The Grand Prix d’Endurance – now known as the Le Mans 24 Hours – was devised by the Automobile Club de l’Ouest as an endurance trial for production cars. That was never going to work…
Right from the start of the inaugural event – in cold, squally weather at 4pm on Saturday 26 May 1923 – it was clear that the frontrunners fundamentally disagreed with the ACO’s view that this was not a race. The drivers of the three fastest cars fought an intense, 19-hour battle for supremacy – despite the fact that there was literally nothing to be won.
All each entrant had to do in 1923 was to exceed a target distance in order to qualify for the second year of a multi-year competition; the margins by which the targets were exceeded were immaterial. But 12 manufacturers had deployed long-established racing departments to build and operate their cars, using professional drivers. It was inevitable that they would race each other.
The battle between two Chenard-Walckers and a Bentley only subsided when the latter
