1988 24 Hours of Le Mans

The 1988 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 56th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 11 and 12 June 1988. It was also the fifth round of the World Sports-Prototype Championship season.

After four years of trying with previous evolutions, Jaguar took the XJR-9 to victory against Porsche's works 962C in 1988. Apart from a lone Jaguar in fourth, Porsches filled the rest of the top ten. The Sauber-Mercedes team withdrew prior to the event following concerns over blowouts from their Michelin tyres. The race covered a distance of 5,332.97 km, the most distance covered in any of the Le Mans 24 hours races to date, except 1971 when the Martini Racing Team Porsche 917K covered 5,335.313 km in 397 laps.

This was the second-to-last 24-hour race without chicanes on the Mulsanne Straight, and Team WM Peugeot had prioritised breaking the speed record that year. The WM-P88 Peugeot driven by Frenchman Roger Dorchy managed to reach a top speed of 405 km/h (252 mph) at the end of the 5.8 kilometre long Mulsanne Straight having struggled with reliability for the entire event. Following the record setting run, the issues that had plagued the car all weekend (turbocharger, cooling and electrical) finally ended their race.

The Jaguar team suffered from gearbox problems, Lammers holding the car in 4th gear to prevent the gearbox from damaging itself. The Bell, Stuck, Ludwig Porsche 962C came very close to winning, with Ludwig making a rare error by running out of fuel on the track and losing valuable time getting back to the pits. The win ended Porsche's 7-year reign at Le Mans.

For most of the races up to the early 1980s, where I do not have pictures of a model of the car as raced, I have shown examples of the car where possible. For the remaining years I will only show the cars where photos of the correct car are available.

Pos	Car	No	Team	Drivers	Chassis/Engine	Laps
1		2	Silk Cut Jaguar  Tom Walkinshaw Racing	Jan Lammers  Johnny Dumfries  Andy Wallace	Jaguar XJR-9LM Jaguar 7.0L V12	394
2		17	Porsche AG	Hans-Joachim Stuck  Klaus Ludwig  Derek Bell	Porsche 962C Porsche Type-935 3.0L Turbo Flat-6	394
3		8	Blaupunkt Joest Racing	Frank Jelinski  Louis Krages  Stanley Dickens	Porsche 962C Porsche Type-935 2.8L Turbo Flat-6	385
4		22	Silk Cut Jaguar  Tom Walkinshaw Racing	Derek Daly  Kevin Cogan  Larry Perkins	Jaguar XJR-9LM Jaguar 7.0L V12	383
5		7	Blaupunkt Joest Racing	David Hobbs  Didier Theys  Franz Konrad	Porsche 962C Porsche Type-935 2.8L Turbo Flat-6	380
6		19	Porsche AG	Mario Andretti  Michael Andretti  John Andretti	Porsche 962C Porsche Type-935 3.0L Turbo Flat-6	375
7		5	Repsol Brun Motorsport	Jesús Pareja  Massimo Sigala  Uwe Schäfer	Porsche 962C Porsche Type-935 3.0L Turbo Flat-6	372
8		11	Leyton House Kremer Racing	Kris Nissen  Harald Grohs  George Fouché	Porsche 962C Porsche Type-935 3.0L Turbo Flat-6	371
9		10	Kenwood Kremer Racing	Kunimitsu Takahashi  Hideki Okada  Bruno Giacomelli	Porsche 962CK6 Porsche Type-935 2.8L Turbo Flat-6	370
10		33	Takefuji Schuppan Racing Team	Brian Redman  Eje Elgh  Jean-Pierre Jarier	Porsche 962C Porsche Type-935 3.0L Turbo Flat-6	359
11		72	Primagaz Competition	Jürgen Lässig  Pierre Yver  Dudley Wood	Porsche 962C Porsche Type-935 2.8L Turbo Flat-6	356
12		36	Toyota Team Tom's	Geoff Lees  Masanori Sekiya  Kaoru Hoshino	Toyota 88C Toyota 3S-GT 2.1L Turbo I4	351
13		111	Spice Engineering	Ray Bellm  Gordon Spice  Pierre de Thoisy	Spice SE88C Ford Cosworth DFL 3.3L V8	351
14		32	Nissan Motorsports	Allan Grice  Mike Wilds  Win Percy	Nissan (March) R88C Nissan VRH30 3.0L Turbo V8	344
15		203	Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd.	Yojiro Terada  David Kennedy  Pierre Dieudonné	Mazda 757 Mazda 13G 2.0L 3-Rotor	337
16		21	Silk Cut Jaguar  Tom Walkinshaw Racing	Danny Sullivan  Davy Jones  Price Cobb	Jaguar XJR-9LM Jaguar 7.0L V12	331
17		201	Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd.	Yoshimi Katayama  David Leslie  Marc Duez	Mazda 767 Mazda 13J 2.6L 4-Rotor	330
18		115	ADA Engineering	Ian Harrower  Jiro Yoneyama  Hideo Fukuyama	ADA 03 Ford Cosworth DFL 3.3L V8	318
19		202	Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd.	Takashi Yorino  Hervé Regout  Will Hoy	Mazda 767 Mazda 13J 2.6L 4-Rotor	305
20		123	Charles Ivey Racing  Team Istel	Tim Harvey  Chris Hodgetts  John Sheldon	Tiga GC287 Porsche Type-935 2.8L Turbo Flat-6	301
21		124	MT Sport Racing	Jean Messaoudi  Pierre-François Rousselot  Jean-Luc Roy	Argo JM19C Ford Cosworth DFL 3.3L V8	300
22		177	Automobiles Louis Descartes (ALD)	Jacques Heuclin  Louis Descartes  Dominique Lacaud	ALD 04 BMW M80 3.5L I6	294
23		198	Roy Baker Racing	Mike Allison  David Andrews  Steve Hynes	Tiga GC286 Ford Cosworth DFL 3.3L V8	294
24		37	Toyota Team Tom's	Paolo Barilla  Hitoshi Ogawa  Tiff Needell	Toyota 88C Toyota 3S-GT 2.1L Turbo I4	283
25		117	Team Lucky Strike Schanche	Martin Schanche  Robin Smith  Robin Donovan	Argo JM19C Ford Cosworth DFL 3.3L V8	278
26 NC		113	Primagaz Competition	Max Cohen-Olivar  Patrick de Radiguès	Cougar C12 Ford Cosworth DFL 3.3L V8	273
27 NC		151	Pierre-Alain Lombardi	Pierre-Alain Lombardi  Bruno Sotty	Rondeau M379 Ford Cosworth DFL 3.0L V8	271
28 DNF		1	Silk Cut Jaguar  Tom Walkinshaw Racing	Martin Brundle  John Nielsen	Jaguar XJR-9LM Jaguar 7.0L V12	306
29 DNF		23	Nissan Motorsports	Kazuyoshi Hoshino  Takao Wada  Aguri Suzuki	Nissan (March) R88C Nissan VRH30 3.0L Turbo V8	286
30 DNF		103	Spice Engineering	Almo Coppelli  Thorkild Thyrring  Eliseo Salazar	Spice SE88C Ford Cosworth DFL 3.3L V8	281
31 DNF		131	Graff Racing	Jean-Philippe Grand  Jacques Terrien  Maurice Guenoun	Spice SE86C Ford Cosworth DFL 3.3L V8	263
32 DNF		24	Dollop Racing	Nicola Marozzo  Jean-Pierre Frey  Ranieri Randaccio	Lancia LC2 Ferrari 308C 3.0L Turbo V8	255
33 DNF		127	Chamberlain Engineering	Nick Adams  Martin Birrane  Richard Jones	Spice SE86C Hart 418T 1.8L Turbo I4	223
34 DNF		18	Porsche AG	Bob Wollek  Sarel van der Merwe  Vern Schuppan	Porsche 962C Porsche Type-935 3.0L Turbo Flat-6	192
35 DNF		42	Noël del Bello Racing	Bernard Santal  Noël del Bello  Bernard de Dryver	Sauber C8 Mercedes-Benz M117 5.0L Turbo V8	157
36 DNF		121	Cosmik GP Motorsport	Costas Los  Wayne Taylor  Evan Clements	Spice SE87C Ford Cosworth DFL 3.3L V8	145
37 DNF		191	PC Automotive	Olindo Iacobelli  Alain Ianette  John Graham	Argo JM19C Ford Cosworth DFL 3.3L V8	130
38 DNF		3	Silk Cut Jaguar  Tom Walkinshaw Racing	John Watson  Raul Boesel  Henri Pescarolo	Jaguar XJR-9LM Jaguar 7.0L V12	129
39 DNF		13	Primagaz Competition	Pierre-Henri Raphanel  Michel Ferté	Cougar C20B Porsche Type-935 3.0L Turbo Flat-6	120
40 DNF		178	Automobiles Louis Descartes (ALD)	Sylvain Boulay  Gérard Tremblay  Michel Lateste	ALD 04 BMW M80 3.5L I6	103
41 DNF		4	Camel Brun Motorsport	Manuel Reuter  Walter Lechner  Franz Hunkeler	Porsche 962C Porsche Type-935 3.0L Turbo Flat-6	91
42 DN		85	Italiya Sport  Team Le Mans Co.	Michel Trollé  Toshio Suzuki  Danny Ongais	March 88S Nissan VG30ET 3.2L Turbo V6	74
43 DNF		86	Italiya Sport  Team Le Mans Co.	Lamberto Leoni  Akio Morimoto  Anders Olofsson	March 88S Nissan VG30ET 3.2L Turbo V6	69
44 DNF		30	Courage Compétition	Paul Belmondo  François Migault  Ukyo Katayama	Courage C22 Porsche Type-935 2.8L Turbo Flat-6	66
45 DNF		51	WM Secateva	Roger Dorchy  Claude Haldi  Jean-Daniel Raulet	WM P87 Peugeot ZNS4 2.8L Turbo V6	59
46 DNF		132	Roland Bassaler	Jean-François Yvon  Roland Bassaler  Remy Pochauvin	Sauber SHS C6 BMW M80 3.5L I6	53
47 DNF		52	WM Secateva	Pascal Pessiot  Jean-Daniel Raulet	WM P88 Peugeot ZNS4 3.0L Turbo V6	22
48 DNF		107	Chamberlain Engineering	Claude Ballot-Léna  Jean-Louis Ricci  Jean-Claude Andruet	Spice SE88C Ford Cosworth DFL 3.3L V8	17
49 DNF		20	Team Davey	Tim Lee-Davey  Tom Dodd-Noble	Tiga GC88 Ford Cosworth DFL 3.3L Turbo V8	5
DNS		181	Luigi Taverna Technoracing	Luigi Taverna  Fabio Magnani  Roberto Ragazzi	Olmas GLT-200 Ford Cosworth DFL 3.3L V8	-
DNS		61	Team Sauber Mercedes	Mauro Baldi  James Weaver  Jochen Mass	Sauber C9 Mercedes-Benz M117 5.0L Turbo V8	-
DNS		62	Team Sauber Mercedes	Klaus Niedzwiedz  Kenny Acheson	Sauber C9 Mercedes-Benz M117 5.0L Turbo V8	-