Autoworld brought together its favourite race cars to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Le Mans and added an extra event for this weekend. This is one of 2023’s most affluent anniversaries, and exhibitions started already last year with Chantilly Concours dedicating two categories showcasing a dozen race cars.
This year’s Le Mans promises to be the Race of the Century with the arrival of the new Le Mans Hypercar generation. The race will be held on the coming 10th and 11th June, and there will be a Le Mans Classic in July.
Autoworld gathered over a dozen race cars to honour the occasion, and their 24 Hours of Le Mans, 100 years of race history exhibition has been on since 1st April. It is scheduled to last until 28th May 2023 (for more info, see their page).
The curators selected over fifteen cars from their own collection but also borrowed a few from collectors. Most of them competed at Le Mans or were used as practice machines. The exhibition is complemented with the circuit’s details, animations and memorabilia. The organisers even set up a simulator corner to accommodate the younger visitors.
The fleet encompasses all epochs and categories, like some prewar cars, including the Belgian Excelsior that competed at Le Mans in 1923 or the 1966 Ford GT40P used for test sessions. This car paved the way for Ford to dethrone Ferrari in 1966 and ultimately claiming the top 3 places.
The weird pink/blue “deep see lifeform” is a 1976 Inaltéra. It was also the first car designed and developed by Jean Rondeau (French racing driver and car manufacturer who was the only one to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans behind the wheel of his own construction). This car won the “Coupe des Dames” in 1977 with Christine Rondeau and Lella Lombardi behind the wheel.
A familiar face at Autoworld is the Peugeot 905, winning both the 1992 Le Mans race and the World Championship. The 905 is often cited as the best-looking modern endurance car of all time, and having seen it in action at the Spa Classic 2018 and on the centre stage in Autoworld’s previous Belgians at Le Mans exhibition (not to mention, the Peugeot factory museum), I can confirm it.
But the car also had the right tech: the 905 used a carbon fibre chassis engineered by Dassault Aviation and a light alloy 3.5 litre naturally aspirated V10 engine, sharing quite a bit with Peugeot’s contemporary F1 engines.
We also welcomed a recurring visitor from Britain, the Bentley Speed 8. After seven decades of absence, Bentley returned to Le Mans in 2001. In 2003, the team claimed first and second place. The 2001 cars featured a 3.6 Litre V8. They were redesigned for the 2003 season, with a new model name Speed 8, paying tribute to the legendary old speed 8 models.
One of the “toy boxes” on the ground floor reminds us that James Bond is in town, with the best thematic exhibition ever.
As an extra for the week, Autoworld welcomes British auctioneer Bonhams, holding an exclusive auction on Saturday, 13th May 2023 (the cars were rolled in throughout the week). Bonhams promised over 80 collector cars, ranging from prewar sports models to modern Supercars.
The fleet occupies the entire main gallery of the first floor and includes a Mercedes-Benz SLR 722 McLaren and an Aston Martin DB4, but also many other exotics.
