1988 24 Hours of Le Mans
The other potential rival was Sauber, now formally backed by Mercedes-Benz, but after a major high-speed tyre-blowout in practice, their two-car team was withdrawn.
Even though Hans-Joachim Stuck had put in a blazing qualifying lap to lead a 1-2-3 grid for Porsche, it was Jan Lammers in his Jaguar who muscled his way up to the front.
Meanwhile, hard driving by Stuck, Ludwig and van der Merwe had them back into the race, and the second half would be a duel between them and the Jaguar of Lammers, Dumfries and Wallace.
This all contributed to increase the maximum speeds of the cars, and following recent alarming accidents on the straight, it was also fitted with high, three-tier Armco fencing.
[1][2] During practice, Porsche works driver Hans-Joachim Stuck commented: "It's so smooth now it's like driving down the Champs Élysées in a Mercedes limousine.
"[3]Concerned with the increasing impact of greater downforce, the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile) set maximum dimensions for the underbody ground-effect tunnels.
[1] The ACO (Automobile Club de l'Ouest) cancelled the test day from the general lack of interest from the contestants over the past two years, given the cost for closing public roads.
Defending champion, Porsche, was now focused on its F1 TAG-engine program with McLaren and moving into the US IndyCar series (being directed by Al Holbert).
[4] Ludwig's erstwhile teammate Bob Wollek was partnered with Vern Schuppan and Sarel van der Merwe in a late-'87 chassis.
[7] Team-owner Walter Brun stayed on the pit-wall this year, with his attention this season now also diverted by his EuroBrun foray into Formula 1, with his lead driver Oscar Larrauri.
The 2.8-litre WSP car was the modified K6 with its vertical fin, driven by Bruno Giacomelli and Japanese champions Kunimitsu Takahashi and Hideki Okada.
[7][8] The small Obermaier Racing team, that had done a giant-killing act the previous year to finish second, was back with Jürgen Lässig joined by Pierre Yver and Dudley Wood.
[7][9] An adage was that it took at least three attempts for a manufacturer to win Le Mans – as evidenced by Ford and Renault, and longer for Porsche, Matra and Aston Martin.
[13] Now fitted with a Zytek management system, TWR's engine-specialist, Allan Scott, was able to lift its output to 730 bhp with a top-speed 15 km/h faster than last year's car.
He had recently received a pile of spare parts from Sauber and Mercedes-Benz, including the latest KKK (Kühnle, Kopp & Kausch) turbochargers.
He had installed twin Garrett turbochargers to a Cosworth DFL engine – which necessitated moving the radiators to the nose of the car to accommodate them.
Cosmik GP Motorsport bought an ex-works SE87C for Anglo-Greek owner Costas Los and South African Wayne Taylor.
However, unlike Rondeau, who focussed primarily on the great race, the ALD team was running full seasons in the World Championship.
Stuck's amazing lap in the very first session of qualifying quickly convinced Jaguar not to even bother trying to contest pole[39] and to conserve their cars: the other four Jags were in the top dozen, interspersed between the leading Joest and Kremer Porsches - and the two Toyotas that were proving very competitive this year.
[28] In the C2 Cougar, Thierry Lecerf was too slow to be qualified, so the car would only be raced by his co-drivers, Patrick de Radiguès and Moroccan Max Cohen-Olivar.
At 5.30pm, Ludwig lost minutes as he almost ran out of fuel in the Porsche Curves, just managing to get back to the pits, but dropping two laps and falling down to ninth.
[45][46] And sure enough, the engine, starved of cooling air, blew up - but it was mission accomplished and a place in racing history – the first car to break 400 km/h at Le Mans.
[28] Dane Thorkild Thyrring moved into the class-lead in the second works Spice, until the rear bodywork blew off when Eliseo Salazar was travelling at speed and they, in turn, lost half an hour.
[36][47] This allowed the Porsche to take the lead, but only for a lap, as Stuck pitted straight away and team manager Peter Falk got the water-pump replaced as a precaution.
[36][47] At breakfast time, the Andretti Porsche suffered a similar problem to the sister-car and lost three cylinders, but managed to get going again albeit dropping more laps.
[11] Outside of the C1 class, the GTP Mazdas were in a close tussle with the C2-leading works Spice and the other Japanese cars: at breakfast, Katayama's 767 was running 13th ahead of the Lees Toyota and Spice/Bellm.
[50] Unaware of the peril the wounded Jaguar was in, at the Porsche's last stop with a half-hour to go, Ludwig was told to save the car and conserve fuel.
[28] The ADA had pitted after the formation lap to get a new ignition box fitted, but after that had run extremely reliably and finished a distant, but deserved, second-in-class.
After an enthralling, highly-competitive season with Sauber-Mercedes, Jaguar retained its Championship, not least due to the treble points for the Le Mans victory.
[9] While a number of manufacturers expressed interest, Porsche took the opposite view – announcing their full works withdrawal from sports-car racing and the end of its support for their customer teams.
