LeMans 1955-The crash that changed the face of motorsport racing video

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa1VfvOa1x4&feature=related[/ame]

This is the best video I have seen that really shows how this accident happened, and why it was so catastrophic. It amazes me to see how dangerous motorsport was back in the day, and how present death was there that day, lurking. This video dissects the accident, even breaking out the parts of the car slicing though the crowds.

"The worst crash in motor racing history - killing more than 80 people - was produced by a ferocious and haunting combination of circumstances: nationalism, raw speed, the nature of a 24-hour race, and chance. The crash drew in Mike Hawthorn, the blond playboy from Farnham, in a Jaguar, and Juan-Manuel Fangio, one of the greatest drivers of all, in a Mercedes. A crowd of 250,000 watched hypnotised as Hawthorn set out to break Fangio, the two cars going faster and faster...and faster. Another English playboy, Lance Macklin, was caught up in the crash in his Austin-Healey, along with a 50-year-old Frenchman driving under the assumed name of Pierre Levegh. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It cost him his life, even as his car was torn to pieces that scythed into the dense crowd. In this new and full study of the fateful day, Christopher Hilton sets the race itself in the context of the 1950s. Through a host of interviews - with drivers, team members, journalists and spectators - and original research at Le Mans and in the Mercedes archive in Stuttgart, he recreates every aspect of the race and the crash. Much of the material has never been seen before. He examines the aftermath - the bitter blame game, the conflicting testimonies, the direct threat to motorsport in Europe - and chronicles the beginning of the culture of safety that has affected what we see of motorsport on our television screens today."

 

OMG..the car that was involved in launching Levegh into the crowd was sold at Bohams in December. I had no idea it still existed.

http://www.bonhams.com/eur/press/6016/

It is a veteran of both the 1953 and 1955 Le Mans 24-Hour races, having finished third in class and 14th overall in the 1953 edition when co-driven by Wilkins/Becquart. Having begun life as a Healey Special Test Car, it was later updated by the factory to '100S' specification for 1954-55 when 'NOJ 393' contested both the exotic Carrera PanAmericana Mexico, and the Bahamas Speed Week events at Nassau.

Subsequently, when driven by Lance Macklin at Le Mans '55, this was the Austin-Healey involved in the catastrophic Le Mans Disaster, when it was rammed from behind by Levegh's works Mercedes-Benz 300SLR.

This historic ex-works Austin-Healey was subsequently impounded by the French authorities for some 18 months, before being released blame-free back to the Donald Healey Motor Company. It was then repaired and restored at their Warwick factory and returned to competition in private hands through the late 1950s and into the 1960s, before being acquired by its current owner in 1969, since when – for 42 years – it has been stored, untouched.

'Barn Find' fresh from 42 years in single ownership, The Ex-Works, Le Mans 24-Hours, Sebring 12-Hours, Carrera PanAmericana and Bahamas Speed Week, Nassau ,1953-55 Austin-Healey Special Test Car/100S Prototype Sports-Racing Two-Seater Chassis no. SPL 226/B Engine no. SPL 261-BN

Sold for £843,000 inclusive of Buyer's Premium
Image Unavailable, Please Login