The 1930 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 8th Grand Prix of Endurance that took place at the Circuit de la Sarthe on 21 and 22 June 1930. It saw the first appearance of a German car and the first entry from female drivers.[1]
In the smallest ever field in the Le Mans history; there were only 17 starters. This was a race of two halves. At the start the Mercedes of Rudolf Caracciola/Christian Werner was pursued by the supercharged ‘Blower’ Bentley of Tim Birkin. Twice he passed the white car on the Mulsanne Straight and both times he was thwarted by a rear-tyre blowout. Then Sammy Davis chased in a works Bentley. When that car was put into the sandbank at Pontlieue corner, it was the other works Bentley of Woolf Barnato and Glen Kidston taking up the Germans’ challenge. The lead changed a number of times into the night, until at 1.30am when the Mercedes was retired with a broken dynamo and a flat battery.[1]
After that it became a procession for the remaining Bentleys, although both the privateer Blower Bentleys retired on Sunday.[1] The two works cars carried on and cruised to another formation finish. Barnato had won his third consecutive Le Mans, from three starts. Talbot finished third and fourth and took the lucrative Index of Performance prize by the narrowest of margins (0.004) from the winning Bentley. The Bugatti of Marguerite Mareuse and Odette Siko had a trouble-free run and finished seventh, stealing the contemporary headlines from Bentley.[2]
The AIACR (forerunner of the FIA) Appendix C rules stayed in effect. The biggest change this year was the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) now allowing private entrants as well as “works” entries from the manufacturers. This just acknowledged the existing practice of private owners being entered by the car-company. Five engine-classes were specified, with brackets at 3.0, 2.0, 1.5 and 1-litres.
To be eligible, a minimum of thirty vehicles had to have been produced, and the cars had to be “as per sales catalogue”. Many small companies were selling bare chassis upon which an owner would get a coach-builder to put on a body-shelled, so the specifications were still quite broad as long as the car had some basic minimum equipment (mudguards, lights, hood, windscreen etc.).[3]
As engine power advanced, the ACO once again adjusted the Index target distances. Example targets included the following:[3]
| Engine size | 1929 Minimum distance | 1930 Minimum distance | Equivalent laps | Minimum vehicle weight | Ballast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8000cc | 2500km (1,600miles) | 153.0 laps | 1820 kg | 180 kg | ||
| 5000cc | 2460km (1,530miles) | 150.6 laps | 1215 kg | 180 kg | ||
| 3000cc | 2207km (1,371miles) | 2330km (1,450miles) | 142.6 laps | 875 kg | 120 kg | |
| 2000cc | 2105km (1,308miles) | 2210km (1,370miles) | 135.3 laps | 790 kg | 120 kg | |
| 1500cc | 1980km (1,230miles) | 2132km (1,325miles) | 128.5 laps | 670 kg | 120 kg | |
| 1000cc | 1946km (1,209miles) | 2000km (1,000miles) | 122.4 laps | 430 kg | 60 kg |
The Société des Pétroles Jupiter, Shell's French agents, provided three standard fuel options: Gasoline, Benzole and a 70/30 blend of the two. Teams were allowed to add up to 2% by volume of their own additives. As before, all liquids (fuel, oil and water) could only be replenished after every 20 laps (326.8km (203.1miles)).[3]
Night-time, when headlights had to be used, was defined by the ACO for the race as between 9.30pm and 4am.[3]
In the middle of the Great Depression, the auto-industry was being hit very hard. Only 33 cars entered for the race, of which only 19 arrived. That said it was a quality field with two big Bentley entries challenged by a mighty 7-litre supercharged Mercedes and one of the supercharged Alfa Romeos dominating European racing, both privately entered. France could muster only two works Tractas, a BNC and a privateer Bugatti to their premier touring car race.[4]
| Category | Entries | Classes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Large-sized engines | 17 / 11 | over 2-litre | |
| Medium-sized engines | 6 / 2 | 1 to 2-litre | |
| Small-sized engines | 4 / 4 | up to 1-litre | |
| Total entrants | 27 / 17 | ||
Defending champions Bentley once again arrived with a solid works team, this year bringing a trio of their big Speed Six model. Introduced in 1928 as a competitor to the Rolls-Royce Phantom I, it had a 6.6-litre engine that produced 190 bhp giving it a top speed of 185 kp/h (115 mph).Company director (and race winner in 1928 and 1929), Woolf Barnato would drive the lead car – the same chassis that had been entered in the 1929 race. This year his co-driver was his wealthy friend Glen Kidston. The other two were driven by 1924-winner Frank Clement with former Stutz-driver Dick Watney, and 1927-winner and journalist Sammy Davis with Clive Dunfee.[5]
Back in 1928, Barnato's fellow race-winner, Sir Henry “Tim” Birkin had seen the threat posed by the new supercharged Mercedes and Alfa Romeos to Bentley's dominance of touring car racing. He had approached W. O. Bentley and Barnato about supercharging the green cars. Barnato was not convinced and W.O loathed the idea.[6] He eventually found an investor in the form of young heiress, and keen motorist, Dorothy Paget (who already owned a Mercedes-Benz SSK). The cars were not race-ready in time for the 1929 race; however Barnato quietly approved sufficient funds to allow the required production quantity to be met. Based on the 4½ Litre model, a massive, distinctive Roots supercharger was fitted in front of the radiator. This boosted the engine output from 130 to 240 bhp. However, it also raised the fuel consumption and its front-end weight gave the car noticeable understeer. Improved over the close-season, a team of three “Blower Bentleys” arrived, managed by former Bentley-driver and Lagonda team-manager Bertie Kensington-Moir.[6] Birkin renewed his 1928 Le Mans partnership with Jean Chassagne, while race-winner Dudley Benjafield drove with former Alfa Romeo test-driver (and now British resident) Giulio Ramponi. The third car was driven by Boris Harcourt-Wood and Jack Dunfee, Clive's older brother.[7]
The first German car to run at Le Mans was a privateer entry. Mercedes and Benz had merged in 1926 and had considerable racing success, but with the Depression the company closed its works racing team. Team manager Alfred Neubauer, however, convinced the board to bankroll a privateer team. This was run by their top works driver Rudolf “Rudi” Caracciola. The SSK (Super Sports Kurz) was designed by Ferdinand Porsche as a development of the SS model. The giant 170 bhp 7.1-litre engine could be augmented by a Roots supercharger to put out 300 bhp.[8] However, unlike the Bentleys, the supercharger was not designed to be run all the time (not least for reasons of chronic fuel consumption), and the team was able to convince the ACO to discount the 1.3 supercharger modifier when dictating the car's target distance.[8] Caracciola's co-driver was also from the Mercedes-Benz works team, Christian Werner.
Stutz was present at Le Mans again, through two black-painted private entries. The latest model M versions came in two wheelbase lengths, with the shorter designated the “MA”. The new 5.3-litre sidevalve engine now put out 120 bhp. Edouard Brisson was having his first race after the bad 1929 Le Mans when a fuel-fire had badly burnt his face and hands. His co-driver was the experienced Louis Rigal, former Ariés works driver. The other car was owned by wine-company heir Philippe de Rothschild. Keen to keep his anonymity he raced under the pseudonym “Georges Philippe” and had an American banking friend, Dick Parke, put the entry in for him. He had Edmond Bourlier (formerly from Talbot and Delage works teams) as his co-driver with Parke acting as reserve driver for both cars.[9]
The Sunbeam-Talbot-Darracq marque returned to Le Mans this year. The successful Talbot 14/45 had been developed into the 18/70 model with a racing version, the AO90 (a reference to its top speed over 90 mph[10]). The 2.3L engine now put out 95 bhp. The Fox & Nicholl team were looking for new cars since Lagonda closed its racing programme in January. They purchased three Talbots but a disastrous fatal accident at Brooklands wrecked them. In less than five weeks, two were repaired for Le Mans. Georges Roesch, chief engineer at Clément-Talbot, was concerned that like the Blower Bentleys, the French fuels would not be suitable for the Talbots. He asked the ACO if they could run on ethyl fuel but this was refused. Leslie Callingham, head of Shell's technical department in London (and driving an Alfa Romeo in the race) said the hybrid fuel would be suitable, although the engine output would drop to about 70 bhp. The drivers were to be Johnny Hindmarsh / Tim Rose-Richards and Brian Lewis, Baron Essendon / Hugh Eaton.[10]
The other significant Le Mans debut was also a privateer entry. Alfa Romeo had already achieved great success in grand prix racing in the 1920s. Vittorio Jano’s 6C successor design, debuting in 1927, followed on this adapting as a sports car or grand prix racer in the Formula Libre events. Initially a 1.5-litre, in 1929 it was also available with a 1752cc twin-cam engine, and both versions had a supercharged variant. As well as a works team, two other new significant customer teams ran the 1750 SS: Enzo Ferrari in Italy and Fred Stiles, the London importer, focusing almost exclusively on their respective countries. Its light weight and superior handling gave it excellent acceleration and made it better through the corners than the bigger cars. Le Mans was not considered by any of the three teams. However, a car owned by wealthy British racer Earl Francis Howe was entered, with support from the Stiles team including former Bentley driver, Leslie Callingham as co-driver. With the 1.3 supercharger co-efficient they had the same Index target as the Talbots.[11]
After the withdrawals of Alvis and the new Scotsman car, the only entries in the 2-litre class were from BNC and Kenneth Peacock's supercharged Lea-Francis S-Type. Having raced the year before, Peacock had purchased a new car and returned as a privateer entry with Sammy Newsome again as co-driver.[12] BNC had not survived the economic downturn and had been purchased by French entrepreneur Charles de Ricou, who also picked up Lombard and Rolland-Pilain, and its successor AER. The BNC Vedette was the new model based on the F28, the last Rolland-Pilain design.[13]
Bugatti, despite having organised races for its car-owners on the Le Mans circuit, had not competed in the endurance race since the inaugural 1923 race. Wealthy French heiress Marguerite Mareuse entered her Type 40 tourer as a privateer, inviting talented driver Odette Siko as her co-driver – becoming the first women to enter the race. Based around the 1.5-litre engine of the Type 37 race-car, it put out about 45 bhp to a 4-speed gearbox.[14]
Jean-Albert Grégoire’s small Tracta company had been very successful at Le Mans with its reliable front-wheel drive and patented Universal joint system. The works team bought two Type A models to the race (unsupercharged this time), Grégoire racing with Vallon as usual, and Bourcier with Debeugny.[15] The smallest cars in the field were from MG Cars, making its Le Mans debut. Morris Garages was set up in 1909 by William Morris as a sales/service division of his Morris Motors. In 1928 after strong sales success, the company was relaunched as MG Car Company under Cecil Kimber. The MG M-type “Midget” was built on the Minor chassis with a plywood and fabric body. This year's version had the 847cc engine uprated to put out 27 bhp that made it capable of 110 kp/h (70 mph). Two cars were prepared for Sir Francis Samuelson and Huskinson & Fane, the London MG agents.[16]
On race-week, the competitors were allowed to do practice laps on the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights between 10pm and 6am. However, the roads were not closed to the public and the ACO advised drivers it was at their own risk.[3] The big Mercedes showed its class, able to reach 195 kp/h (120 mph) on the Mulsanne straight.[17]
The Paget-team Bentleys had a bad practice week.[18] The Harcourt-Wood/Dunfee car had a big-end failure and all the cars were suffering overheating issues. This was found to be due to the high combustion temperatures of the hybrid fuel. The team decided to switch to the pure-benzol option, but it meant changing the engine compression ratios and fitting new pistons. There was only time to change two of the cars so the Harcourt-Wood/Dunfee car was withdrawn.[19] [20] Faced with a similar issue, the Talbots had been modified in May.[10]
The BNC team had a last minute emergency just before the start. A split fuel-tank needed to be emptied and repaired. The race started as it was being refuelled, but then the car refused to start.[13] [21] So the starting field was only 17 – the smallest in the Le Mans race history.[4]