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 in dog fights 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 compete-
tive 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 300S. Silver by Daimler Benz
AG with their mighty 300 SLRs and Porsche KG with their tiny 550/4 RS Spyders. 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 ahead
of #6 Jaguar D-Type. So Jaguar Cars Ltd. won an empty victory. Much has been written about this accident shifting
the guilt between Pierre Levegh (Mercedes 300 SLR #20) and Mike Hawthorn (Jaguar D-Type #6), 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 the ultimate bible on this
subject, namely "Le Mans ´55 - The crash that changed the face of motor racing" by Christopher Hilton and
eventually spice it up with further reading of 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 (including the other titles mentioned), 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 Twin Pack set of Jaguar D-Type #6 and Mercedes-Benz 300
SLR #19 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) for providing me with the rare RTR
cars, and Milan Tomasek of MTR32 (Slovakia) helping me fix and build the rare resin kit cars.

Holger