The 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans was a motor race staged on 13 and 14 June 1970 at the Circuit de la Sarthe in France. It was the eighth race of the 1970 International Championship for Makes and was the 38th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The race was contested by Group 4 Special GT cars, Group 5 Sports Cars and Group 6 Prototypes.
Once again Porsche had a dominant year in the championship and arrived as strong favourites to take their first outright victory in the Le Mans race. Their main opposition would come from Ferrari, now competing with a newly-homologated 512S model. Nine 917s and eleven 512s from works-supported teams and privateers were entered. However heavy rain through most of the race neutralised much of their power and contributed to a number of serious accidents. In a race of heavy attrition where only seven cars were classified as finishers it was won by race veteran Hans Herrmann and co-driver Richard ‘Dickie’ Attwood.
For Herrmann, a veteran of 13 Le Mans, it was particularly sweet having lost by the narrowest margin the previous year. All Porsche's main challengers (Ferrari, Matra, Alfa Romeo) were beaten in the first half of the race. Porsche's dominance was complete – winning all three prizes and taking all the class-wins. The only dark spot was Ickx's accident at the Ford Chicane during the night which killed a track marshal.
This was the year that Hollywood came to Le Mans. The race provided the background for the Steve McQueen movie Le Mans. Some of the racing footage (mainly the first moments of the race) of the motion picture was taken from on board a competing car, as the #29 Porsche 908-022 entered by Solar Productions had been fitted with movie cameras but most of the on board footage was useless due to technical issues.
Regulations After only four years, the CSI (Commission Sportive Internationale - the FIA’s regulations body) overhauled its FIA Appendix J, redefining again the motorsport categories. GT cars were now extended to Group 3 (minimum production of 1000 cars) and Group 4 for ‘Special GT cars’ (min. =500). The former Group 4 for Sports Cars became the new Group 5 (min. = 25) while Prototypes stayed as Group 6. The 5-litre engine limit on the Sports Cars remained – allowing the Porsche 917 and new Ferrari 512 to race, although they were on notice that this would fall to a 3-litre limit for the start of the 1972 season.Spurring 2011, p.18
The Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) was now fully aligned with the FIA's technical regulations.Moity 1974, p.126 They also made changes to its race regulations. Three drivers were now permitted in each car, and a driver was allowed to switch (once) to another car of the same make during the race.Clausager 1982, p.161-3 Maximum drive-times were set at 14 hours, in up to 240 minutes at a time with at least a one-hour break between shifts. Night-time, when headlights had to be used, was defined as between 21:00 & 04:30 and luminous car numbers were introduced. Mechanical restrictions remained – a 25-lap distance between oil replenishment and only 4 crew could work on a car on the pit-apron. Finally, every car had to complete the final lap within fifteen minutes to be classified. The most significant change was the abolition of the famous “Le Mans start”: running across the track to get in and start the car. This year the cars would still line up in echelon however the drivers would start in the cars fully strapped in (a full race harness now became compulsory). A line of four flagmen would now simultaneously wave le tricolore when drivers would start their cars and pull away.
Another 12 km of Armco was added to the track completing the project started the previous year to encircle the track with safety barriers. Also, the Esses and Tertre Rouge corners were widened and resurfaced.Automobile Year 1970, p.204
Entries
This year there were 96 entries for the race, to which the ACO accepted 62 for qualifying. In the end 57 arrived for scrutineering in a very even split between the Prototypes, Sports and GT cars. Nearly a third were just the very powerful Porsche 917 or Ferrari 512 strongly increasing public interest. Significant absentees this year were Ford and Alpine. With such a strong entry list the ACO decided it could drop the smaller 1.3- and 1.6-litre classes for the first time post-war.
Category Classes PrototypeGroup 6 SportsGroup 5 GTGroups 3+4 Totalentries Large-engines >2.5L classes12 (+1 reserve)21 235 (+1 reserve) Medium-engines 2.0 / 2.5L classes 4 (+1 reserve) 1 (+2 reserves) 6 (+7 reserves)11 (+10 reserves) Total cars 16 (+2 reserves)22 (+2 reserves) 8 (+7 reserves)46 (+11 reserves)
After an inauspicious debut in 1969, extensive work was done by Porsche to fix the stability and reliability of the 917. After being beaten by a supposedly obsolete car, Porsche contracted John Wyer and his Gulf-J.W. Automotive Engineering Team to become the official works-supported team and development partner.Clarke 1997, p.88-9: Autosport Jun 11 1970Laban 2001, p.163 During tests in Zeltweg, Wyer's engineer John Horsmann had the idea to increase downforce at the expense of drag, and so a new short tail was moulded with aluminium sheets taped together. This worked well as the new tail gave the 917 better stability.Spurring 2011, p.23-4 The new version was called the 917K (kurzheck or ‘short-tail’). A new aerodynamic version was developed for Le Mans with support from the external consultant Robert Choulet.Spurring 2011, p.20-2 The 917 L (langheck) featured a spectacular new "long tail" body with a wing, which had very low drag. They were dubbed “batmobiles” by the media. Two engines were available: the 4.5-litre flat-12 now capable of 550 bhp, and a new 4.9-litre version (590 bhp). Most drivers preferred driving the K even though it gave away as much as 25 km/h (15 mph) in top speed. The langheck was less stable and needed far more concentration to keep on the track.Clarke 1997, p.94-6: Autocar Jun 18 1970Automobile Year 1970, p.202
Porsche's works drivers had been inherited by the JWAE team who fielded three 917Ks. The lead car was driven by Jo Siffert and Brian Redman who had already won two rounds in the championship. Pedro Rodriguez (Le Mans winner in 1968 for Wyer) and Leo Kinnunen, in the second car, had won three races. Brits David Hobbs and Mike Hailwood, who had driven Wyer's Ford the previous year, had the third car with a 4.5-litre engine. A fourth JWA 917K entry was not accepted - the drivers were to have been actor Steve McQueen and reigning F1 world champion Jackie Stewart.
As Ford had done several years earlier, Porsche also supported a rival, second works team based in Austria (much to Wyer's surprise). The new Porsche Salzburg was run by Louise Piëch, sister of Ferry Porsche and mother of company Technical Director Ferdinand Piëch. Vic Elford/Kurt Ahrens ran the 4.9-litre 917L, while Swiss-pairing Rico Steinemann/Dieter Spoerry and veterans Hans Herrmann/Richard Attwood had 4.5-litre Ks.
The Martini Racing customer team also gained some support from Porsche AG, being the other runner of a 917L for Gérard Larrousse/ Willi Kauhsen. The spectacular livery of this car was an elaborate scheme of whirls and swoops of green on a blue background.Spurring 2011, p.27 The car gained the nickname of the Hippie Car or the Psychedelic Porsche from the team and the media and started the Le Mans tradition of the “art-car” special. The final 917 was co-entered by its owner, the Finnish AAW Racing Team, and British privateer David Piper. With Gijs van Lennep as driver, that 917 had already proven very competitive through the championship year.
In June 1969, Enzo Ferrari had sold half of his company to Fiat and that money was able to finance, like Porsche, the construction of the required 25 cars of its new Group 5 car: the Ferrari 512S. Based on the 612, Ferrari's Group 7 Can-Am car, it had a 5.0L V12 developing 550 bhp. After a victory at Sebring the car had improved reliability and an aerodynamic long-tail version (coda lunga) was built. Eight such cars were prepared for Le Mans. Four were in the works team, led by their two F1 drivers Jacky Ickx and Clay Regazzoni, paired with hill-climb specialist Peter Schetty and Arturo Merzario respectively. Ickx was carrying an injury after escaping from a burning car at the Spanish GP and then suffering a fuel leak at Spa just two weeks ago.Clarke 1997, p.90-3: Road & Track Sept 1970 In the other cars were Le Mans winner Nino Vaccarella with Ignazio Giunti and young F1 drivers Derek Bell and Ronnie Peterson.Spurring 2011, p.28-9 Bell replaced Jean Guichet who had been injured in a road accident and missing his first Le Mans since 1959.
Ferrari customer teams were also equipped with the 512S. Scuderia Filipinetti had three cars led by experienced drivers. Mike Parkes/Herbert Müller and Swedes Jo Bonnier/Reine Wisell in longtails; and Italians Gianpiero Moretti/Corrado Manfredini (and his Scuderia Picchio Rosso). The North American Racing Team (NART) had two: a longtail driven by Americans Sam Posey/Ronnie Bucknum, and a standard for Helmut Kelleners/Georg Loos (and his Gelo Racing Team). Former regulars Ecurie Francorchamps also entered a longtail, returning after a four-year absence. There was also an entry for the new Spanish Escuderia Montjuich team who ran the open-top “spyder” variant.Spurring 2011, p.31
The only other cars in the big Group 5 class were a pair of Lola T70s. However, even with the 5-litre Chevrolet developing almost 500 bhp, they were no longer any match for the Porsches and Ferraris.Spurring 2011, p.39
This year the 3-litre Prototypes were not expected to be able to keep up with the power of the big Porsche and Ferraris. Matra had kept away from the championship to concentrate on winning Le Mans. However, development of the new MS660 had been difficult and only one was ready - entrusted to works drivers Henri Pescarolo and Jean-Pierre Beltoise. Despite using an upgraded F1 V12-engine (detuned back to 420 bhp) it proved slower than the two MS650s entered. The long-tail MS650 was driven by Jack Brabham/François Cevert, while Patrick Depailler/Jean-Pierre Jabouille had a short-tail version.Spurring 2011, p.35
Autodelta, the racing division of Alfa Romeo, returned to Le Mans after a difficult year. They had the latest iteration of the T33. The 3-litre V8 developed 400 bhp and its longtail format gave it a bump of 25 km/h (15 mph). The team brought four cars and had a strong driver line-up enticing Rolf Stommelen (from Porsche) and ‘Nanni’ Galli (from Matra). The others had Piers Courage/Andrea de Adamich, Masten Gregory/Toine Hezemans and Carlo Facetti/Teodoro Zeccoli.Spurring 2011, p.36
Porsche had their 908/02 spyders that had been very successful the previous year. Martini ran two such cars for Lins/Marko and Spoerry/de Cortanze.Spurring 2011, p.38 A 908 spyder was entered by Solar Productions, which was actor Steve McQueen’s film production company. Driven by Herbert Linge/Jonathan Williams it was fitted with cameras to record race footage for McQueen’s film. NART had bought the 312P works cars from Ferrari and two were entered in the Prototype category. Healey returned with its prototype for a third (and final) time, now as an open-top spyder, and with a bigger Repco 3-litre V8. It would be driven by Roger Enever and Andrew Hedges.
In the smaller-engine categories, there was a new manufacturer present. French racing-driver turned car-maker Guy Ligier had his new JS-1 prototype, with a 1.8-litre Ford-Cosworth FVC engine that put out 240 bhp. Ligier drove it himself alongside Jean-Claude Andruet.Spurring 2011, p.41 As well as a pair of privateer Porsche 910s there were also three Chevron B16s each with a different engine, the most interesting of which was the innovative Mazda Wankel-rotary.Spurring 2011, p.42