Le Mans 24 Hours of 1925: A Race to Remember

This, the greatest race for cars in touring trim, took place at Le Mans on June 20th, 1925, finishing 24 hours later. Arriving at the circuit six days before the race, one was immediately impressed by the forward state of the preparations, and, although the course was never officially closed, practice was proceeding more or less continuously night and day; one fears that the people whose houses abutted on the circuit enjoyed little sleep during this period, as most of the cars engaged had open exhausts, silencing regulations being noticeable by their absence.

Each lap of the circuit measures approximately 10 miles, and it is composed of a four-mile more-or-less straight leg with a slight down grade and good tarred surface, followed by a right-angled turn, and then winding road, including a severe S-bend, after which it straightens out and runs down to the famous Pontlieue hairpin, where it joins up with the straight leg once more.

Apart from the straight leg, the surface was poor, full of pot-holes, untarred, and, following the long spell of dry weather, easily torn up by the wheels, with the result that, when following another car at all closely, one did so under a hail of stones of all sorts and sizes. The day before the race all this section of the course was treated liberally with a solution of calcium chloride, which helped bind it together, and somewhat, at least, alleviated the dust.