Le Mans 1960-69: The Official History Of The World'S Greatest Motor Race

Le Mans 1960-69: The Official History Of The World'S Greatest Motor Race

This was the defining decade for the Le Mans 24 Hours. It started with six consecutive victories by Ferrari, overwhelming Aston Martin and Maserati. But then Ford threw its all-American dollars at the race and won it four times in a technically exciting period that also brought the competitive emergence of brands such as Alfa Romeo, Matra, Porsche and Renault. The participation of great automobile manufacturers spurred the development of many iconic racing cars: Ferrari Testa Rossa and GTO, Ford GT40 and Daytona Cobra, Porsche 904 and 917. The machines that were specially built for Le Mans evolved through the decade from front-engined brutes to mid-engined monsters. By the end of the period, many of them could achieve more than 200mph on the awesome straights that defined the race, thrilling as many as 300,000 spectators at trackside.- Highly detailed year-by-year coverage of the decade's ten races, giving over 30 pages of information and photographs for each year.- Official status provides a number of unique features, including the reproduction of the full-colour race poster artwork for each year and photographs from the ACO's archives.- The images include rare color, and the emphasis is on photographs that enthusiasts will not have seen before.- The story of each race is told through photographs and an accompanying commentary.- Complete data for each year includes technical regulations, entry list, circuit changes (with diagram), lap chart, full results and category awards.- The whole work is beautifully designed and presented.- The 1960s was the decade of Ferrari and Ford: the Italian manufacturer took six consecutive wins until Ford finally came good, winning the decade's other four races, including the 1969 thriller that saw the closest ever finish at Le Mans.About the AuthorA past editor of Autosport, the world's top motorsports weekly, Quentin Spurring has a long-held passion for the Le Mans 24 Hours - he has reported from the race 26 times - and is the ideal author for this series of officially endorsed books. In addition to his books in this Le Mans series (1923-29, 1930-39, 1949-59, 1960-69, 1970-79, 1980-89 and 1990-99)? he has written books about Jim Clark, Gilles Villeneuve and Ronnie Peterson, and his book Grand Prix: Images of the First 100 Years, from David Bull Publishing, won an award from the American Publishers Association (APA). He has been the European Motorsport Correspondent of the US publication, AutoWeek, since 1982.