1959 24 Hours of Le Mans


	1959 24 Hours Le Mans

The 1959 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 27th 24 Hours of Le Mans, Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 20 and 21 June 1959, on Circuit de la Sarthe. It was also the fourth round of the F.I.A. World Sports Car Championship. The prospect of an exciting duel between Ferrari, Aston Martin and giantkillers Porsche was enough to draw large crowds and some 150,000 spectators gathered for France’s classic sports car race, around the 8.38-mile course.

Aston Martin finally achieved the coveted outright win, doing it with a 1-2 finish. The marque had first entered the Le Mans race in 1928, running every race since 1931[1] and had finished second three times and third twice before this victory.

Significant changes occurred with the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) regulations this year. The FIA had issued its revamped and revised Appendix J rules for Grand Touring (GT) cars and the ACO followed other endurance races and opened its entry-list to the GT categories for the first time. Each GT model had to have a minimum production run of 100 cars over 12 consecutive months. Those not meeting those requirements were put into the Sports Prototypes category. Both GT and SP ran to the same engine categories within their respective divisions.

The ACO also introduced a new competition to measure optimal car performance. The Index of Thermal Efficiency (Indice au Rendement Énergétique) took into account a car’s weight, speed and fuel consumption (using standard 95/100-octane supplied fuel). Surprisingly, it did not include engine size in the calculation. This ran alongside the regular Index of Performance handicap competition, whose target distances were increased. Fuel, oil and water replenishment remained limited at a minimum of 30 laps between refills. Only two men, and a third as refueller, were allowed to work on a car in the pits, meaning the driver had to get out and behind the pit wall to not count against that total.

Regarding the track and organisation, the ACO installed IBM calculators to help with the administration. As well as considerable re-surfacing, a number of signalling lights were installed.[4] Finally, acknowledging the huge influx of British spectators to the race, the ACO invited the racing magazine The Motor to send a journalist to provide race-commentary in English once an hour. This year the prize-money was £5000 for both the winners on distance and index of performance, and a total of over £30000.

Where we have not had a model of the car as raced through the business I've added another example of the car as an illustration (where I have one)

Pos	Car	No	Team	Drivers	Chassis	Engine	Laps
1		5	David Brown Racing Dept	Roy Salvadori Carroll Shelby	Aston Martin DBR1/300	Aston Martin 3.0L S6	323
2		6	David Brown Racing Dept	Maurice Trintignant Paul Frère	Aston Martin DBR1/300	Aston Martin 3.0L S6	322
3	(example)	11	Equipe Nationale Belge	“Beurlys” (Jean Blaton) “Eldé” (Leon Dernier)	Ferrari 250 GT LWB	Ferrari 3.0L V12	297
4	(example)	18	North American Racing Team	George Arents André Pilette	Ferrari 250 GT LWB	Ferrari 3.0L V12	296
5	(example)	16	F. Tavano (private entrant)	Fernand Tavano Bob Grossman	Ferrari 250 GT California	Ferrari 3.0L V12	294
6	(example)	20	L. Fayen (private entrant)	Lino Fayen Gino Munaron	Ferrari 250 GT LWB	Ferrari 3.0L V12	293
7	(example)	29	Rudd Racing	Ted Whiteaway John Turner	AC Ace	Bristol 1971cc S6	273
8	(example)	41	W.S. Frost (private entrant)	Peter Lumsden Peter Riley	Lotus Elite	Coventry Climax FWE 1216cc S4	270
9	(example)	46	Automobiles Deutsch et Bonnet	René Cotton Louis Cornet	D.B. HBR-5 Spyder	Panhard 745cc F2	258
10		42	Border Reivers	John Whitmore Jim Clark	Lotus Elite	Coventry Climax FWE 1216cc S4	257
11	(example)	45	Automobiles Deutsch et Bonnet	Paul Armagnac Bernard Consten	D.B. HBR-5 Spyder	Panhard 745cc F2	247
12	Still Looking	44	S. Nottorp (private entrant)	Sture Nottorp Gunnar Bengtsson	Saab 93 Sport GT 750	Saab 748cc S3 (2-Stroke)	232
13 N/C *	Still Looking	55	Automobili Stanguellini	Roger Delageneste Paul Guiraud	Stanguellini 750 Sport	Fiat 741cc S4	220
DNF		14	Scuderia Ferrari	Olivier Gendebien Phil Hill	Ferrari 250 TR/59	Ferrari 3.0L V12	263
DNF	(example)	25	Standard Triumph Ltd	Richard “Dickie” Stoop Peter Jopp	Triumph TR3S	Triumph 1984cc S4	245
DNF	(example)	37	E. Hugus (private entrant)	Ed Hugus Ray ‘Ernie’ Erickson	Porsche 718 RSK	Porsche 1498cc F4	240
DNF	(example)	35	J. Kerguen (private entrant)	Jean Kerguen Robert La Caze	Porsche 550A	Porsche 1498cc F4	229
DNF	(example)	36	Ecurie Maarsbergen	Carel Godin de Beaufort Christian 'Bino' Heins	Porsche 718 RSK	Porsche 1498cc F4	186
DNF		33	F.W.R. Lund (private entrant)	Ted Lund Colin Escott	MG A Twin Cam	BMC 1588cc S4	185
DNF	(example)	31	Porsche KG	Wolfgang von Trips Joakim ‘Jo’ Bonnier	Porsche 718 RSK	Porsche 1587cc F4	182
DNF	(example)	49	R. Masson (private entrant)	Roger Masson Jean Vinatier	D.B. HBR-5 GTS-Coupé	Panhard 851cc F2	179
DNF	(example)	48	Automobiles Deutsch et Bonnet	René Bartholoni François Jaeger	D.B. HBR-5 Coupé	Panhard 745cc F2	169
DNF	(example)	34	Porsche KG	Edgar Barth Wolfgang Seidel	Porsche 718 RSK	Porsche 1498cc F4	168
DNF	Still Looking	53	Team Lotus Engineering	Alan Stacey Keith Greene	Lotus 17 LM	Coventry Climax FWMA 742cc S4	156
DNF		8	Ecurie Ecosse	Ron Flockhart John ‘Jock’ Lawrence	Tojeiro	Jaguar 3.0L S6	137
DNF	(example)	12	Scuderia Ferrari	Jean Behra Dan Gurney	Ferrari 250 TR/59	Ferrari 3.0L V12	129
DNF		1	Brian Lister Engineering	Ivor Bueb Bruce Halford	Lister Sport	Jaguar 3.0L S6	121
DNF	(example)	30	Team Lotus Engineering	Graham Hill Derek Jolly	Lotus 15 LM	Coventry Climax 1963cc S4	119
DNF	(example)	27	Standard Triumph Ltd	Ninian Sanderson Claude Dubois	Triumph TR3S	Triumph 1984cc S4	114
DNF	(example)	19	E. D. Martin (private entrant)	Edwin ‘Ed’ Martin Bill Kimberly	Ferrari 250 TR/58	Ferrari 3.0L V12	108
DNF	(example)	38	Equipe Los Amigos	Jean-Claude Vidilles Jean-François Malle	Lotus Elite	Coventry Climax FWE 1216cc S4	105
DNF	(example)	52	Automobili OSCA	Jean Laroche André Testut	O.S.C.A. 750S	OSCA 742cc S4	88
DNF	Still Looking	24	Cooper Car Company	Jim Russell Bruce McLaren	Cooper T49 ‘Monaco’	Coventry Climax FPF 1964cc S4	79
DNF	(example)	32	Porsche KG	Hans Herrmann Umberto Maglioli	Porsche 718 RSK	Porsche 1587cc F4	78
DNF		4	David Brown Racing Dept.	Stirling Moss Jack Fairman	Aston Martin DBR1/300	Aston Martin 3.0L I6	70
DNF	(example)	3	Ecurie Ecosse	Innes Ireland Masten Gregory	Jaguar D-Type	Jaguar 3.0L S6	70
DNF	(example)	50	A. de Tomaso (private entrant)	Alejandro de Tomaso Colin Davis	D.B. HBR-5 Spyder	Panhard 745cc F2	63
DNF	Still Looking	23	Scuderia Ferrari	Giorgio Scarlatti Giulio Cabianca	Ferrari Dino 196S	Ferrari 1984cc V6	63
DNF	Still Looking	62 (reserve)	Société E.F.A.C.	René-Philippe Faure Georges Guyot	Stanguellini EFAC 750 Sport	Fiat 741cc S4	58
DNF	(example)	59 (reserve)	J. Faucher (private entrant)	Jacques Faucher Gérard Leffargue	D.B. HBR-5 Super Rallye	Panhard 851cc F2	53
DNF	(example)	7	A.G. Whitehead (private entrant)	Graham Whitehead Brian Naylor	Aston Martin DBR1/300	Aston Martin 3.0L S6	52
DNF		2	Brian Lister Engineering	Walt Hansgen Peter Blond	Lister Sport	Jaguar 3.0L S6	52
DNF	(example)	10	Equipe Nationale Belge	Lucien Bianchi Alain de Changy	Ferrari 250 TR/58	Ferrari 3.0L V12	47
DNF	(example)	15	Scuderia Ferrari	Cliff Allison Hermano da Silva Ramos	Ferrari 250 TR/59	Ferrari 3.0L V12	41
DNF	Still Looking	56	Automobili Stanguellini	René-Louis Revillon Joseph Dieu	Stanguellini 750 Sport	Fiat 741cc S4	37
DNF	Still Looking	43	S.A. Hurrell (private entrant)	Sid Hurrell Roy North	Saab 93 Sport GT 750	Saab 748cc S3 (2-Stroke)	35
DNF		26	Standard Triumph Ltd	Peter Bolton Mike Rothschild	Triumph TR3S	Triumph 1984cc S4	35
DNF	(example)	51	Automobili OSCA	Pedro Rodríguez Ricardo Rodríguez	O.S.C.A. 750S	OSCA 749cc S4	32
DNF	(example)	60 (reserve)	J. Dashwood (private entrant)	John Dashwood William Wilks	Frazer Nash Le Mans Coupé	Bristol 1971cc S6	30
DNF	Still Looking	54	Team Lotus Engineering	Mike Taylor Jonathan Sieff	Lotus 17 LM	Coventry Climax FWMA 742cc S4	23
DNF	(example)	21	Écurie Trois Chevrons	Hubert Patthey Renaud Calderari	Aston Martin DB4 GT	Aston Martin 3.0L S6	21
DNF	(example)	17	North American Racing Team	Rod Carveth Gil Geitner	Ferrari 250 TR/58	Ferrari 3.0L V12	21
DNF	(example)	47	Automobiles Deutsch et Bonnet	Gérard Laureau Pierre Chancel	D.B. HBR-5 Coupé	Panhard 745cc F2	9
DNS	(example)	58 (reserve)	J.R. Stoop (private entrant)	Douglas Graham Mike McKee	Lotus Elite	Coventry Climax FWE 1216cc S4
DNA	(example)	9	Equipe Nationale Belge	Lucien Bianchi Mauro Bianchi Jacques Croisier	Lister Sport	Jaguar 3.0L S6
DNA	(example)	28	Equipe Nationale Belge	André Pilette Armand Blaton	AC Ace	Bristol 1971cc S6
DNA	(example)	39	Squadra Virgilio Conrero		Alfa Romeo Giulietta SV	Alfa Romeo 1290cc S4
DNA	(example)	40	Squadra Virgilio Conrero	José Rosinski Claude Bobrowski	Alfa Romeo Giulietta SV	Alfa Romeo 1290cc S4
DNA	(example)	57	Team Lotus Engineering	Colin Chapman	Lotus Elite	Coventry Climax FWE 1216cc S4

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Last Edit: 12/06/2024	Page Created 25/09/2020