1986 Le Mans 24hr

Introduction

Arguably the World's most prestigious endurance motorsport event, the Le Mans 24hr race takes place annually at the 8.5 mile Circuit de la Sarthe. The track is made up partly of public roads that are open to the public most of the year and closed off for racing, with the famous 3.7 mile Mulsanne Straight where cars reach well over 200mph!

Organised and run by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO), the race began in 1923 and has gained a reputation as the ultimate test of car and driver. At the time, there were less restrictions on the time a driver could spend at the wheel and the number of drivers per car. The race traditionally began with the drivers sprinting to their cars when the flag was dropped, now replaced with an Indianapolis-style rolling start.

The 1986 race would have gone down in history as one of the greatest races ever seen at Le Mans but the tragic death of Jo Gartner in a high speed crash during the night overshadowed the incredible racing. The event was expected to be a dogfight between the factory Porsche 962Cs and the Jaguar XJR-6s but the privateer Joest team unexpectedly led for some of the race - one of the 29 race leaders during the 24 hours - and gave the big guns a headache.

Video

This was originally produced by Videovision in 1986 and is obviously a VHS to DVD transfer. The picture is a little soft and whilst being VHS quality it is an improvement over previous years. There is still some luminescent flare and smearing from the headlights, though it's better than the previous three years. By now the coverage had begun to include such things as aerial footage, on-screen graphics and an in-car camera showing you the driver's perspective of the Mulsanne Straight.

Audio

A perfectly acceptable Dolby Digital stereo soundtrack with informative and well delivered commentary which was obviously provided after the event rather than live.

Conclusion

As I said, this was originally produced by Videovision in 1986 and is exactly the same as the VHS would have been. However, given that that format is obsolete the release of this on DVD is to be welcomed. There is far more nighttime racing shown than the previous years due to improvements in the recording equipment.

Whilst not the most accomplished motor racing DVD ever produced, I quite enjoyed this DVD and, despite its shortcomings, it is interesting to see what the Le Mans 24 hours race looked like 22 years ago.

24 hours of racing plus build up and celebration has been condensed into a 62 minute package, but considering this was made for TV (where there was no live coverage) or the home video market, this is understandable.

Of the many DVDs that I've seen, this is probably the best race, with a privateer team holding its own against the usually dominant factory-based teams. Jaguar and Porsche were waiting for the other to blink first when it came to fuel consumption, each looking for the other to lift off the throttle slightly when the massive crash that claimed the life of Jo Gartner brought out a safety car that would make the fuel restrictions irrelevant. This is a fine overview of a superb race.