The 1968 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 36th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 28 and 29 September 1968 on the Circuit de la Sarthe, in Le Mans, France.
A significant change was the introduction of a engine limit on Group 6 cars, to lower overall track speeds. Originally scheduled for the weekend of 15 and 16 June, the race had to be delayed until September due to protests, strikes, and civil unrest in France during the spring of 1968. The rescheduled race increased the chances of the Group 6 Prototypes against the Group 4 Sports cars, as the new Prototype cars had matured during the season. It also increased the amount of darkness that drivers would be racing in compared to June, by about three hours: a total of 11 hours. Its new date made it the tenth and final round of the 1968 World Sportscar Championship of a tense and close championship between Ford and Porsche.
The winners were Pedro Rodriguez and Lucien Bianchi, in the J.W. Automotive Gulf-Oil Ford GT40. Despite Porsche finishing second and third, the victory was enough to give Ford the manufacturer's title.
There were also two major accidents during the race ending the racing careers of Willy Mairesse and Mauro Bianchi (Lucien's younger brother), who both suffered severe burns in the crashes.
Regulations
Straight after the 1967 race, the CSI (Commission Sportive Internationale - the FIA’s regulatory body) convened to discuss ways to limit the increasingly dangerous speeds in Sports car racing, mindful of what led to the 1955 disaster.Laban 2001, p.153 It was decided to impose a 3-litre (120-litre fuel tank) on Group 6 Prototypes and a 5-litre limit (160-litre fuel tank) on Group 4 Sports. There remained no engine limit on the Group 3 GTs. It effectively banned the big-block Fords and Chaparral, as well as the big Ferraris and the new Mirage and Lola-Aston Martin and marked the end of an era. The theory was that manufacturers would turn to the use of 3-litre Formula One engines to save development costs.
However, it was the immediate implementation in the next year that caused much unrest with the companies. The CSI cited ‘safety concerns’ justifying the rapid action. Enzo Ferrari cancelled his Prototype program. He was not alone in believing a 5-litre Sports car would outperform a 3-litre Prototype, and that only the big manufacturers would be able to make the minimum 50 big-engined cars to get Group 4 homologation.Spurring 2010, p.272
Because the race was rescheduled and the longer period of darkness, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) permitted one battery change.Clausager 1982, p.153 With high speed being such a talking point, Ford volunteered to sponsor a major road realignment on the main straight, installing a chicane just before the pitlane. The changes added at least 10 seconds to a lap, as well as causing greater wear on tyres and brakes. Although the track had been widened and safety features of the track improved in the aftermath of the 1955 disaster, this was the first significant layout-change to the circuit since 1932. Diverting the racing away from the pits also significantly increased the safety of the pit-crews. Finally, in line with the global racing trend, commercial advertising was now allowed on cars.
Entries Although devoid of the big team entries from Ford and Ferrari there were still 94 applications for this year's race, and 58 cars arrived to qualify for the 54 starting places. Into that space the biggest entries were from Porsche and Alpine with 13 and 11 cars respectively. The new regulations did have a positive impact on redressing the imbalance of the Prototypes to the other two categories
Category Classes PrototypeGroup 6 SportsGroup 4 GTGroup 3 TotalEntries Large-engines >2.0L classes12 (+2 reserves)11 528 (+2 reserves) Medium-engines 1.6 / 2.0L classes11 (+2 reserves) 1 2 (+2 reserves)14 (+4 reserves) Small-engines 1.15 / 1.3L classes 6 (+1 reserve) 0 1 (+1 reserve) 7 (+2 reserves) Total Cars29 (+5 reserves)12 8 (+3 reserves)49 (+8 reserves)
With the withdrawal of the Ford factory teams, J.W. Automotive had bought the rights to racing the GT40 and took over the Ford Advanced Vehicles facility at Slough.Clarke 1997, p.50: Motor Sep28 1968 Backed by Gulf Oil and its distinctive light blue and orange livery. One of the previous year's Mirages was reverted to a GT40 while two new cars were built, this time all running a 5-litre V8, generating 415 bhp. The Gulf GT40s received some of the improvements of the Mirage, and a significant effort was made to reduce the weight of car using high-tech materials. A large part of the body was made of a very thin polyester sheet reinforced with carbon fibre. The cars were very competitive having already won four races. Wyer's two best drivers however weren't present: Jacky Ickx and Brian Redman, winners at Brands Hatch and Spa, had both broken limbs from Formula 1 accidents (at Mont Tremblant and Spa respectively) Former Ferrari-stalwart Pedro Rodriguez, and Alfa Romeo team-driver Lucien Bianchi were brought in for the race. Paul Hawkins / David Hobbs (race winners at Monza) had their regular car while Brian Muir / Jackie Oliver had the new chassis.Spurring 2010, p.275-8
There were also regular GT40 privateer entries, from Claude Dubois (with drivers Willy Mairesse/”Beurlys”), and Mike Salmon, having recovered from the burns he got in his Ford the previous year.
Ferrari was true to his word and boycotted Le Mans, which also left several of his customer teams stranded, like the Equipe Nationale Belge and British Maranello Concessionaires. Ferrari hopes therefore fell back onto the four-year old 275 LM in Group 4. The North American Racing Team (NART) entered three different Ferraris: 1965 race-winner Masten Gregory re-joining his winning 275 LM car, a 275 GTB in the GT category and a Dino 206 S in the 2-litre Prototype class. Similarly, Scuderia Filipinetti had several options and also settled on running a 275 LM and a 275 GTB. The Swiss team also ran a pair of the latest 7-litre Corvette Stingrays in the GT division. There were two British privateer Ferraris. David Piper had done a major rebuild of his car, replacing most of its aluminium body with a polyester/fiberglass shell to reduce weight.
A number of manufacturers stepped up to fill the leading prototype positions vacated by Ford and Ferrari: Porsche's ongoing development program wound up a notch with the new Porsche 908 fitted with a new 3-litre flat-8 producing 330 bhp and over 310 km/h (190 mph), the first time Porsche competed in the largest engine class of the regulations. Still quite unreliable, Porsche had to rely on their 907s to give them race victories early in the year, but the 908 came good at the Nürburgring race. Due to their low profile, the cars used small, but very bright quartz-iodine headlights, but this necessitated two alternators in each car rather than dynamos.Automobile Year 1968, p.201 With 5 wins to Ford's 4, Porsche had a narrow lead in the Championship coming into this final round, looking for its first overall FIA Championship.Spurring 2010, p.280
So four 908s were prepared for the works team, in langheck (longtail) form for the long fast straights. Their top pair were Jo Siffert (4 wins) and Hans Herrmann (2 wins). Rising sports-car start Vic Elford (the other race winner) was with Gerhard Mitter, Porsche regulars Rolf Stommelen and Jochen Neerpasch had the third while the Americans Joe Buzzetta/Scooter Patrick the fourth. The company also supported three privateers running the reliable 907 'langheck': Spaniard Alex Soler-Roig, Frenchman Philippe Farjon and the new Swiss team Squadra Tartaruga of Rico Steinemann.Spurring 2010, p.282-5
The new Matra 3-litre V12 had its race debut simultaneously in May at the Monaco F1 GP and the Spa 1000 km. Capable of a powerful 380 bhp, the company was initially not going to run at Le Mans, however the deferred date allowed for more testing and a single MS630 longtail was prepared for team drivers Henri Pescarolo and Johnny Servoz-Gavin.Spurring 2010, p.290-1
French hopes for outright victory mainly rested on Alpine. A proven record in the smaller classes encouraged Jean Rédélé to move up to the main category. But the new Gordini-prepared Renault 3-litre V8 only produced 310 bhp for the new A220 design. After racing earlier in the year, the car now had a rear spoiler to try to correct a dangerous aerodynamic fault: at the Nürburgring the Alpine of Henri Grandsire had got airborne and done a 360˚ loop.Spurring 2010, p.286-9 Jacques Cheinisse retired from racing to manage the racing team, and a big effort put eleven cars on the grid, second only to Porsche. The works team ran three A220s for Grandsire and Gérard Larrousse, Jean Guichet/Jean-Pierre Jabouille and Alpine engineer André de Cortanze/Jean Vinatier. Regular customer team Ecurie Savin-Calberson also entered one for Mauro Bianchi and Patrick Depailler and they also put an A210 in the 2-litre category. Alpine also ran the A210 in the 1300cc and 1150cc Prototype classes, including a debut for 30-race Le Mans veteran Bob Wollek. Finally, two of the homologated A110 were run in the GT category by French privateers.
British entries were limited. The Lola T70 now had a 5-litre Chevrolet engine in the Sports category. John Woolfe commissioned Chevron to build a new car. The B12 was a one-off design with a fibreglass body and carrying a modified version of the 3-litre Formula 1 Repco-Brabham V8 engine developing 330 bhp.Spurring 2010, p.297Moity 1974, p.112-115 Austin-Healey, as well as their regular Le Mans Sprite entry, developed a new 2-litre prototype with the Coventry Climax FWMV V8 engine that put out 240 bhp.Spurring 2010, p.291 It was run by Healey's regular drivers Clive Baker and Andrew Hedges.
In line with the ACO's commitment to technological development, there were two turbine-powered Howmet TXs entered in the prototype class, following on from the Rover-BRM last run in 1965. Ray Heppenstall designed a car on a Group 7 Can-Am chassis, with an aluminium shell from Howmet Castings. The Continental turbine was from a helicopter and rated as an equivalent to 3-litres with 325 bhp. It was very light but thirsty on its paraffin fuel. After a 3rd place at Watkins Glen it had shown reliability. Heppenstall drove one with race-veteran Dick Thompson while Bob Tullius/Hugh Dibley had the other.Spurring 2010, p.295
For two years Autodelta, the racing division of Alfa Romeo, had had a difficult time developing a new sports prototype. Both Jean Rolland and Leo Cella had been killed in testing accidents. The Tipo 33/2 was the new evolution and its 2-litre V8 engine put out 260 bhp. Autodelta had four cars entered including works drivers Nino Vaccarella/Giancarlo Baghetti and ‘Nanni’ Galli/Ignazio Giunti. It also supported two cars entered by the Belgian VDS customer team.Spurring 2010, p.292
Practice This year, for an unknown reason, the test weekend coincided with the British round of the International ChampionshipClarke 1997, p.53-4: Car & Driver, Jul 1968 and with the Formula 2 event at the Hockenheimring on Sunday April 7 in which Jim Clark was killed. Jacky Ickx set the test benchmark for JWA, with a 3:35.4 lap, then promptly left for Brands Hatch to win the endurance race. It was also the first appearance of the new Porsche 908, in the hands of Rolf Stommelen. It was found to need major aerodynamic refinement, but Stommelen eventually got a time of 3:44.1.