1937 24 Hours of Le Mans
An hour into the race, French driver René Kippeurt lost control of his Bugatti tourer at the notorious Maison Blanche corner.
A short, sharp squall briefly slowed everyone down, but Wimille and Benoist were able to cruise to an easy outright victory by a margin of 100km, that also gave them the Index of Performance prize.
These had sparked a resurgence in the French automotive industry and the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) chose to align their race regulations closely in accordance with the ACF.
After a year of further testing, French manufacturers were in force for outright victory – with Delahaye, Bugatti, Talbot-Lago and Delage all present, thus vindicating the ACF's decision.
[3][6] There were two other privateer models entered – a new Type 57 Sports for Frenchman Raymond d'Estrez Saugé, which he had fitted with a larger rear fuel-tank for the 3.3-litre car.
[8] Delahaye had been convinced to come back to racing with the help of the wealthy American couple of Laury and Lucy Schell, resident in France.
[10] A brand new car, painted black, was built at Portello for Sommer and driven straight to Le Mans by his prospective co-driver Giovanni Battista Guidotti.
[11] Unable to convince the ACF to run a 3-litre class in their regulations, new Talbot owner Anthony Lago was forced to adapt the T120 raced here in 1935.
Extensive testing was done in 1936 at Montlhéry by André Morel (ex-Amilcar works driver) and René Dreyfus (ex-Scuderia Ferrari) along with Le Mans winner Luigi Chinetti.
In return, Lago was able to entice Albert Divo and young star René le Bègue to join from Delahaye, along with Raymond Sommer.
Rescued from bankruptcy the previous year, Lagonda had engineer W. O. Bentley (formerly owner of his own company with a strong Le Mans pedigree) working up a new V12-engined car.
When the works team was folded after the cancelled 1936 race, the two cars were on-sold several times to end up with Robert Hichens and Dutchman Eddie Hertzberger and both arrived at Le Mans.
[15] In August 1934, "Aldy" Aldington, director of Frazer Nash, signed an agreement with BMW to license-manufacture the German cars in Britain.
Designed by former Horch engineer Fritz Fiedler, the car featured swing-axle front suspension, a live rear axle and hydraulic dampers.
For Le Mans, three cars were entered: one full works entry, driven by Uli Richter and Fritz Roth (replacing Ernst Henne injured at the Eifelrennen race).
They were all improved versions of the standard car, with a spare wheel mounted on the rear, 118-litre, fuel tank and were now capable of reaching 185 kp/h (115 mph).
Donald would drive one car, joined by Norman Black (a former Singer works driver), while Eccles had his wife Marjorie as co-driver.
[23] With ample technical support from Fiat, the new SIMCA daughter-company had achieved rapid success on the circuits in 1936, with Amédée Gordini running, effectively, a works team.
Gordini convinced Henri Pigozzi, SIMCA general manager, to support the design of a special racing version of the Simca-Fiat 6CV.
[29] An unusual entry was a Ford Model CX entered by Australian Joan Richmond and her fiancé Maurice "Bill" Bilney.
Hitting the bank hard and mowing down a length of fencing, the car got airborne throwing the driver out onto the circuit before rolling several times down the road.
Morris-Goodall, in his Aston-Martin, skidded on spilt oil and side-swiped the Bugatti while Chiron, running again, was able to slide to a stop and squeeze his Talbot through.
[12] Meanwhile, Forestier had got out and, joined by a marshal waving a red flag, was running down the track to warn the rest of the rapidly approaching field, including the leaders.
Wimille braked hard and picked his way through, but Sommer also had to avoid people running onto the track to pull Kippeurt's motionless body off the racing line.
[37][38] Dreyfus' speed allowed him to catch and pass Paul to move up to second, but by lunchtime they had virtually completely worn out their brakes and dropped behind again.
The Delage coupé cruised home to fourth, trouble-free aside from windscreen wipers unable to cope with the sudden storm early in the race.
The winners comfortably broke the distance record set by Sommer and Nuvolari in their Alfa Romeo in 1933 and exceed 2000 miles for the first time.
Wimille set a new lap record and joined a small group of driver to win the race on debut, including Tazio Nuvolari and Woolf Barnato.
[25] "Raph" needed several months to recover from his broken legs and spent his time recuperating at Wimille's house on the Côte d'Azur.
[30] The effect on his co-driver, Embiricos, after his own serious accident the week before was sufficient to convince him to give up a promising racing career.
