Le Mans 24 hour race 1927

Race start

The wrecks at the scene of the accident

Bentley 3 Liter Super Sport

Bentley 4.5 liter

The fifth 24-hour race of Le Mans , the 5 ^e Grand Prix d'Endurance les 24 Heures du Mans , also the 5émes Grand Prix d'Endurance les 24 Heures du Mans, Circuit Permanenthe de la Sarthe , took place from 18th to 19th June 1927 on the Circuit des 24 Heures .

The race

The 24-hour race of 1927 went down in the history of this endurance race insofar as it was considered the “real” start of this event for British experts. Knowledgeable journalists call the 1927 race not the “best”, but the “classic” 24-hour race. That exciting motorsport events do not always have to be related to the number of participants is shown by the fact that only 22 teams competed in 1927. This almost halved the number of participants, as 41 cars had entered the race the year before. Originally it was supposed to be 23, but one of the two Tracta had an accident on arrival and was unable to attend.

The big favorites to win were the only three non-French cars. Three factory Bentley . "Old Number 7", a 3-liter Bentley super sport, was driven by Dudley Benjafield and Sammy Davis . A second 3-liter super sport was controlled by the French André d'Erlanger and the British George Duller . The strongest car in the field was the 4.5-liter Bentley "Old Mother Gun", which Frank Clement - the winner of 1924 - and Leslie Callingham drove. After Chenard & Walcker withdrew the year before, Lorraine Dietrich - the winning team of the last two years - had also decided not to participate. The only remaining French car was a 3-liter Ariès , driven by Robert Laly and Jean Chassagne . However, the domestic teams concentrated on winning the Biennial Cup, which was based on an index ranking that put the number of kilometers driven by a vehicle in relation to performance. The smaller-displacement vehicles had a slight advantage here.

The Maison Blanche Accident (White House Disaster)

The race started, as expected, with a three-way lead by Bentley. Everything went according to plan until 9:30 p.m. on Saturday evening, when there was a mass accident. Pierre Tabourin lost control of his 2-liter Théo Schneider in the Maison Blanche corner - at that time there was a white house close to the race track that gave the corner its name . His right rear wheel came into a small ditch to the right of the lane and skidded. The Frenchman was still able to intercept the car, but it came to a stop across the direction of travel and still halfway on the road. Callingham driving just behind in the “Old Mother Gun” could not avoid it, hit Théo Schneider in the stern and pushed him further onto the road. Another Théo Schneider, Duller's 3-liter Bentley and a 1-liter Ariès crashed into both vehicles at short intervals. When Sammy Davis came to the accident site in "Old Number 7", there were five wrecks on the train. Davis was warned by spectators and slowed down. He couldn't stop completely because of the bad brakes on the Bentley. He tried to force the car into a spin, slipped sideways past the wreckage and damaged the Bentley considerably. Davis stopped and looked at the damage. When he discovered that, as if by a miracle, neither his two teammates nor one of the French drivers were seriously injured, he got back in and drove slowly back to the pits.

There he and Benjafield found that the front axle was warped and that both the fender and the lamp were missing on the right side. According to the regulations at the time, only the drivers were allowed to work on the vehicle, and it took both of them more than half an hour to get the car back on the road. Benjafield resumed the race six laps behind. Although the steering was crooked on the straight and the windshield was missing, Davis was able to shorten the gap to leading Ariès from Chassagne to one lap by Sunday, just after noon. However, victory no longer seemed possible. However, the Ariès was plagued by problems with the ignition distributor , which ultimately led to the car breaking down.

The victory of Davis and Benjafield was received with great acclaim by the British press and led to a flood of British viewers at Le Mans for the next few years. More and more teams came to the Sarthe in a row. The enthusiasm for these races, which began in 1927, continues to this day on the British Isles. However, if Davis hadn't got the Bentley running, a little Salmson would have become the smallest overall winner of the 24-hour race to date.

Hotel Savoy

In 1927, the tradition of exhibiting the victorious Bentley of the 24-hour race in the foyer of the Savoy Hotel in London began to pay tribute to the vehicle. What began with "Old Number 7" in 1927 was completed in 2003 with the Bentley EXP Speed ​​8 by Tom Kristensen , Rinaldo Capello and Guy Smith .

Results

Pilots by nationality

38 French

5 British

1 Belgian

Final ranking

Item	class	No.	team	driver	chassis	engine	tires	Round
1	3.0	3	Bentley Motors Ltd.	Dudley Benjafield Sammy Davis	Bentley 3 Liter Super Sport "Old Number 7"	Bentley 2.9L I4	D.	137
2	1.1	25th	Émile Salmson et Cie	André de Victor Joseph Hasley	Salmson GS	Salmson 1.1L I4	D.	117
3	1.1	23	Émile Salmson et Cie	Georges Casse André Rousseau	Salmson GS	Salmson 1.1L I4	D.	115
4th	1.5	15th	Société des Construction Automobile Parisienne	Lucien Desvaux Fernand Vallon	SCAP Type O	SCAP 1.5L I4	D.	111
5	1.1	26th	Establishments Henri Precioux	Guy Bouriat Pierre Bussienne	EHP Type DS	CIME 1.1L I4	D.	109
6th	1.1	21st	Société des Applications à Refroidissements par Air	André Marandet Gonzaque Lécureul	SARA BDE	SARA 1.1L I4	E.	107
7th	1.1	20th	SA of the automobile Tracta	Jean-Albert Grégoire Lucien Lemesle	Tracta Gephi	SCAP 1.1L I4	D.	98
Not classified
8th	1.5	16	Société des Construction Automobile Parisienne	Henri Giulbert André Clemet	SCAP Type O	SCAP 1.5L I4	D.	99
Disqualified
9	1.5	4th	Société des Applications à Refroidissements par Air	Gaston Mottet Emile Maret	SARA SP7	SARA 1.5L I6	E.	50
10	1.1	29	Société des Automobile Ariès	Fernand Gabriel Louis Paris	Ariès CC2 Super	Ariès 1.1L I4	D.	23
11	1.1	24	Émile Salmson et Cie	Lionel de Marmier Pierre Goutte	Salmson GS	Salmson 1.1L I4	D.	21st
12	1.1	28	Société des Automobile Ariès	Arthur Duray Roger Delano	Ariès CC4	Ariès 1.1L I4	D.	16
Failed
13	2.0	4th	Société des Automobile Ariès	Robert Laly Jean Chassagne	Ariès Type S GP2 Surbaisée	Ariès 3.0L I4	D.	122
14th	2.0	8th	Fabriques d'Automobiles de St. Ouen	Raymond Leroy Pierre Mesnel	Fasto A3 Sport	Fasto 2.0L I4	D.	96
15th	2.0	10	Fabriques d'Automobiles de St. Ouen	Michel Doré Roger Hellot	Fasto A3 Sport	Fasto 2.0L I4	D.	75
16	2.0	9	Fabriques d'Automobiles de St. Ouen	Paul Brosselin Frédéric Théllusson	Fasto A3 Sport	Fasto 2.0L I4	D.	72
17th	1.1	22nd	Société des Applications à Refroidissements par Air	Henri Armand Gaston Duval	SARA ATS	SARA 1.4L I4	E.	42
18th	5.0	1	Bentley Motors Ltd.	Frank Clement Leslie Callingham	Bentley 4½ liter "Old Mother Gun"	Bentley 4.4L I6	D.	35
19th	2.0	12	Automobiles Th. Schneider SA	Jacques Chenterelle René Schiltz	Théo Schneider 25SP Le Mans	Théo Schneider 2.0L I4	D.	34
20th	3.0	2	Bentley Motors Ltd.	André d'Erlanger George Duller	Bentley 3 Liter Super Sport	Bentley 3.0l I4	D.	34
21st	2.0	11	Automobiles Th. Schneider SA	Robert Poitier Pierre Tabourin	Théo Schneider 25SP Le Mans	Théo Schneider 2.0L I4	D.	26th
22nd	1.1	27	Establishments Henri Precioux	Henri de Costier Georges Guignard	EHP Type DS	CIME 1.1L I4	D.	40
Not started
23	1.1	19th	SA of the automobile Tracta	Pierre Fenaille Etienne Boussoud	Tracta Gephi	SCAP 1.1L I4	D.	1

¹ accident on arrival

Only in the entry list

Here you can find teams, drivers and vehicles that were originally registered for the race, but did not take part for various reasons.

Item	class	No.	team	driver	chassis	engine	tires
24	2.0	5	Établissements Automobiles Rolland et Pilain SA		Rolland-Pilain C23	Rolland-Pilain 2.0L I4
25th	2.0	6th	Établissements Automobiles Rolland et Pilain SA		Rolland-Pilain C23	Rolland-Pilain 2.0L I4
26th	2.0	7th	Établissements Automobiles Rolland et Pilain SA		Rolland-Pilain C23	Rolland-Pilain 2.0L I4
27					Aries
28	1.1	17th	Automobiles Gendron & Cie	Marcel Michelot	GM GC3 Sport	CIME 1.1L I4
29	1.1	18th	Automobiles Gendron & Cie	Marcel Gendron	GM GC3 Sport	CIME 1.1L I4
30th					Tracta
31					Steyr

Rudge Whitworth Biennale Cup

Item	No.	driver	chassis	coefficient	Placement in the overall ranking
1	23	Georges Casse André Rousseau	Salmson GS	1,239	Rank 3
2	26th	Guy Bouriat Pierre Bussienne	EHP Type DS	1,160	Rank 5
3	21st	André Marandet Gonzaque Lécureul	SARA BDE	1,139	Rank 6

Prix ​​le Saint-Didier - Index of Performance

Item	No.	driver	chassis	coefficient	Placement in the overall ranking
1	25th	André de Victor Joseph Hasley	Salmson GS	1,245	Rank 2
2	23	Georges Casse André Rousseau	Salmson GS	1,239	Rank 3
3	26th	Guy Bouriat Pierre Bussienne	EHP Type DS	1,160	Rank 5
4th	21st	André Marandet Gonzaque Lécureul	SARA BDE	1,139	Rank 6
5	3	Dudley Benjafield Sammy Davis	Bentley 3 Liter Super Sport	1,062	Overall victory
6th	15th	Lucien Desvaux Fernand Vallon	SCAP Type O	1,057	Rank 4
7th	20th	Jean-Albert Grégoire Lucien Lemesle	Tracta Gephi	1,043	Rank 7

Class winner

class	driver	driver	vehicle	Placement in the overall ranking
3rd Biennial Cup	Georges Casse	André Rousseau	Salmson GS	Rank 3
Prix ​​le Saint-Didier - Index of Performance	André de Victor	Joseph Hasley	Salmson GS	Rank 2
2001-3000 cc	Dudley Benjafield	Sammy Davis	Bentley 3 Liter Super Sport	Overall victory
1101-1500 cc	Lucien Desvaux	Fernand Vallon	SCAP Type O	Rank 4
750-1100 cc	André de Victor	Joseph Hasley	Salmson GS	Rank 2

Racing data

• Registered: 31
• Started: 22
• Valued: 7
• Race classes: 5
• Spectator: unknown
• Honorary starter of the race: Emile Coquille , French representative of the tire manufacturer Rudge-Whitworth
• Race weekend weather: rain at night
• Route length: 17.262 km
• Driving time of the winning team: 24: 00: 00,000 hours
• Total laps of the winning team: 137
• Total distance of the winning team: 2369.807 km
• Winner's average: 98.740 km / h
• Pole position: unknown
• Fastest race lap: Frank Clement - Bentley 4½ liter (# 1) - 8: 46,000 = 118.142 km / h
• Racing series: did not belong to any racing series

literature

• Christian Moity, Jean-Marc Teissèdre, Alain Bienvenu: 24 heures du Mans, 1923–1992. Éditions d'Art, Besançon 1992, ISBN 2-909-413-06-3 .
• RM Clarke: Le Mans. The Bentley & Alfa Years 1923-1939. Brooklands Books, Cobham 1998, ISBN 1-85520-465-7 .
• Quentin Spurring: Le Mans The Official History 1923-29 Evro Publishing, Hardcover, 2015, ISBN 1-91050-508-0 .

Web links

Commons : Le Mans 24 Hours 1927  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Results with 24-hour en-piste