1958 Le Mans

1958 — The final round of the 1957 World Sports Car Championship in Caracas, Venezuela, not only destroyed any hopes Maserati had of winning the World Sports Car Championship, it sent a chill through the CSI’s rules writers. Memories of Le Mans ’55 were still all too vivid, and the mechanical carnage in Caracas must have seemed like a warning shot.

New rules for the '58 Sports Car season limited maximum engine displacement to 3.0-liters. Le Mans followed suit and specified the 3.0-liter formula. Jaguar was instantly penalized and forced to reconfigure its 3.4-liter engines. Ferrari was relieved by the new rules and promptly won the three opening races of the '58 WSC season. The 3.0-liter DBR1s from Aston Martin became front line favorites after their second consecutive win in the 1000Km of the Nurburgring, where Stirling Moss and Jack Brabham handed Ferrari its first defeat of the new sports car season just three weeks before the traditional solstice date for Le Mans.

Ten of the 11 Ferraris entered in the 26th running of Le Mans were the mighty 3.0-liter Testa Rossas, including the Phil Hill-Olivier Gendebien No. 14 works entry: Hill and Peter Collins had delivered Ferrari the '57 WSC title at Caracas. Then the pair began the ’58 Championship season with wins in Buenos Aires and the 12 Hours of Sebring – both in the 3.0-liter Testa Rossa. Gendebien and Luigi Musso had won the Targa Florio, but the red train was derailed by Moss at the 'Ring.

For the first time since the creation of the DBR1, it gave no displacement advantage to its chief rival. But the ‘Ring was won by men, Le Mans by cars, or so it was said. No matter. Aston’s three-car team of six-cylinder DBR1s gave away some horsepower to Ferrari, but had better handling and brakes. And Stirling Moss.

Jaguar was again represented by David Murray’s proven two-car Ecurie Ecosse team of D-Types that had won in '56 and ’57. Brian Lister sent a Jaguar-powered works Lister, which was backed up by two private Lister-Jags, one from Belgium.

Colin Chapman was back with his biggest Le Mans entry. The 2.0-liter Climax-powered Type 15 of Cliff Allison and Graham Hill sent a communal gasp through the paddock with a lap just six seconds slower than Moss’ best effort in the 3.0-liter DBR1 and nearly equal with Mike Hawthorn’s practice laps in the No. 12 Ferrari.

At 4:00 o’clock, Moss’ Aston was the first to move from the starting rank. Moss pulled out an amazing 200-yard lead by the time he passed under the Dunlop Bridge and crested the hill into the esses. Passing the pits at the end of the first lap, he had a quarter-mile lead on arch practical joker Hawthorn in the No. 12 Testa Rossa he shared with his pal and partner in crime Peter Collins.

It took Moss just an hour to lap all but the three cars in his considerable wake. Master strategist John Wyer’s plan now became clearer: Moss was Aston-Martin’s rabbit, and it seemed to be working. The clutch in Hawthorn’s Testa Rossa began to complain and required attention. But there were only three Astons and a dozen Ferraris. Just into the third hour, there were two Astons. Moss’s leading DBR1 had broken a crankshaft, and Moss coasted all the way to Mulsanne, once again denied sports car racing’s ultimate prize.

Dusk came early and arrived with the French version of a monsoon near 6:00 o’clock. By sundown it was raining even harder. During the appalling weather of the evening Phil Hill grabbed the race by the throat and, by 7:30, led. An hour and a half later, Jean-Pierre Brousselet in the privately entered No. 11 D-Type misjudged the decreasing rain and entered the curve under the Dunlop Bridge too fast. The Jaguar – now over 18 laps behind the leading Ferrari – hit the bank and rolled just as Bruce Kessler arrived in the TR he shared with Dan Gurney. They were just a lap down to the leading Hill/Gendebien TR. Kessler had no options.

The French driver, Brousselet, entered under the nom de course "Mary", died almost instantly. Kessler was reported in satisfactory condition by the time he received medical attention, and Gurney’s impressive Le Mans debut was over.

When Hill’s shift ended Gendebien resumed the run at the front only to be passed by a motivated Ivor Bueb. The two-time winner and his Jaguar driving partner Duncan Hamilton had reputations as first class "mudders", and Bueb proved it almost at once. By midnight, he had Gendebien a lap down with his aging D-Type.

Hill, asleep in the Shell Oil "bunkhouse" behind the pits, was awakened and briefed. He donned his waterproof gear and headed for the pits. Gendebien managed to re-pass the Bueb Jaguar just before his stop and a single-minded Hill left in a hurry. The crowd was small but filtered back toward the course to witness the pursuit. It took Hill seven laps to catch and pass the lone Jaguar. The Ecurie Ecosse D-Types had both succumbed to burned pistons; the A.C.O.-supplied gasoline was blamed, but the fuel choices were the same for everyone.

Hill, fearful of having to deal with the two British strong men in the rain again, continued his pursuit pace. By 2:30 a.m. and near the end of his fuel supply, Hill had padded his advantage to nearly a lap and a half. Hamilton had since relieved the heroic Bueb but had been unable to match the American’s pace.

There was even more at stake than the most important sports car race in the world. If Ferrari won the 26th Grand Prix d’Endurance, the World Sports Car Championship was won as well: and at the best possible site, Le Mans, a one-race world championship in its own right.

By noon, Hill was back in the rotation and again came upon the Hamilton Jaguar. The temptation to lap him for the second time must have been overwhelming; but it was raining, and Hamilton was trying hard to prevent a further deficit. The pits told Hill to ease off and let the Englishman go about his business.

Out of Arnage, Hamilton changed into third and got on the throttle early in spite of the rain and the mist. He was one of the best in the wet and at the height of his considerable powers. Hill let him go. The DB-Panhard was barely moving when Hamilton saw it. He didn’t hit the little blue car and likely saved the driver’s life. The Jaguar spun into the wet grass on the verge, hit the earth bank and spit out Hamilton. Then it rebounded across the road right in front of the leading No. 14 Ferrari.

Hamilton went to the hospital, where his injuries were pronounced minor. The Jaguar missed the Ferrari, just, and caromed into a field. Hamilton’s maneuver promoted the Aston Martin DB3S of half-brothers Peter and Graham Whitehead into second place, albeit more than 100mi behind Hill and Gendebien.

After a long and fraught night, Jean Behra and Hans Hermann had their heroic little 1.6 liter Porsche RSK up to third overall and led the 2.0-liter class from their stablemates Edgar Barth and Paul Frere in the No. 31 works RSK. Just 20 of the original 55 cars were still circulating; and before the clock struck four, nearly everyone was calling the '58 edition the toughest Le Mans in memory.

Hill and Gendebien’s crew slept while the American reeled off the final laps. Some photographers found the spent, snoring Italian mechanics irresistible. Porsche assembled their trio in line-astern publicity formation. They certainly earned it.

It had stopped raining and the order was as expected: Ferrari, then the famous old Aston with a cranky gearbox, and the Porsches.

The victory was Ferrari’s first on the Sarthe since '54 and clinched the World Sports Car Championship for Modena. The little Porsches tied the Aston-Martins for second place in the World Sports Car championship, and Stirling Moss and Tony Brooks won the season finale for Aston in the four-hour Tourist Trophy at Goodwood.

Hill and Gendebien had clinched a second sports car title for Ferrari at Le Mans where it mattered most. On August third, Peter Collins died in his Ferrari Dino F1 car during the German GP on the Nurburgring.

Phil Hill was promoted into the F1 team and retained his sports car duties. In October, he moved aside and out of a certain six championship points, allowing Hawthorn to finish second behind Moss in the Grand Prix of Morocco. The gesture made the Ferrari team leader the first British World Driving Champion. Hawthorn's second place allowed him to beat Moss by one net point, and Hawthorn promptly retired as the first World Champion to have won Le Mans. Five-time World Champion Juan Fangio had announced his retirement after the French GP in July. He had never won Le Mans.