frankenberg	Porsche 550A Coupe	1.159
3	S 3.0	8	Aston Martin Ltd.	Stirling Moss Peter Collins	Aston Martin DB3S	1.113

• Note: Only the top three positions are included in this set of standings.

Taken from Quentin Spurring's book, officially licensed by the ACO

• Fastest Lap in practice – Hawthorn, #1 Jaguar D-Type – 4m 16.0s; 186.20 kp/h (117.56 mph)
• Fastest Lap – Hawthorn, #1 Jaguar D-Type – 4m 20.0s; 186.38 kp/h (115.82 mph)
• Distance - 4,034.93 km (2,507.19 mi)
• Winner's Average Speed - 168.12 km/h (104.46 mph)
• Attendance – 250 000[29]

Citations

• Spurring, Quentin (2011) Le Mans 1949-59 Sherborne, Dorset: Evro Publishing ISBN 978-1-84425-537-5
• Clarke, R.M. - editor (1997) Le Mans 'The Jaguar Years 1949-1957' Cobham, Surrey: Brooklands Books ISBN 1-85520-357X
• Clausager, Anders (1982) Le Mans London: Arthur Barker Ltd ISBN 0-213-16846-4
• Laban, Brian (2001) Le Mans 24 Hours London: Virgin Books ISBN 1-85227-971-0
• Moity, Christian (1974) The Le Mans 24 Hour Race 1949-1973 Radnor, Pennsylvania: Chilton Book Co ISBN 0-8019-6290-0
• Pomeroy, L. & Walkerley, R. - editors (1957) The Motor Year Book 1957 Bath: The Pitman Press

• Racing Sports Cars – Le Mans 24 Hours 1956 entries, results, technical detail. Retrieved 1 February 2017
• Le Mans History – Le Mans History, hour-by-hour (incl. pictures, YouTube links). Retrieved 1 February 2017
• World Sports Racing Prototypes – Le Mans 1956 results, reserve entries & chassis numbers. Retrieved 1 February 2017
• Formula 2 – Le Mans 1956 results & reserve entries. Retrieved 1 February 2017
• YouTube a lap of the circuit in Mike Hawthorn's Jaguar, with his commentary
• YouTube amateur film of the 1956 scrutineering & race, in colour (12 mins)