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Úvod »Automobily osobní a dodávky»International » Le Mans 24 Hours
Vazba: | Vázaná | ||
Počet stran: | 256 | ||
Rozměry v mm: | 270 x 310 | ||
Počet obrázků: | 300 | ||
Rok vydání: | 2001 |
Since 1923, for one long weekend each year in the early summer, the eyes of the motor racing world have focused on an industrial town in north-western France, It is a town whose name has become synonymous with the race that takes place annually on its outskirts. The Grand Prix d'Endurance de Vingt-quatre Heures du Mans, the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Probably the most famous motor race in the world, Le Mans is an institution, an event where the tradition and the history, the international rivalry, the heat, dust, mud and mist, the all-night-party atmosphere and the bleary dawn of the second day are as much a part of the experience as the race itself.
Almost exclusively in the top levels of motor sport, Le Mans survives as a true road race, on a circuit devised from a network of everyday Routes Nationales and lesser roads which thread their way through the wooded countryside to the south of the old town. But while the circuit of today is recognisably related to that of 1923, the race itself has evolved to a level its originators could never have dreamed of. What began in the early 1920s as a day and night race to test the pace and reliability of that golden age's fast touring cars quickly became the most prestigious event in the world for any serious manufacturer of sporting cars. Nowadays Le Mans is virtually a 24-hour head-to-head sprint for sports-racing cars whose technology, power and speed rival those of Formula One. Across eight decades, the list of winning marques at Le Mans is a who's who, not only of motor sport but of the sporting side of the motor industry beyond that. Successive decades have brought legendary rivalries between Bentley, Bugatti and Alfa Romeo, Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz, Ford and Ferrari, Porsche and the rest of the world, and most recently BMW, Audi, Toyota, Nissan, Cadillac and MG.