1938 Le Mans

1938 — The Paris-based governing body of motorsport was horrified by the results of its efforts to slow grand prix racing with the introduction of the 750-Kg. Formula in 1934. The German manufacturers had used the language of the new rules like a weapon and raised top speeds of GP cars to nearly 200mph. Across the European continent records fell every time the German cars appeared. So they wrote new rules that took effect in ‘38 aimed at real speed reductions by limiting engine displacement: 4500cc for unblown engines and a mere 3.0-liters for supercharged racecars.

Bugatti, Delahaye and Talbot all saw a path for a profitable return to grand prix racing based on past experience. Bugatti placed a lone Le Mans entry, but the car was not prepared in time. Delahaye appeared with thinly disguised 4.5-liter unblown GP cars in sports configuration, backed up by a half-dozen 3.5-liter six-cylinder Type 135s. Talbot likewise went the 4.5-liter unblown GP route, albeit tentatively, with five of its six entries older 4.0-liter cars.

Raymond Sommer, winner of the ‘32 and ’33 24 Hours, shared a stunning "aerodynamic" supercharged ALFA-Romeo 2.9-liter coupe (entered by ALFA’s new competition department ALFA Corse) with Mille Miglia ace Clemente Biondetti. They were the clear favorites. At the other end of the rank were other, more modest Italians, a pair of FIAT "Cinqs", tiny 568cc production-based racers with aerodynamic bodywork.

At 4:00 p.m. French cars – Divo’s 4.5 Delehaye and the Talbot of Rene Carriere – were first under the Champion Bridge, but Sommer got the ALFA Corse’s coupe into third by the time the leaders startled the diners at the Hippodrome café and began to annoy the blue cars. He was second on the second lap and took the lead on the third. Pride, ego, nationalism – or a vintage blend of all three – motivated Rene Dreyfus to make a run on Sommer on the sixth lap as they howled down Hunaudiers to Mulsanne at over 150mph. This succeeded only when Dreyfus found the room required by putting two wheels off the track! Sommer returned the gesture a lap later, keeping it all on the road, and regained the lead. Etancelin took his turn with Sommer four laps later and led the 10th lap, only to have the red Italian coupe steam by on the next circuit. Sommer had to make his point three times before the reality of the next 23 hours truly sank in.

This was a bit much for the No. 1 Delahaye of those great friends Dreyfus and Louis Chiron, and the Ecurie Blue grand prix-clone went to the dead car park. After 21 laps, there was no oil pressure, and the sorts of noises emanating made looking at the instruments gratuitous.

Etancelin and Sommer were oblivious to the extraordinary early pace and were obviously enjoying themselves with "Phi Phi" just a second behind Sommer. It was strange a mirror of the new grand prix formula, with a blown 3.0-liter car leading a new 4.5 normally-aspirated pushrod six by a ferocious second.

Despite the fraught pace and vivid memories of the horror at White House a year earlier, the 15th 24 Hours was relatively incident free: one of the Delahaye had burned to it axles and the Etancelin/Chinetti Talbot had eaten a valve. At midnight, Sommer and Biondetti had only managed to insert a single lap of insulation between their works ALFA and the No. 4 Carriere/Le Begue Talbot 4.0-liter. But by the halfway hour, Le Mans rookie Pierre Levegh was second, five laps down to the dominant ALFA, which was lapping regularly at 93mph.

By dawn the ALFA coupe led by seven laps over the steady No. 15 Talbot of Eugene Chaboud and Jean Tremoulet. The 15 was passed in turn by the No. 8 Talbot much later in the morning, before being consumed by a huge fire, reinstating Tremoulet’s Talbot just before noon. There were just 17 cars still running, led by the ALFA, now with a cushion of a dozen laps. Everything looked processional and predictable.

Just before 1:00 p.m. Sunday, Sommer felt a mild and momentary vibration as he eased the ALFA to top speed past the diners on Hunaudiers. It lasted just a moment. Then the bulk of the right front tire’s tread peeled away from the carcass, leaving Sommer to battle Newton’s laws while the tread slashed at fender and body.

It was a heroic and successful battle. Sommer got the No. 19 ALFA to the pits where the tire was changed, and Biondetti took his turn. But the tread had done more than mere cosmetic damage. The Italian got just one complete lap in before, on his 220th circuit, he coasted to a stop at Arnage. An oil leak summoned by tire damage obliged him to get out and push the two-and-a-half miles to the pits. He didn’t make it. Biondetti was nearly 40 years old, the ALFA weighed nearly a ton dry, let alone full of coolant and fuel and tools and spares. The run from Arnage to the pits is barely noticeable at over 120mph, but it’s a steep climb and a long push for a man with gray hair. With just one hour remaining he surrendered to reality and fatigue.

Without fanfare, Chaboud and Tremoulet moved their 3.5-liter dark horse Delahaye into the lead with their sister ship just two laps behind in perfect defensive position. It stayed that way until 4:00 o’clock.

French cars of three marques took the top five places with the Adler twins right behind in sixth and seventh. The first British car home was a French-run Singer, which won the 1100cc class with a creditable eighth overall. No records were set. Even Jean-Pierre Wimille’s ‘37 lap record remained on the books along with his distance record.

Two weeks later, the grand prix season – the first under the new formula – officially opened in the champaign country between Reims and Soissons. The aristocratic nephew of Wehrmacht Field Marshal Walther von Brauchitsch led a merciless three-car Mercedes-Benz sweep. The first and only French car home was Rene Carriere’s Talbot, and it was 10 laps (49mi) behind the Mercedes trio. The new grand prix formula was not working as had been hoped. The 3.0-liter cars were, in their first race, only fractionally slower than the six-liter, 600hp monsters that had so alarmed the rule makers. Bugatti took action and began to organize a Le Mans program for ‘39 and, perhaps, beyond.