The 24 Hours of LeMans is not just a race about who has the deepest pockets! Engineering wins!

Thought that the 24 Hours of LeMans was just a race about what car company has the most money to produce the fastest car? Too soon junior!

Although resources do have a major impact on winning, the origins of LeMans had very little to do with money, but more so with innovation and reliability. ▴2 - ▴4 Founded in 1906 in France, the Automobile Club d’ouest (AOC) felt that Grand Prix Formula 1 racing had become more about bank accounts vs. racing, an endurance race was organized so a race cars performance and more importantly, durability, was placed tested.

▴5 By creating challenges like vehicle & driver endurance, aerodynamics for high speed stability, partial use of public roads, and fuel efficiency, the AOC created one of the most challenging races in the world having every manufacturer under the sun, at one time or another, prove what they’ve got.

▴6 The race is ran for 24 consecutive hours, even if there is an accident, at a track called Circuit de la Sarthe, located in France, that is 8.47 miles long, with 60 vehicles varying from 4 classes racing on track at the same time.

The racing gets intense as the race progresses and cars twice as fast are racing one another with slower cars acting as moving chicanes. ▴7 Our favorite time of the race is when darkness falls, with no lights & cars are flying at 150 mph + in pure darkness exclusively relying on the drivers skill, memory, endurance and grit.

All the money in the world can sometimes be defeated by simple innovation and interpretation of the rule book. ▴8 - ▴9 In more recent years, alternate fuel sources such as diesel power & hybrid technology have created incredibly fast, but amazingly fuel efficient vehicles that have an edge on their competitors leading to victory.

How does this benefit us? Well, these technologies eventually trickle down to passenger vehicles and we all benefit from this engineering.

▴10 So yes, money can help, but winning comes down to innovation & your team’s ability to outlast the grueling environment of one of the greatest races in the world - the 24 hours of LeMans.