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Le Mans ’55: The crash that changed the face of motor racing by Christopher Hilton

Pierre Levegh’s Mercedes was flung into the crowd after Mike Hawthorn had braked hard in his works D-type for a pit stop and Lance Macklin, swerving his Austin-Healey 100S to avoid Hawthorn, veered into Levegh’s path. Over 80 spectators were killed in a crash that put a serious question mark over the future of motor racing worldwide.

Several races were cancelled. Extraordinarily, Hilton discovers that Pierre Levegh’s body was the last to be identified in the morgue.

Hilton comes up with interesting sidelights, such as Jaguar tester and sometime racer, Norman Dewis, who had recorded 309kph (192mph) down the long Mulsanne Straight in his D-type.

Hawthorn’s best speed was 301kph (187mph). “The reason he was that bit slower was because he had three inches [76mm] cut off his windscreen. That made the difference. I think for every inch we cut off the screen, we lost one and a half, two miles an hour. It was purely down to aerodynamic shape. With the screen we’d got at the height we’d got it meant that the driver could sit down behind the screen, but Mike and Rolt and Hamilton said ‘No, we want to be able to see over the top.’ I asked why and they said, ‘Oh, if it rains’ — smearing the windscreen. I said ‘Well, I’ve done all the testing in the rain. There’s no need.’ They said ‘No, we like to see over the top,’ so they cut their screens. They lost it down Mulsanne, and I’d got it.’”

Hilton found Lance Macklin’s statement in the French sporting paper, L’Equipe: “Perhaps he (Hawthorn) badly misjudged the distance. He came across too brutally, and above all he braked with equal brutality. The brakes of the Jaguar are much more powerful than those of the Austin-Healey and I had, for my part, braked as if my life depended on it — my wheels locked — in order not to run into the rear of my fellow competitor’s car. This extremely powerful braking could have been the cause of the accident: what I didn’t want to do to Hawthorn, Levegh couldn’t avoid doing to me.”

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Review by Eoin Young