1963 24 Hours of Le Mans
There were a number of major accidents, the most serious of which caused the death of Brazilian driver Christian Heins and bad injuries to Roy Salvadori and Jean-Pierre Manzon.
[2] The Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) renamed its ‘Experimental’ category as ‘Prototype’ and lifted the 4.0 litre engine restriction for those classes as well.
The main change for the race was the starting positions on the grid were now to be determined by the fastest times in practice rather than in order of engine size.
[5] The team's regular Formula 1 drivers were assigned: John Surtees with Willy Mairesse, and Ludovico Scarfiotti with Lorenzo Bandini.
The third car was driven by sports-car regulars Mike Parkes and Umberto Maglioli There were also three new 330 LMB 4-litre front-engined prototypes run by privateer teams.
[6] There was also a new British team – Ronnie Hoare's Maranello Concessionaires entered a 330 LMB for Jack Sears and Mike Salmon.
Lightened and now fitted with a fuel-injected 5-litre V8 engine, it was the biggest car in the field and produced an impressive 430 bhp capable of 290 kp/h (180 mph).
They arrived with a pair of developed Porsche 718/8 cars, the type that had won the 1963 Targa Florio when the Ferraris had failed.
Charles Deutsch (last year's victor), after the withdrawal of Panhard's engines, signed a deal with German manufacturer Auto Union-DKW.
Based on a BRM Formula 1 car, the twin turbines generated 150 bhp but only gave a maximum speed of 230 kp/h (145 mph).
Unable to run on regulation fuel, (it ran on paraffin) the car was not on the official entry list, and given number “00”.
[14] BRM, in turn, released their grand prix drivers, Richie Ginther and current World Champion Graham Hill.
The two Belgian teams, Ecurie Francorchamps and Equipe Nationale Belge, returned and NART ran a long-wheelbase version.
The works team had Grand Prix drivers Bruce McLaren and Innes Ireland in one and Bill Kimberly / Jo Schlesser in the second.
Briggs Cunningham was back this year with three of the Jaguar E-type ‘Lightweight’ specials overseen by Lofty England.
Cunningham drove with Bob Grossman while his other regular drivers Walt Hansgen and Roy Salvadori were paired with Augie Pabst and Paul Richards respectively.
[11] They would be up against a privateer MG MGB, the manufacturer's latest model, driven by top British rally driver Paddy Hopkirk.
But it was John Surtees who put in the best time over the weekend, with a blistering 3 min 45.8 s.[7][3] Later, in official qualifying, Phil Hill was also calculated to have hit that magical 300kp/h barrier on the Mulsanne in his Aston Martin prototype.
The honour of the first Pole Position by qualification went to Pedro Rodriguez in the NART Ferrari with a lap-time of 3 min 50.9 s on Wednesday night.
[9] Likewise the earlier stress on the Hill Aston Martin and Sargent Lister took its toll and they too retired early with broken transmissions.
[22] McLaren managed to get the car safely to the roadside but the long oil slick from the holed sump started a catastrophic chain reaction of accidents: Jean Kerguen's DB4 Aston Martin spun out into a ditch, wrecking its differential.
Fortunately, Salvadori (who had been unable to do up his full harness) was thrown out the rear window as the car burst into flames, then helped by Kerguen.
Christian Heins, leading his class and the Index of Performance, managed to avoid Manzon and the wrecks but in doing so, his Alpine-Renault went out of control, rolled and hit a lamp-post then exploded into flames.
Jo Bonnier, whose Porsche was running 7th and leading the medium-sized classes, came through the huge plume of engine smoke unsighted and crashed heavily in the trees.
The Rover was cruising quietly just outside the top-10[22] As dawn broke among the rising mist, David Hobbs in the Lola had a big accident at Maison Blanche.
The Scuderia shared the top places with the two Belgian GT teams racing each other: Parkes and Maglioli chased hard and only failed to catch the Equipe Nationale Belge GTO, in second, by just over 100 metres.
The Belgian drivers all celebrated together by driving to Paris two days later, and going to a nightclub until 4am leaving their respective racing cars parked outside.
[26] After a remarkably trouble-free run (needing no mechanical work or even a change of tyres), the Rover turbine easily exceeded its 3600 km minimum distance (an average of 150 km/h) and was awarded the ACO's FF25000 prize.
Despite the good weather, attrition was high and the number of major accidents meant there were only fourteen cars running at the end, of the 49 starters.
The sole surviving Bonnet won the Index of Thermal Efficiency, driven by Claude Bobrowski and young debutante motorcyclist Jean-Pierre Beltoise Results taken from Quentin Spurring's book, officially licensed by the ACO[29] Class winners are in Bold text.
