Le Mans 1955

Talking with elder people of the golden years of motor racing they often refer to the fifties and early sixties, and one
of the main arguments are, that back in these years commercials and sponsor money hadn´t ruined the sport yet. The
drivers were like fighter pilots from WWII as they battled it out on the circuits in cars painted in their nation colours.
Or at least in the colours of their teams. Red for Italy, silver for Germany and racing green for Great Britian, all spiced
up with blue for France, white and blue for the United States of A, yellow for Belgium etc.
All this is only partly true. Speaking of Formula One back in 1954-55, when the red Lancia D50 and the red Ferrari F
555 "Super Squalo" were fighting it out against the silver coloured Mercedes W196, there was no competetive car
wearing the racing green of Great Britian, and when first Vanwall VW and later BRM P25 started to show potential
during the years 1957-58, the silver arrows of Mercedes were long gone. So it was either red vs. silver or red vs.
green. Not all three together. With one big exception = sport car racing in 1955!

During this season all colours were represeneted. And the crown juwel of that season was to be Le Mans. Red was
there by Scuderia Ferrari with their 118/121 models and Officine Alferi Maserati with their 300 S. Silver by Daimler
Benz AG with their 300 SLR. Green was represented by Jaguar Cars Ltd. with their D-Type and David Brown/Aston
Martin Ltd. with their DB3 S as the most important ones. To spice it all up there was the white/blue Cunningham C6-R
of Briggs Cunningham, the yellow D-Type of Ecurie Francorchamps, the red Ferrari 750 of Mike Sparken, the green
Triumph TR2 of Standard Triumph Ltd. and finally blue by Ecurie Jeudy-Bonnet with their D.B. HBR-Panhard´s, just to
name a few of the most important contenders. Sadly, this battle of the nations parade (and colours) were never to
be. Due to the disaster and tragic crash after 36 laps, Daimler Benz AG withdraw their remaining cars two hours after
midnight, when their #19 car was two laps ahaed of #6 Jaguar D-Type. So Jaguar Cars Ltd. won an empty battle.
Much has been written about this accident shifting the guilt between Pierre Levegh (Mercedes 300 SLR) and Mike
Hawthorn (Jaguar D-Type), and with the all unhappy but innocent Lance Macklin and his Austin-Healey 100S #26 in
the middle of it all.

I will not comment further on it, just recommend anybody who wants to know more to read Chris Nixon´s "Mon Ami
Mate" and "Rivals", Eoin Young´s "The Amazing Summer of ´55" and Heinz Prüller´s "Die Story der Deutschen Formel
1". Allow me just one small note. According to Heinz Prüller, the gesture of Pierre Levegh to raise his hand to warn
Juan-Manuel Fangio just a fracture of a second before his own crash and death, as mentioned in many books, is just a
myth, started by Athur Käser just after the race. Mr. Käser was press officer of Daimer Benz AG at that time, and by
inventing this gesture of Levegh, he wanted to give the whole tragedy a human touch. True or false. Who am I to
judge?

Now back to slot car business. The resent release of the Jaguar D-Type by AutoArt and the announced release of the
Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR by Scalextric have inspired me to make my own Le Mans 1955 collection, where the bright
coloured cars can battle it out on my home circuit. Just for pleasure and without any tragedy. Please see for yourself.
Last but not least I have to thank Sean and Tony from Pendle Slot Racing (UK) and Carole from Power-Slot (France)
for providing me with the rare RTR cars, and Milan Tomasek of MTR32 (Slovakia) and Felix Pascal of VPC (France)
helping me fix and build the kit cars.

Holger