24 Hours of Le Mans: The Winners

The 24 Hours of Le Mans is the world's oldest active sports car race in endurance racing, held annually since 1923 near the town of Le Mans. It is considered one of the most prestigious automobile races in the world and has been called the "Grand Prix of Endurance and Efficiency". Unlike fixed-distance races whose winner is determined by minimum time, the 24 Hours of Le Mans is won by the car that covers the greatest distance in 24 hours. Racing teams must balance the demands of speed with the cars' ability to run for 24 hours without mechanical failure.

The race is held on the Circuit de la Sarthe, which is composed of closed public roads and dedicated sections of racing track.

Launched when Grand Prix motor racing was the dominant form of motorsport throughout Europe, Le Mans was designed to present a different test. Instead of focusing on the ability of a car company to build the fastest machines, the 24 Hours of Le Mans would concentrate on the ability of manufacturers to build sporty yet reliable cars. This encouraged innovation in producing reliable and fuel-efficient vehicles, because endurance racing requires cars that last and spend as little time in the pits as possible.

At the same time, the layout of the track necessitated cars with better aerodynamics and stability at high speeds. While this was shared with Grand Prix racing, few tracks in Europe had straights of a length comparable to the Mulsanne. Additionally, because the road is public and thus not as meticulously maintained as permanent racing circuits, racing puts more strain on the parts, increasing the importance of reliability.

The race is held in June, leading at times to very hot conditions for drivers, particularly in closed vehicles with poor ventilation; rain is commonly seen. The race begins in mid-afternoon and finishes the following day at the same hour the race started the previous day.

Thanks to Wikipedia for the introduction above.

How it works: Below you will see pictures of models of the winning cars from those years where Little Wheels has managed to find an example.

The picture of the car and the year next to it are links to another page for that year's race. For each year there is a list of all the cars taking part in the race and a picture of a model where I have been able to source one and an example in most cases where I don't have the car as raced. Each of those pictures drills down again to more pictures of the car and where I have had versions made by more than one maker you will find links to all the versions I have had. There are thousands of models to look at.

This project is work in progress and at the time of writing there are still a number of years still to add.