1956 24 Hours of Le Mans
The 1956 24 Hours of Le Mans was a race for Sports Cars which took place on 28 and 29 July 1956 on the Circuit de la Sarthe.
The race was won by Ron Flockhart and Ninian Sanderson driving a Jaguar D-Type for the new Ecurie Ecosse team.
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.
The extensive renovations cost FF300 million, moving 70000 cubic metres of earth[2][3] and meant the race was delayed from June 9-10 to the end of July.
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).
[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.
[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.
It also saw the arrival of Scotsman David Murray (racing driver)’s new Ecurie Ecosse under team manager Walter “Wilkie” Wilkinson.
It was driven by F1 drivers Reg Parnell and Tony Brooks 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.
[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.
[15][13] 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.
[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] The allure of the race was as great as ever and huge crowds returned, keen to restore the traditional festive atmosphere.
An immaculately observed minute's silence was held before the start of the race for the previous year's victims and a simple commemorative plaque unveiled.
It was eventually traced to a hairline crack in a fuel line – the delay and repair cost an hour, and 21 laps, and dropped the remaining works Jaguar out of contention.
But worse had happened between these issues: Louis Héry, local garage owner in his second Le Mans, crashed his private Monopole-Panhard heavily at Maison Blanche.
[7] On lap 7, Flockhart used his superior speed to get his Ecosse Jaguar into the lead, but the veteran drivers Moss and Walker kept their Aston Martins in contact.
After the first pit-stops and driver-changes Sanderson put the Ecosse Jaguar onto a more conservative race strategy and Collins took the lead in the 3rd hour as the rain got heavier.
Tavano was thrown clear by the heavy impact as his car was shoved into the roadside ditch, but the Porsche rolled and burst into flames.
In the small hours Cliff Allison’s Lotus, doing 190 km/h, struck a dog chasing a rabbit on the Mulsanne Straight wrecking the radiator.
[15] The leading cars remained reliable and reached the finish, except the Aston Martin prototype which, having slipped to 7th with engine problems, broke its rear suspension in the final hour.
