The 1927 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 5th Grand Prix of Endurance, was a motor race which took place at the Circuit de la Sarthe on 18 and 19 June 1927. The race was one of the most remarkable and dramatic pre-war Le Mans races. It is commonly remembered due to the infamous White House crash, a major accident that involved eight cars including all three of the widely tipped Bentley team's entries, and caused the retirement of two of them. The race was eventually won by the third which, although badly damaged, was able to be repaired by drivers Dudley Benjafield and Sammy Davis. It was Bentley's second victory in the endurance classic.
In a race missing many major manufacturers, the three Bentleys had been comfortably leading from the start, putting a lap on the rest on the field. The accident occurred about 9.40pm, as night was falling and a drizzle had started. A 2-litre Th. Schneider had spun at the White House curves blocking the road when the lead Bentley, unsighted, hit it at speed. Davis was able to extricate his damaged car and get back to the pits, resuming the race after a half-hour repair. The French Ariès of Jean Chassagne and Robert Laly, the only other large-engined car in the race, had meanwhile taken the lead. They held it through a very wet night and into the Sunday, until stopped with less than two hours to go by a broken distributor. Davis and Benjafield had pushed their mishandling car hard all the way to take a lauded victory, in the end by a considerable 20-lap margin.
Regulations This year the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) lifted the minimum production required from 10 to 30 cars. A new dispensation for 1100 to 1500cc was to let them have only three seats. Crucially this removed 60 kg of compulsory ballast from them.
Once again the ACO adjusted the Index target distances; although for the first time there was a reduction in target – in the smallest-engined cars. Example targets included the following:Spurring 2015, p. 216 Engine size 1926Minimum laps 1927Minimum laps Required Average speed 3000cc 120 129 2000cc 113 118 1500cc 107 107 1100cc 99 94
Grand Garage Saint-Didier, the large Parisian car-dealership sponsoring the Index competition, boosted its prize-money to a substantial FF50000.
Concerned about the advent of specialised racing fuels with expensive high-octane ratings, the ACO now dictated that all cars had to use the same commercial-grade gasoline.Clarke 1998, p. 34: Motor Jun14 1927 This raised many complaints from the teams concerned about the effects on their highly tuned racing engines. The ACO provided the teams with 20-litre churns of Standard Oil's "Eco-Essence" gasoline. A chemist analysed the residual fuel of each car at the end of the event and confirmed that no fuel-modification had occurred.
Entries Across Europe political unease and high inflation were having an impact. The automotive industry was heavily affected with mergers, bankruptcies and other financial worries amongst competitor manufacturers.Laban 2001, p. 51 After 41 cars started the previous year only 25 arrived this year. Peugeot, Chenard-Walcker, OM and Lorraine-Dietrich (winners of the event for the previous two years) all stayed away, and Rolland-Pilain withdrew a few weeks before the race. It was brought home when Ariès was the only French company now in the big-engine end of the field.Spurring 2015, p. 215Clausager 1982, pp. 36–8 Of the 13 places reserved for the qualifiers from the Biennial Cup only six were re-taken. However, there were three new teams from the small French manufacturers Fasto, SCAP and Tracta.
Category Entries Classes Large-sized engines 4 / 4 over 2-litre Medium-sized engines 8 / 5 1.1 to 2-litre Small-sized engines 16 / 13 up to 1.1-litre Total entrants 28 / 22 Note: The first number is the number of entries, the second the number who started.
Thus, with a dearth of competition, Bentley were the pre-race favourites and they arrived with three cars. After a humiliating run of retirements since their victory in the event, W.O. Bentley decided to enter a strong team, despite the weakened opposition. Dudley Benjafield and Sammy Davis were again paired in the same 3-litre car, nicknamed "Old Number 7", which they had crashed just an hour from the finish in the race. Woolf Barnato's financial investment had meant over 1400 3-litre models had now been built and a second 3 litre was entered for the French Baron André d'Erlanger and George Duller. A new prototype was also entered. The 4½ litre, (later nicknamed Old Mother GunSpurring 2015, pp. 220–2), had a four-cylinder version of the new Straight-Six model put into the long-wheelbase 3-litre chassis. While the 3-litre engines were now capable of 88 bhp the new model put out 115 bhp.Spurring 2015, pp. 218–9 The car was entrusted to the works driver,Fox 1973, p. 48 1924-winner, Frank Clement with Leslie Callingham as co-driver. The drivers made a point of practicing putting up their car-hoods and the team filmed their pit-stop routines to further improve them.
Automobiles Ariès returned with its streamlined 3-litre "tank", making up a much-reduced large-engine field. Once again it was driven by the experienced pairing of Jean Chassagne and Robert Laly. The company also entered two 1100cc cars – a 2-seater CC2 and a new 4-seateer CC4, burdened with an extra 120 kg of ballast for the extra seats.Spurring 2015, pp. 223–4
After a successful introduction the previous year, Th. Schneider had put out a "Le Mans" variant for sale in 1927 with a torpedo-style bodywork. Two of the new 2-litre cars were entered for the race.Spurring 2015, pp. 234–5 Fabrique Automobile de St Ouen, or Fasto, was a Parisian manufacturer formed in 1926. A lightened version of their standard vehicle, the Type A3 Sport, came to Le Mans for its competition debut. Running a 2-litre engine, three cars were entered.Spurring 2015, p. 236
The S.C.A.P. company had already been at Le Mans, as an engine manufacturer. This year it arrived with two cars of its own manufacture. The Type O was a 4-seater with the compact new 1.5-litre straight-8 engine. One was driven by Le Mans veterans Fernand Vallon (formerly driving for Corre La Licorne) and Lucien Desvaux (ex-Salmson and Chrysler) while the other had debutantes Albert Clément and Henri Guibert.Spurring 2015, p. 230 This year S.A.R.A. also introduced a bigger model. The SP7 had a 6-cylinder 1.5-litre pushrod engine on a four-seat long-wheelbase convertible. The team also brought two of their standard 1100cc BDE cars, entered for the 1926-27 Biennial Cup.Spurring 2015, p. 229
Salmson brought three of their Grand Sport 2-seaters. Derived from their successful VAL-3 model, they had a double-overhead cam 1.1-litre engines. Virtually the same experienced works-team line-up returned with Georges Casse/André Rousseau, Jean Hasley/André de Victor. Only Lionel de Marmier had a new co-driver, running with Pierre Goutte.Spurring 2015, p. 227 The 1100cc category made up over half the field. Along with Salmson, Ariès and SARA, there were multicar teams returning from E.H.P. (Établissements Henri Precloux) and Gendron.
A new team this year was Tracta. The company had only been founded in January, by engineers Jean-Albert Grégoire and Pierre Fenaille, bankrolled by Fenaille's wealthy entrepreneurial father. They brought two of their eye-catching, lowline Gephi models to Le Mans. Using a SCAP 1.1-litre engine the cars were unusual in being front-wheel drive and with a unique constant-velocity joint which they had patented. The in-line gearbox and final-drive gave it a long bonnet and low centre of gravity. The engineers both drove a car: Fenaille with his friend Etienne Boussod and Grégoire with Fenaille's chauffeur Roger Bourcier.Spurring 2015, pp. 232–3
Practice Once again the public roads were closed on Friday night from 10pm to 6am to allow private practice. Bentley experimented with fitting more powerful Italian Memini carburettors but Benjafield's car caught fire with them at Mulsanne corner. Fortunately, the damage was not severe and the engine was converted back for the race.
On the Friday night, Le Mans had its third fatality. Marcel Michelot, commercial director of Gendron & Cie, took his car out for some practice laps. Getting disorientated in thick fog between Mulsanne and Arnage corners, he went off the road at speed and ploughed into a tree. Marcel Gendron, mourning his friend and co-founder, withdrew the other team car he was due to race himself from the race.Spurring 2015, p. 235
On Saturday morning, the Tracta team-drivers were all injured in a bad road accident en route to the track. Boussod misjudged a corner near Arnage and the car fell off the road into a ditch at 60 mph. While Boussod was badly shaken and Grégoire was bruised, the other two were in much worse shape: Bourcier had a crushed leg and Fenaille had a severe head injury, ending up in a coma. They were taken to hospital but Grégoire contrived to escape and made his way back to the track, determined to race for the sake of his new company. Appealing to race director Charles Faroux he put out a plea over the public address asking for a volunteer co-driver. Lucien Lemesle, a local mechanic answered and Grégoire had just enough time to explain the peculiarities of his unusual car before the start of the race.
Race Start
After a lap of honour from the 1926-race winning Lorraine-Dietrich, the cars were once again flagged away by Émile Coquille, co-organiser and representative of the sponsor Rudge-Whitworth.Spurring 2015, p. 214 Once again, the Bentley drivers' hood-raising practice proved itself as their three cars were first away with Clement leading Benjafield and d'Erlanger away in a Bentley 1-2-3 in the opening laps. The speed of the 4 ½ litre was underlined by Clement when he broke the circuit record in only the second lap of the race.Clarke 1998, pp. 37–8: Motor Jun21 1927 Over the following few laps he whittled this down still further, to only 8 minutes 46 seconds for the 10.7 mile (17.3 km) circuit. This early-race performance was yet more remarkable as, at the time, the cars were required to run with their hoods erected for the first twenty laps (about three hours) of the race.
After the first hour, the three Bentleys were well ahead of Laly's Ariès and the three Salmsons of de Victor, de Marmier and Casse running in formation. Then came the Fasto of Brosselin and Chantrel's Schneider rounding out the top-ten. Clement had lapped the whole field after only twelve laps (the Bentley team had calculated it would take thirteen laps) and made his first pit-stop and driver-change at 7pm with that comfortable lead. The other two Bentleys made theirs a quarter-hour later after themselves putting the fourth-placed Ariès a lap behind. Unlike the well-drilled Bentley team, Laly took six minutes to put his hood down and away.Clarke 1998, pp. 39–40: Motor Jun21 1927 De Marmier's Salmson could not be restarted after the first pit-stops and was later disqualified for being push-started. It had been a routine race until about 9.40pm, in the late twilight.
The Maison Blanche ("White House") crash
Pierre Tabourin's Th. Schneider had been delayed early in the race. Pushing to make up time, he was put off-line by an overtaking car and spun at the tricky Maison Blanche ("White House") curves approaching the pit straight. The car hit the barriers and ended up broadside in the middle of the road, out of sight of the following drivers in the growing darkness. The S-sequence of curves was narrow and fast with the view of the exit obscured by the distinctive white farmhouse that gave the section its name.Clausager 1982, p. 12