Clever people, the organisers of the Le Vingt-Quatre Heures du Mans. The annual 24-hour race at Le Mans has been with us since 1923, when the Chenard et Walcker “Sport” of Andre Lagache and Rene Leonard completed 2,209 kilometers at an average speed of 92.06kph over the 24-hour period. Of course, the entrants list for the first few years did read decidedly French but across the Channel it didn’t take long before the English realized what good sport could be had over one weekend in Summer, especially if there was a chance to defeat the French on their home soil.
Thus started an annual event that grew from a 24-hour race to test the reliability and speed of the touring cars of the golden years of motoring to what it is today, probably a head-on day and night dash to the line in sports racing cars that rival Grand Prix cars for technology, speed and excitement. At the 2003 event the winning Bentley Speed 8 covered 5,146 kilometres. It’s amazing what a difference a mere 80 years have made.
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