1953 24 Hours of Le Mans
These results, not surprisingly, aligned with engine size but, significantly, also the impact of aerodynamics on top speed:[3][4] The prestige of the race, as well as the advent of the new championship generated intense interest in Le Mans.
Drivers included all three F1 World Champions to date (Alberto Ascari, Juan Manuel Fangio, Giuseppe Farina) and over 30 other current and up-and-coming Grand Prix racers.
Ascari and Luigi Villoresi were to share another lightweight coupé 375 MM converted to 4.5-litres,[8] while brothers Paolo and Gianni Marzotto (winner of the 2nd round of the championship: the Mille Miglia) and Giuseppe Farina and debutante Mike Hawthorn were down to drive the 340 MMs.
[6] A third 340 MM Spyder was entered by American Ferrari agent Luigi Chinetti for himself, with Anglo-American Tom Cole (who had finished 3rd with Allard in 1950) as his co-driver.
[7] Alfa Romeo was back at Le Mans for the first time since the war and fielded the beautiful new 6C/3000CM (‘’Cortemaggiore’’) powered by a 3.5L S6 engine (developing 270 bhp and 245 km/h) for Fangio and Onofre Marimón and Consalvo Sanesi and Piero Carini.
The third car was driven by Mercedes-Benz works-drivers Karl Kling and Fritz Riess who also had their team manager, Alfred Neubauer, in the pits with them.
GP-racers Louis Chiron and Robert Manzon, Piero Taruffi and Umberto Maglioli were in the team, with José Froilán González and endurance-race specialist Clemente Biondetti in the reserve car.
[12] Aston Martin entered their new DB3S cars for Reg Parnell and Peter Collins, George Abecassis and Roy Salvadori, and Eric Thompson and Dennis Poore.
Bristol also arrived with two cars for Lance Macklin / Graham Whitehead and Jack Fairman / Tommy Wisdom, and managed by former Bentley Boy and Le Mans winner Sammy Davis.
[6][14] Briggs Cunningham also brought three cars, all with 310 bhp 5.5L Chrysler V8 engines: a new C-5R (nicknamed “Le Requin” (the shark) by the French)[12] for Phil Walters and John Fitch who had won the inaugural championship race at Sebring; a C-4R for Cunningham himself and William "Bill" Spear and, a C-4RK coupé for veteran Charley Moran (the first American to race at Le Mans, back in 1929)[12] and Anglo-American John Gordon Bennett.
The trio of blue T26 GS cars were driven by Talbot regulars Guy Mairesse (with Georges Grignard), Louis Rosier and Elie Bayol, and Pierre Levegh and Charles Pozzi.
Jaguar chairman, Sir William Lyon, agreed to pay the ACO fine, and ‘Lofty’ England successfully pleaded his case to the official that no intention to cheat had been meant and it was an honest mistake and so they were reinstated.
But Hamilton's account of the affair has become one of the great motor racing legends:[20] Devastated by their disqualification, he and Rolt had gone into the city for the night to drown their sorrows, and when England found them at 10am the next day (race-day) at Gruber's restaurant, they were nursing hangovers and drinking copious amounts of coffee.
Misjudging the speed of his approach to the corner after the Dunlop bridge, he hit the barriers at over 200 km/h and was thrown from the car, seriously injuring his left leg.
As usual, Moss was lightning-quick out of the blocks and led the cars away, but the Allard blasted past him on the Mulsanne straight and was leading the closely bunched field at the end of the first lap.
But Sydney Allard’s early lead barely lasted, and by lap four he had to retire with a collapsed rear suspension that severed a brake pipe.
[10] At least Jaguar had remembered the pit regulations: A Ferrari mechanic topped up the brake system on Mike Hawthorn’s 340 MM before the specified 28 laps had been completed, thereby Hawthorn/Farina were disqualified.
The race continued at a fantastic pace and now it was Jaguar setting it: passing Villoresi, Rolt lifted his lap times by 5 seconds to push his lead.
[26] During the early hours of the morning, Rolt and Hamilton continued to lead with no sign of tiring, while the Ferrari was now losing ground – the big engine starting to stretch the rest of the powertrain.
[14] Then just before 3am, the rear suspension on the Sanesi/Carini Alfa Romeo had collapsed, and they were out, along with George Abecassis and Roy Salvadori with oil getting into their Aston Martin's clutch.
[6][25] The windscreen on the leading Jaguar had been smashed early in the race by bird-strike,[21] and as result Rolt and Hamilton were suffering from wind buffering, but the pair kept up the pace nevertheless, with an average speed of well over 105 mph.
This left Rolt and Hamilton clear up front, but they could not rest as Fitch and Walters started to fight back and hound the Moss/Walker Jaguar for second place.
Driving their British license-plated Jaguar C-Type they took the victory, covering a distance of 2,555.04 miles (4,088.064 km), doing 304 laps and averaging a speed of 106.46 mph (170.336 km/h).
[17] Owner-driver Briggs Cunningham came in 7th followed by the works Talbot of Levegh, finishing this year, and the private Jaguar, entered by Ecurie Francorchamps for Roger Laurent and Charles de Tornaco, in their standard C-Type.
[31] Records were broken across the board – the first time a car completed the race with an average speed over 100 mph (in fact the first six finishers did) and covered over 2500 miles (4000 km).
However, it would be without several teams: after dominating the early Formula 1 championship, and a semi-successful year in sports cars, Alfa Romeo withdrew from motor racing.
