It’s easy enough to admire the history of the automobile as we moved from horse-drawn carriages to vehicles powered by a combustion engine. This history doesn’t just offers us a look into vehicles that are meant to be driven on a road for the purpose of mobility and commuting, but also for the purpose of attempting to offer us some of the fastest vehicles on the planet. Ever since man learned we could run races and competitions have been fought and won and adding vehicles to the mix has been a huge part of the equation for over a century of racing.
The most famous and longest running race in the world is the 24 Hours of Le Mans which is a race that offers us a look at some of the most impressive vehicles to ever hit the track. This is a race that not only allows us to see how fast a car can be, but to also see cars that can last a long time as they race with their engines wide open for the entire time on the course that’s drawn up for the race each and every year.
Starting with the 1924 Bentley 3 Liter Sport that was able to reach a whopping 80 mph while being powered by a four-cylinder engine that offered up 70 horsepower that weighed in at 4,000 pounds we take a look at the evolution of the Le Mans racers. Not only were these the racers, but they were the winners of the race. Next up we see the 1957 Jaguar D-Type that used a 3.4-liter engine but in a six-cylinder setup to give up 245 horsepower and be able to race at 167.8 mph while weighing in at 1,852 pounds.
Just taking a look at these first two early winners that were separated by 33 years of development and technology we can see that the 24 Hours of Le Mans had already had a huge impact on the automotive industry with cars that were half as heavy but offered more than triple the power in order to provide speeds that were more than double what the original cars offered. By 1967 we saw a race team use American made cars in the form of the Ford GT40 that came in first, second and third in the race and surpassed the 200 mph mark with 530 horsepower from a massive V8 engine to give us one of the most impressive racing finishes ever seen in the world.
The 24 Hours of Le Mans has been an amazing race to witness and seeing the wide variety of great cars that have won the race, if only for a one minute video can easily give you the taste for racing and make you want to head out to the track or boost your own car to be able to challenge others on the tracks in your area. Check out this video and be amazed by the evolution of race cars for one of the most impressive and historic races in the world.
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