The 1955 Le Mans disaster

[Simon]

The programme from BBC4 is now on iplayer

BBC iPlayer - The Deadliest Crash: the Le Mans 1955 Disaster

A terrible event, but a well made item.

Simon

 

[Trevor Booth]

not available outside UK

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

not available outside UK

Bummer.:thumbsdown:

 

[Grady]

I was reading this afternoon, while recovering from sunburned feet, "A French Kiss With Death". The story of Steve McQueen and the making of the movie Le Mans. The description and the series of B&W pictures leaves a little to imagine of what happen to the 81 killed there, But, you know the fans were right back there the following year. Some changes were made to the pit area, but that was a dangerous period (50s-60s) to be a racer. Lots of fire. Come to think of it, prior to the Le Mans era, they raced from France to Spain. As many were killed standing in the road just to see the cars go by, the ruling body decided to race in the area around the town of Le Mans.

 

[Jim Rosenthal]

So there's no way to see this film if you are outside the UK? What a drag. I would really like to watch it...

 

[Mark Worthington]

Unfortunate that video can't be seen off island.

The Wikipedia article on this event is interesting in that merely states that Mercedes Benz withdrew from the race, while I've gotten the impression from reading other sources that they high-tailed it back to Germany in what might have been a less than honorable manner.

Horrific, by any account.

 

[Simon]

"off Island"
he he he, interesting term!
Maybe somebody will put it on youtube.

 

[David Morton]

Mark,
I think it was pointed out to them (Haug at Mercedes) again in 1999 that they had not got it right and the accident that Dumbrecht had during the race, and a few times more to other people in qualifying I believe, could have so easily been a repeat of 1955 if it happened at a crowded part of the track. Adrian Newey's idea of sticking canards on the front while they were on the grid, pre start, probably made things a lot worse once the downforce was disturbed by a preceding car. (Newey was in Canada at the time for the F1 race in Montreal). By night fall, their garage doors were firmly closed and the Hospitality chalet abandoned and they haven't been back since.

 

[Paul Brameld]

The programme from BBC4 is now on iplayer

BBC iPlayer - The Deadliest Crash: the Le Mans 1955 Disaster

A terrible event, but a well made item.

Simon

Hi Simon,
Saw this live the other evening and was struck (apart from all the historical stuff) by the soundtrack , very dramatic . Shazam'd it on my iPhone and found it to be: New Religion in the Nursery by Engel. Worth a listen!
Cheers
Paul

 

[GARY_S]

Lance died in a care home aged 82 and was troubled by this tragedy to the end. He did maintain his eye for the ladies though (according to my wife) in his lighter moments.

 

[Steve]

I watched this, and in the "nanny state" we now find ourselves in, am amazed at how open the circuit was back then, and how obvious it must have been to anyone with half a clue, that it was almost an inevitable accident with a crowd on the outside of a bend, with little or no barriers.

So sad for the hundreds effected....

 

[Keith]

Outside of UK, you can try this:

You must have a UK IP address this can be done a number of different way go to proxy 4 free pick out a UK IP copy it into Firefox.

This only works with Firefox. Once you have this open the Tools> Goto> Advance>Settings and the put your UK IP in the man proxy.

The last 2 or 4 digits are the port numbers it will look like 8080, 8085 then type in the BBC URL and it should work fingers crossed.

Usual caveats apply to this free advice.

 

[Simon]

Keith, you naughty, naughty boy!:thumbsup:

 

[Grady]

Unfortunate that video can't be seen off island.

The Wikipedia article on this event is interesting in that merely states that Mercedes Benz withdrew from the race, while I've gotten the impression from reading other sources that they high-tailed it back to Germany in what might have been a less than honorable manner.

Horrific, by any account.

My books reference an illegal gasoline additive was used in the Mercedes cars (fuel injected nitromethane). Six hours after the crash they folded up their tents and beat a hasty retreat across the border to Germany.

 

[Jim Craik]

Grady,

What do you think of the French Kiss book?