1982 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 250mph!

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 DVD begins with interviews with members of the American Cooke Racing team and coverage of the pre-race entertainment, before the race gets underway. 1982 was the 50th race and saw the introduction of C-Class Pro-type cars, a new category for the most powerful cars which was designed to limit their fuel consumption.

Like the previous year, the race was dominated by the Porsches, with the 956 (the replacement for the 936 model) attack spearheaded again by Jackie Ickx and Derek Bell.

Video

This was originally produced by Videovision in 1982 and is obviously a VHS to DVD transfer. The picture is a little soft and there is a noticeable amount of luminescent flare and smearing from the headlights.

Audio

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

Conclusion

As I said, this was originally produced by Videovision in 1982 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 However, given that that format is obsolete the release of this on DVD is to be welcomed.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 a distinct lack of the nighttime racing, but this is perhaps understandable given the quality of the recording equipment at the time.

Whilst not the most accomplished motor racing DVD ever produced, I quite enjoyed this despite its shortcomings and it is interesting to see what the Le Mans 24 hours race looked like 26 years ago. I imagine the DVD of this year's event would be considerably longer, with better photography, more varied camera angles and behind the scenes footage making for a more entertaining package.

24 hours of racing plus build up and celebration has been distilled into a 55 minutes package which contains just over 30 minutes of racing footage, but considering this was made for TV where the event, unlike now, was not televised live, this is understandable. Le Mans fans will no doubt welcome this DVDs release to see the likes of Jochen Mass, Hurley Haywood, Vern Schuppan, Jackie Ickx and Derek Bell in action in great endurance cars.