The 1971 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 39th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 12 and 13 June 1971. It was the ninth round of the 1971 International Championship for Makes.
This year was the final of the races with 5-litre engines; the incoming regulations put a 3-litre limit on engine capacity for Group 5 Sports Cars. The weekend saw extended good weather and produced the fastest race in the event's history, setting a record that would stand for almost 40 years.Laban 2001, p. 167
Although there were few accidents this year, there were many cars delayed or forced to retire with mechanical problems and only twelve cars were classified at the finish. Winners, at a record speed, were Gijs van Lennep and Helmut Marko in their Team Martini Porsche 917.
Regulations With the imminent ban of engines over 3-litres for the upcoming 1972 season, the FIA made no changes to their standing regulations. The Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) likewise made very few changes. The experiment of the standing-start in echelon from the previous year was discarded. A 2-by-2 rolling start behind a safety car became the most preferred way, which remains the tradition up to the modern day. This allowed an Armco guardrail to be erected between the pits and the main straight, greatly increasing the safety of the pit-crews.Spurring 2011, p. 56Clarke 1997, pp. 114–5: Autosport 17 June 1971Moity 1974, p. 129 Drivers were also now permitted to stay in their cars during refuelling.
On race-week plans were unveiled for an extensive realignment of the circuit, making it self-contained. It included a new Mulsanne straight alongside the public highway and a new series of curves to cut out the dangerous Maison Blanche corner – the scene of many major race accidents over the years.
This year, first prize for outright victory was US$13000 – barely the cost of a top-tier racing engine, and not reflecting the huge preparation and work required. But such was the stature of the race it kept drawing strong fields.Clarke 1997, p. 111: Car & Driver Sep 1971 Finally, after 14 years, the ban on female drivers was lifted with the ACO accepting top French rally-driver Marie-Claude Beaumont in the Greder Corvette entry – the first female driver at Le Mans since 1951.Spurring 2011, p. 75
Entries
The ACO received 80 entries for the race, which it reduced to 63 for qualifying, though only 53 cars arrived to practice.Spurring 2011, p. 55 Noticeable was the very low turnout from manufacturers' works teams.Automobile Year 1971, p. 177 Given the dominance of the big Sports Cars on fast tracks like Le Mans, there were few Prototypes entered. Ferrari and Alfa Romeo withdrew their works teams to concentrate on next year's models.Clarke 1997, p. 106: Motor Jun 12 1971 However, a vast fleet of privateer Porsche 911s arrived to fill the gap, making the GT category the strongest-supported group.
Category PrototypeGroup 6 SportsGroup 5 GTGroups 3+4 TotalEntries Large-engines >2.0L classes6 (+1 reserve)16 (+2 reserves)16 (+5 reserves)38 (+8 reserve) Medium-engines < 2.0L classes204 (+1 reserve)6 (+1 reserve) Total Cars8 (+1 reserve)16 (+2 reserves)20 (+6 reserves)44 (+9 reserves)
Over the winter, extensive development work was done on the 917L (langheck or 'long-tail'). Using the French SERA aerodynamics laboratory, the chassis was further streamlined. Now running 17" rear tyres made its handling almost as good as the K-version (kurzheck or 'short-tail') much to the drivers' satisfaction.Spurring 2011, p. 58 Porsche also supplied a slightly larger 5.0-litre engine (vs 4.9L) using high-performance nickel-silicon cylinder-liners from NSU that improved oil consumption and reduced wear. This pushed its output up to 620 bhp. It also came with a new 4-speed gearbox, but as all the teams chose to use the tried-and-tested 5-speed gearbox the new engines were not used either.
With four victories to date in the 1971 Championship, the JW Automotive team were favourites for outright victory. They certainly had the strongest driver line-up with Pedro Rodriguez/Jackie Oliver and by Jo Siffert and Derek Bell in langhecks. Their third team car, a 917K, was driven by 1970 race-winner Richard Attwood with Herbert Müller.Spurring 2011, p. 60
The cars and equipment of the previous year's successful Porsche Salzburg team was purchased for the Martini Racing Team by Conte Gregorio Rossi di Montelera (of the Martini & Rossi company). They entered three cars – a long-tail for Vic Elford/Gérard Larrousse (winners at Sebring and the Nürburgring) and a magnesium-alloy chassis short-tail for Gijs van Lennep/Helmut Marko. (JWA was not offered these experimental optionsLaban 2001, p. 168) The third was an experimental short-tail version. The 917/20 was built as a test-bed for future Can-Am parts and aerodynamic low-drag concepts. Shorter and much wider than the 917K, it was designed and tested by Robert Choulet and the SERA wind tunnel, after their other work on the 917. Nicknamed "the Pig" by the company, it was driven by Reinhold Joest/Willi Kauhsen. Following up the psychedelic paintjob of their car the previous year Martini, with tongue in cheek, had the chunky car painted in pink for the race with names of pieces of meat written across it.Spurring 2011, p. 63
After the 1970 race, Ferrari set about improving the 512. Widened by 100mm, with an improved and lightened aerodynamic chassis, the V12 engine was also uprated to produce 580 bhp. The new version, the 512M (modificato) debuted at the end of the 1970 season with a win to Ickx/Giunti. The 512M modifications were offered to the customer teams, but not applied to the works cars as Ferrari had decided to give up any official effort with the 512 in order to prepare the new 312PB for 1972.Spurring 2011, pp. 68–9
Between them, the customer teams put up a competent challenge to Porsche. The North American Racing Team (NART) had three entries. The Penske team, very competitive at the American rounds of the championship, arrived on one of the NART entry tickets. Their chassis was made by Holman & Moody and the engine prepared by Can-Am V8 specialist Traco (claiming 614 bhp).Spurring 2011, p. 70 A number of quick-change modifications were added for wheels, brakes and refuelling to save valuable minutes in the pits. The blue, Sunoco-sponsored, car was driven by Mark Donohue/David Hobbs.Clarke 1997, pp. 116–7: Autosport 17 June 1971 The regular NART 512M also had a Traco engine and was driven by Sam Posey/Tony Adamowicz. And there was an open-top, spyder, version was for Masten Gregory/George Eaton.
The Scuderia Filipinetti also entered a much-modified Ferrari. Known as the "512F", it was designed by former Ferrari racing engineer/driver Mike Parkes it had a bigger rear-wing and used the Porsche 917 windscreen which was 120mm narrower, allowing for better water- and oil-cooler placement. With regular co-driver Jo Bonnier unavailable for personal reason, Henri Pescarolo was brought in as his co-driver.Spurring 2011, p. 71 José Juncadella of Escuderia Montjuich had employed 1964-winner Nino Vaccarella. Ecurie Francorchamps, Georg Loos and Corrado Manfredini also returned with their modified cars. David Piper's entry was used by American privateer David Weir who had bought the spare car off Steve McQueen's Solar Productions film company.Spurring 2011, p. 72
Just after the 1970 Le Mans, Chrysler completed the takeover of Simca creating Chrysler Europe, and this also meant the Matra company was renamed Matra-Simca. Matra entered only one 660 for its F1 drivers Chris Amon and Jean-Pierre Beltoise. Beltoise had recently recovered his racing license after investigation in an accident at January's Buenos Aires 1000km that had killed Ferrari driver Ignazio Giunti. After a poor race the previous year, the engine was strengthened and now put out 420 bhp.Spurring 2011, p. 66
While Guy Ligier's GT car was on hold pending homologation, he entered a one-off special – the JS3. Fitted with the Ford-Cosworth DFV F1 engine (that only arrived at the start of race-week, making its Le Mans debut) that was limited to 8800 rpm, allowing around 400 hp. The car had finished second in the Test Weekend race, and for this race was driven by former Matra team manager Claude LeGuezec and Patrick Depailler.Spurring 2011, p. 74 Against the French prototypes were a collection of privateer Porsche 908s, including French importer Auguste Veuillet's Sonauto car that had won the three-hour race at the Test Weekend. The 3-litre flat-8 was beginning to show its age and only put out 350 bhp, well below the French competition.Spurring 2011, p. 73
The under-2 litre classes in both Group 5 Sports Cars and Group 6 Prototype-Sports Cars were poorly supported, with no entries in the Sports category. Team Huron could not supply their new cars, so Guy Edwards took one of their entry spots with his Lola T212. With no Chevrons present, its only competition was an older Porsche 907 from the André Wicky team.
In the GT category, the Grand Touring trophy was split into over- and under-2.0 litre classes. In the Over-2 litre class, the two French Corvettes were set to take on the veritable army of privateer Porsche 911s. Once again, rally-specialist Henri Greder and Claude Aubriet's Ecurie Léopard bought their Chevrolet Corvettes as the biggest cars in the entry list. Greder also made waves by nominating his French female rally-driver teammate, Marie-Claude Beaumont, as his co-driver. Female racers had been banned after the death of Annie Bousquet in the 1956 12 Hours of Reims. The American Troy Promotions team had also intended to bring its two Yenko-prepared cars over after strong showings in the American races but were later withdrawn.
Due to insufficient production, Ferrari's current GT car, the 365 GTB/4 "Daytona" had to run in the Group 5 Sports category.Clausager 1982, pp. 163–4 Effectively a GT road-car, its 4.4-litre V12 (developing 350 bhp) put it head-to-head against the Porsche 917s and Ferrari 512s. NART entered a single car for Bob Grossman and Luigi Chinetti Jr., son of team owner Luigi Chinetti.Spurring 2011, p. 67
Porsche had now made available a new 2.4-litre engine, alongside the current 2.25 and 2.2-litre versions. It developed 245 bhp that now got the car up to about 255 kp/h (160 mph) on the Mulsanne Straight.Spurring 2011, pp. 64–5Clarke 1997, pp. 118–9: Autosport 17 June 1971 Eight of these uprated Porsches were present, including ones for race-winner turned team manager Masten Gregory and the German Kremer Racing team. Kremer himself rejoined Nic Koob in another 2.4, along with Günther Huber in what was the first example of a triple-driver combination. In a reduced under-2 litre class, the Écurie Léopard tried taking on the Porsches with a 1.6-litre Alpine A110.
So Porsche established a single-make record with 33 starters from the field of 49 – a trend that would carry on through the 70s and 80s.
Practice The test weekend in April had shown the chassis development on the 917 had made them even faster. Jackie Oliver becoming the first person to record a 250 kp/h lap with an incredible time of 3:13.6 equating to 250.5 kp/h (155.6 mph). In June, Rodríguez followed up that form with a 3:13.9 in the JWA Porsche to put a 917 on pole. This was underlined by Vic Elford coming in second, going five seconds faster using the same car as he had the previous year.
Third was the second Wyer car, nearly four seconds behind his teammate. Jo Siffert had had a big moment during practice when he approached Maison Blanche at near 290 kp/h (180 mph). Bill Tuckett in the Paul Watson Porsche did not see him approaching and took his standard line. Swerving to avoid the 911, Siffert got the car into a series of spins but amazingly only lightly tapped the barriers situated right next to the track. He got back to the pits, shaken and livid, and stormed off to the stewards' office to protest.