The 1953 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 21st Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 13 and 14 June 1953, at the Circuit de la Sarthe, Le Mans (France). It was also the third round of the F.I.A. World Sports Car Championship.
British drivers Tony Rolt and Duncan Hamilton won the race with one of three factory-entered Jaguar C-Types, the first cars ever to race at Le Mans with disc brakes.
Regulations With the ongoing success of the World Championship of Drivers, this year saw the introduction by the FIA of a World Championship for Sports Cars, creating interest from the major sports car manufacturers. Clausager 1982, p.85 It also drew together the endurance races in Europe and North America. The Le Mans race was the third round in the championship after the 12 Hours of Sebring and the Mille Miglia.
After the efforts by drivers in the recent races to drive almost single-handedly (Chinetti in 1949, Rosier and Hall in 1950, Levegh and Cunningham in 1952) and the consequent safety danger through exhaustion, the ACO set limits of maximum driving spells of 80 consecutive laps and 18 hours in total for each driver.
This year also marked the first use of a radar-‘gun’ to measure speeds across a flying kilometre on the Hunaudières Straight. The Cunningham would touch almost 156mph. Some 6 mph faster than last years winning Mercedes gull wing coupe. These results aligned with engine size but, significantly, also the impact of aerodynamics on top speed: Moity 1974, p.51Clarke 1997, p.91: Road & Track Sep 1953.
Nation Manufacturer Engine Top Speed Cunningham C-5R Chrysler 5.45L V8 249.1 km/h Alfa Romeo 6C/3000CM Alfa Romeo 3.5L S6 245.9 km/h Jaguar C-Type Jaguar 3.45L S6 244.6 km/h Ferrari 340 MM Ferrari 4.1L V12 242.1 km/h Talbot-Lago T26 GS Talbot-Lago 4.5L S6 239.1 km/h Gordini T26S Gordini 2.5L S6 233.9 km/h Allard J2R Cadillac 5.4L V8 233.8 km/h Lancia D.20 Lancia 2.7L V6 s/c 219.6 km/h Aston Martin DB3S Aston Martin 2.9L S6 212.2 km/h Porsche 550 Coupé Porsche 1.5L F4 197.7 km/h DB HBR-4 LM Panhard 0.7L F2 160.6 km/h Panhard X88 Panhard 0.6L F2 169.8 km/h
Entries
The prestige of the race, as well as the advent of the new championship, generated interest in Le Mans. Of the 69 entrants and reserves, nineteen different marques (and their subsidiaries) were present. 56 works-entered cars were officially represented, with over half in the main S-8000, S-5000 and S-3000 classes. Mercedes-Benz did not return to defend their title – they were busy preparing new cars for both the F1 and Sports Car championships. So the overall victory was shaping up as a contest between Italy (Scuderia Ferrari, S.P.A. Alfa Romeo and Scuderia Lancia), England (Jaguar supported by Aston Martin, Allard and Nash-Healey/Austin-Healey and the United States (Cunningham), with the French (Talbot and Gordini) being the ‘dark horses’.
Drivers included all three F1 World Champions to date (Alberto Ascari, Juan Manuel Fangio, Giuseppe Farina) and over 30 other current and up-and-coming Grand Prix racers.
The Italian teams had built new cars for the season and all had strong driver line-ups. Clausager 1982, p.85 Ferrari entered two lightweight Ferrari 340 MM Berlinettas powered by the company's big 280 bhp 4.1 litre V12 engine built for a challenge at Mille Miglia.Spurring 2011, p.158Clarke 1997, p.91: Road & Track Sep 1953. Both had Pinin Farina-designed bodies. Ascari and Luigi Villoresi were to share another lightweight coupé 375 MM converted to 4.5-litres, while brothers Paolo and Gianni Marzotto (winner of the 2nd round of the championship: the Mille Miglia) and Giuseppe Farina and debutante Mike Hawthorn were down to drive the 340 MMs. A third 340 MM Spyder was entered by American Ferrari agent Luigi Chinetti for himself, with Anglo-American Tom Cole (who had finished 3rd with Allard in 1950) as his co-driver. Such was the quality of the entry list that six other Ferraris could not make the starting list.Spurring 2011, p.158
Alfa Romeo was back at Le Mans for the first time since the war and fielded the beautiful new 6C/3000CM (‘’Cortemaggiore’’) powered by a 3.5L S6 engine (developing 270 bhp and 245 km/h) for Fangio and Onofre Marimón and Consalvo Sanesi and Piero Carini. The third car was driven by Mercedes-Benz works-drivers Karl Kling and Fritz Riess who also had their team manager, Alfred Neubauer, in the pits with them.Spurring 2011, p.170 Lancia this year stepped up to the big class with three new D.20 Coupés. Having just won the non-Championship Targa Florio with a 3.0L V6 engine, team manager Vittorio Jano instead decided to install supercharged 2.7L engines. This proved to be a mistake as the small increase in power (to 240 bhp) increased unreliability and gave away over 20 km/h top speed to the rival Jaguars and Ferraris. GP-racers Louis Chiron and Robert Manzon, Piero Taruffi and Umberto Maglioli were in the team, with José Froilán González and endurance-race specialist Clemente Biondetti in the reserve car.
Jaguar returned with their C-Types and after the debacle of the previous year, were determined not to repeat those mistakes, having undertaken a lot of development work. Team manager ‘Lofty’ England employed the same driver pairings as 1952, with Peter Walker and Stirling Moss, Peter Whitehead and Ian Stewart, and Tony Rolt and Duncan Hamilton. The cars reverted to the aerodynamic design prior to that of the 1952 Le Mans cars, whose revised nose and tail had adversely affected stability at speeds over 120 mph. For 1953 the cars were lighter and more powerful (now developing 218 bhp), and they were the first-ever Le Mans cars equipped with disc brakes, from Dunlop, whose greater efficiency gave the C-Types a distinct advantage over their drum-braked competitors.Spurring 2011, p.154 The disc brakes had been available in 1952, but given the problems with the radiators they had been swapped out so the team could concentrate on just one potential issue in the race.Spurring 2011, p.126 The works cars were supported by a standard production-body car entered by the new Belgian Ecurie Francorchamps team.Spurring 2011, p.156
Aston Martin entered their new DB3S cars for Reg Parnell and Peter Collins, George Abecassis and Roy Salvadori, and Eric Thompson and Dennis Poore. Using the same 3-litre engine as the DB3, it was put into a newly designed, shortened, chassis. However it was suffering from considerable lack of testing, being well down on speed.Spurring 2011, p.169
Donald Healey this year had two collaborations: his last year with Nash Motors with a pair of long-tailed models, and a new partnership with the Austin Motor Company using its 2.7L engine, producing only 100 bhp but capable of 190 km/h. Bristol also arrived with two cars for Lance Macklin / Graham Whitehead and Jack Fairman / Tommy Wisdom, and managed by former Bentley Boy and Le Mans winner Sammy Davis. The rear-engined 450 coupés were ugly and noisy but the 2 litre engine could get them to nearly 230 km/h.Spurring 2011, p.167 Briggs Cunningham also brought three cars, all with 310 bhp 5.5L Chrysler V8 engines: a new C-5R (nicknamed “Le Requin” (the shark) by the French)Spurring 2011, p.156 for Phil Walters and John Fitch who had won the inaugural championship race at Sebring; a C-4R for Cunningham himself and William "Bill" Spear and, a C-4RK coupé for veteran Charley Moran (the first American to race at Le Mans, back in 1929)Spurring 2011, p.156 and Anglo-American John Gordon Bennett.
This year Talbot entered a full works-team, rather than just providing support to privateer entries. The trio of blue T26 GS cars were driven by Talbot regulars Guy Mairesse (with Georges Grignard), Louis Rosier and Elie Bayol, and Pierre Levegh and Charles Pozzi. Although still very fast, they were starting to show their age to the nimbler cars from Italy and Great Britain. André Chambas also returned with his supercharged modified SS spyder for a 5th and final time.Spurring 2011, p.168 Clarke 1997, p.77: Autocar June 1953 Gordini had intended to debut the new 3.0L T24S, but scratched it because of atrocious handling. Instead an uprated T16 design, the T26S with a 2.5L engine was prepared for Maurice Trintignant and Harry Schell. An older T15S was entered for Behra and Mieres. Though it only had a 2.3L engine it was lighter, and just as quick as its bigger brother.Spurring 2011, p.161
Without Mercedes-Benz, German representation fell to works teams from Borgward (here for the first and only time) and Porsche, both in the medium S-1500 class. Porsche stepped up from the S-1100 class with a new, purpose-designed race car, the 550 Coupé and its flat-four 1488cc engine, making only 78 bhp but a top speed of nearly 200 km/h.Spurring 2011, p.164 There were also a pair of the smaller 356 SL in the S-1100 class.
As expected the French dominated the smaller-engined classes. The most eye-catching were the four from Panhard, bringing cars with their own badge this time under a new competition department, albeit under close collaboration with Monopole: with very aerodynamic designs from French aviation engineer Marcel Riffard using both of the Panhard engines.Spurring 2011, p.159 Other works entries came from Renault, DB and Monopole themselves.
Practice
In Thursday practice the Jaguars showed their class with all three works cars going under the lap record, but drama also happened when the 3rd car, of Rolt and Hamilton, was disqualified. It had been on track at the same time as another Jaguar which had the same racing number (the spare car being used as a precaution to qualify Norman Dewis, the Jaguar test driver, as a reserve), and a protest raised by the Ferrari team. Jaguar chairman, Sir William Lyon, agreed to pay the ACO fine, and ‘Lofty’ England successfully pleaded his case to the official that no intention to cheat had been meant and it was an honest mistake and so they were reinstated. But Hamilton's account of the affair has become motor racing legend.Foreword by Earl Howe to "Touch Wood!" Retrieved on 3 August 2008. Devastated by their disqualification, he and Rolt had gone into the city for the night to drown their sorrows, and when England found them at 10am the next day (race-day) at Gruber's restaurant, they were nursing hangovers and drinking copious amounts of coffee.Spurring 2011, p.155 England later said: "Of course I would never have let them race under the influence. I had enough trouble when they were sober!"Daily Telegraph obituary of Tony Rolt, 2 February 2008. Retrieved on 3 August 2008. Tony Rolt also said the story was fiction.Obituary of Tony Rolt by Alan Henry, 9 February 2008. Retrieved on 3 August 2008.
The Spanish Pegaso team withdrew both their entries after Juan Jover crashed his Z-102 Spyder during practice. Misjudging the speed of his approach to the corner after the Dunlop bridge, he hit the barriers at over 200 km/h and was thrown from the car, seriously injuring his left leg. With no apparent explanation for the crash, the team decided on safety first and scratched the other car. It was the first and last time they got to Le Mans.Spurring 2011, p.151
Race Start