It’s one of the classic motorsport debates. There have been many brilliant Le Mans cars in the century since the inaugural event, but which are the greatest?
For this list, we’ve taken into account the level of success scored specifically at Le Mans, the level of opposition each car faced, the wider impact of the designs on the 24 Hours, and ‘X factor’ – Le Mans is such an emotive and atmospheric event, so how cool the cars were have to be considered.
We’ve also focused on outright winners rather than class success, so apologies to fans of the Porsche 911, the titanic GT1/GT2/GTE contests of recent decades and the ORECA 07…
10. Porsche 919 Hybrid
Key years: 2014-17
Engine: two-litre V4 turbo
Wins: 3 (2015-17)
While Porsche was absent from the top class of endurance racing in the early 21st century, sister marque Audi racked up 13 Le Mans wins. That was perilously close to Porsche’s benchmark of 16.
The 919 Hybrid brought the German marque back in 2014 and, following a significant redesign, became a force in the high-tech LMP1 battles of 2015-17.
The ‘third’ entry of Nick Tandy, Earl Bamber and Nico Hulkenberg overcame the Audi and Toyota opposition to lead a Porsche 1-2 in 2015, but more luck was required the following year.
Toyota had Porsche beaten when the TS050 of Sebastien Buemi, Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima ground to a halt in the final five minutes with a fractured air line. That allowed the 919 of Romain Dumas, Neel Jani and Marc Lieb to snatch a dramatic victory.
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Problems afflicted all the Porsche and Toyota LMP1 entries in 2017, but the revised 919 of Bamber, Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley recovered to overcome the LMP2 frontrunners in the final couple of hours and secure victory number 19 before Porsche again withdrew from the top of sportscar competition.
9. Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa
Key years: 1958-61
Engine: three-litre V12
Wins: 3 (1958, 1960-61)
A Ferrari had to be on this list and it’s the Prancing Horse’s finest sportscar-racer that makes it, even though it evolved extensively over its lifetime.
PLUS: Ranking the greatest Le Mans Ferraris
Introduced for the new 1958 three-litre sportscar regulations, the 250 Testa Rossa was available to privateers but it was the factory machines that made their mark at Le Mans.
Olivier Gendebien and Phil Hill outlasted the chief opposition in 1958 to win by 12 laps and only lost victory the following year in the final hours when overheating struck their 300bhp V12.
Most of the serious challengers were gone by 1960. A fuel blunder by Ferrari accounted for two of the cars but Gendebien and Paul Frere kept going to lead a privateer Testa Rossa home in a 1-2-4-5-6-7 for the marque.
By 1961 the Testa Rosso not only had disc brakes instead of drums (a 1959 development), it featured more modern bodywork and a rear spoiler. Once again, Ferrari only had itself to beat and Gendebien/Hill led a Testa Rossa 1-2.
The unique 330 TRI/LM that dominated the 1962 24 Hours was built using a crashed 250 TR chassis, lengthened and fitted with a four-litre V12.
8. Porsche 936
Key years: 1976-81
Engines: 2.1-litre flat six, then 2.6-litre flat six (1981)
Wins: 3 (1976-77, 1981)
Is the 936 Porsche’s forgotten great Le Mans car? Caught between the iconic 917 and the all-conquering 956/962, the 936 can be overlooked but deserves its place on this list.
The Group 6 machine, which had 917 elements in its DNA, was the first turbocharged car to win the 24 Hours, albeit against minimal opposition in 1976. The arrival of the strong Renault-Alpine squad in 1977 took things up several notches.
The A442s were fast and Porsche’s chances were hit when the Jacky Ickx/Henri Pescarolo car retired early on with engine trouble. But the French challenge faded and Ickx drove perhaps his greatest race after being switched to the Jurgen Barth/Hurley Haywood 936, which staggered to victory on five cylinders.
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Renault-Alpine’s huge effort paid off in 1978, with Porsche finishing second and third. There was another setback in 1979 when the two 936s failed to finish a race in which they should have been the class of the field, but the car went out on a high in 1981.
Armed with the 2.6-litre engine destined for the 956, the 936/81 of Ickx and Derek Bell dominated to win by 14 laps.
7. Jaguar C-type
Key years: 1951-53
Engine: 3.4-litre straight six
Wins: 2 (1951, 1953)
It’s not as famous as the D-type that replaced it, but the C-type was significant in both the history of the race and Jaguar.
Promise shown by XK120s at Le Mans in 1950 encouraged Jaguar to develop the car also known as the XK120C. Oil pressure and engine problems accounted for two of the C-types in the 1951 race but the third car of Peters Walker and Whitehead came home nine laps clear of the opposition.
The C-type probably should have won in 1952, but hasty, last-minute modifications proved disastrous and none of the cars made it to the end.
A better-prepared Jaguar squad arrived at the Circuit de la Sarthe the following year and, against a strong field that included fast Ferrari and Cunningham entries, scored a 1-2-4. The win by Tony Rolt and Duncan Hamilton was the first for a car with disc brakes at Le Mans and they were the first to average more than 100mph as the distance record was smashed.
The C-type also proved useful in privateer hands, Ecurie Francorchamps taking fourth with the ageing design in the rain-hit 1954 24 Hours.
6. Alfa Romeo 8C
Key years: 1931-35, 1937-38
Engines: 2.3-litre and 2.9-litre supercharged straight eights
Wins: 4 (1931-34)
One of the great pre-war designs, edging out the Bentley Speed Six for this list, Vittorio Jano’s 2.3-litre supercharged Alfa Romeo 8C was the dominant sportscar in the first half of the 1930s and won Le Mans four times.
Tyre problems for the Mercedes and Bugatti opposition helped the privateer Alfa of Henry Birkin and Earl Howe take victory on the car’s Le Mans debut in 1931. They also won the Index of Performance.
Alfas dominated the 1932 edition and finished 1-2, French ace Raymond Sommer driving for more than 20 hours despite being gassed by a broken exhaust in the winning car he shared with Luigi Chinetti.
Sommer won again in 1933, alongside the great Tazio Nuvolari. This was an epic Le Mans, a leaking fuel tank hampering the two stars. Helped by a chewing gum-based bodge, Nuvolari snatched victory on the final lap to lead an 8C 1-2-3. The best non-Alfa was 42 laps behind…
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Reliability problems struck both the privateer Alfa and Bugatti hordes in 1934. The Alfa of Chinetti and Philippe Etancelin was the only big-engined car to survive – and took victory by 13 laps.
The 8C should have made it five in a row in 1935, despite the presence of powerful Bugattis, but a combination of problems and lap chart confusion allowed inspired Lagonda pairing Johnny Hindmarsh and Le Mans debutant Luis Fontes to restrict Alfa to second.
The 1936 event was cancelled thanks to strikes and the following year the only Alfa was a 2.9-litre 8C for Sommer, which was eliminated after avoiding a multi-car crash.
Sommer was out of luck in 1938, too. Despite dominating the race in the 8C 2900B Touring, perhaps the ultimate evolution, he and Clemente Biondetti retired due to damage following a tyre failure.
PLUS: The great Le Mans robbery
5. Audi R8
Key years: 2000-05
Engine: 3.6-litre V8 turbo
Wins: 5 (2000-02, 2004-05)
It’s not the most awe-inspiring car on this list, but the R8 won Le Mans five times in six years and helped turn the 24 Hours into a flat-out sprint. It was also pegged back several times by the rulemakers and ended its career with around 520bhp, at least 100bhp less than when it first appeared.
Following its initial attempt with the open R8R and closed R8C machines in 1999, Audi perfected the LMP R8 for 2000. It featured a quick-change rear end, with gearbox replacements being possible inside five minutes.
Sadly, most of the major opposition had gone, but Audi still had to contend with Cadillac, Pescarolo and Panoz. It was no contest, Tom Kristensen/Emanuele Pirro/Frank Biela heading a crushing R8 1-2-3 for Audi’s first Le Mans victory.
It was a similar story in 2001, the same trio leading an Audi 1-2, with a Bentley running the same 3.6-litre V8 turbo completing the podium.
Kristensen, Pirro and Biela led another Audi 1-2-3 in 2002 and became the first trio to win Le Mans three times in a row.
Having been a factory-propelled steamroller, the R8 then proved itself as a privateer underdog. Champion Racing and Team Goh finished third and fourth in 2003, behind the works Bentley team, and played major roles over the next two years.
Johnny Herbert took pole in 2004 with one of the Veloqx R8s. Alongside fellow Brits Jamie Davies and Guy Smith, Herbert led for much of the distance before suspension issues struck. That allowed the Goh R8 of Kristensen, Capello and Seiji Ara into the lead and they beat the Veloqx car by 41 seconds in an R8 1-2-3-5.
Perhaps the R8’s most unlikely Le Mans success came in 2005. The Pescarolo C60s were the fastest cars and qualified 1-2, but problems and driver errors hampered their challenge.
The best Pescarolo came home second, sandwiched by the two Champion R8s. Kristensen, JJ Lehto and Marco Werner took victory by two laps as the design signed off its Le Mans career in style.
The R8 started Audi’s Le Mans dynasty, a period of success that included the first diesel victory in the 24 Hours for the R10 in 2006 and the maiden hybrid win in 2012 courtesy of the R18 e-tron quattro.
4. Ford GT40
Key years: 1964-69
Engines: 4.2-litre, 4.7-litre, seven-litre and 4.9-litre V8s
Wins: 4 (1966 – MkII, 1967 – MkIV, 1968-69 MkI)
We’re cheating a bit here to cover the whole Ford GT programme that invaded Le Mans in the 1960s, even though the MkIV was a very different beast to the 4.2-litre Mk1 that first appeared in 1964.
Famously the result of Ford’s failed bid to buy Ferrari, the project was beset by problems. It originally included Lola boss Eric Broadley and former Aston Martin team manager John Wyer, was moved to Carroll Shelby’s operation, cost millions of dollars and ultimately encompassed three factory-supported teams before success was achieved. But the success did come and the GT40 is one of the most-famous Le Mans machines.
The Fords proved fast at Le Mans in 1964 and 1965, the hastily prepared big-block seven-litre MkIIs particularly so in the latter event, but reliability was appalling.
The result was a true sledgehammer to crack a nut in 1966, with the cars having undergone serious wind tunnel and dyno testing. Eight MkIIs – run by Shelby, Holman Moody and Alan Mann Racing – were supported by five Mk1s with 4.7-litre engines.
Only three of the Fords made it to the end, but they did so in first, second and third. Notwithstanding the controversial staged finish in which Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon took victory by yards over long-time leaders Ken Miles and Denny Hulme, Ford had ended Ferrari’s Le Mans domination.
The more advanced MkIV, featuring lighter bodywork, kept Ford ahead of Ferrari’s superb 330 P4 in 1967. Despite a multi-car crash that threatened to undo the Ford challenge, the MkIV of Dan Gurney and AJ Foyt stayed out of trouble in their seven-litre Shelby machine to beat Ferrari into second and third, setting a new distance record before the big bangers were outlawed.
Archive: When Ferrari almost beat Ford’s steamroller
Only now did the Mk1 shine. Wyer had continued to develop the ‘small block’ GT40 and, by 1968, his JW Automotive Engineering concern and its 4.9-litre version were ready to be frontrunners.
The Gulf GT40s, running in the Group 4 ‘Sports’ class, battled the three-litre Group 6 ‘Prototype’ Porsches throughout 1968. In a rain-affected Le Mans that September, Pedro Rodriguez and Lucien Bianchi took victory as the Porsches hit trouble, securing the manufacturers’ championship for Ford in the process.
The GT40s shouldn’t have been competitive in 1969, the best qualifying 14.6s off pole. But another Porsche disaster opened the door for Ickx and Jackie Oliver, with Ickx beating Porsche’s Hans Herrmann in one of the great Le Mans finishes.
Archive: The inside story of a famous Le Mans finish
That was it for the GT40 at Le Mans but the sights and sounds of the three different versions that took four wins was always going to get it high in our ranking.
3. Porsche 917
Key years: 1969-71
Engines: 4.5-litre and 4.9-litre flat 12s
Wins: 2 (1970-71)
It ‘only’ won Le Mans twice, but the 917 had a huge impact on the race and motorsport in general – and it provided the first two Le Mans wins for the greatest endurance-racing marque.
The 917 was a classic case of a manufacturer spotting a rule loophole, Porsche building 25 examples to homologate it as a Group 4 ‘sportscar’, thus avoiding the three-litre limit for sports-prototypes. Even the early 4.5-litre version was way faster than anything else at Le Mans in 1969 – and quicker than the Ford V8 monsters outlawed after 1967 amid rising speeds…
Porsche didn’t expect the 917 to last in 1969, but Vic Elford and Richard Attwood got within four hours of victory in the aerodynamically wayward machine before retiring with a cracked bellhousing. Porsche nevertheless attracted the wrong sort of attention after John Woolfe was killed on the first lap in his privateer 917.
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By 1970 the 917’s handling had been vastly improved and both the long and short-tailed versions could have triumphed. The rate of attrition in an appallingly wet race was high, leaving Attwood and Herrmann to win in the Salzburg 917K that had started a lowly 15th.
PLUS: The ‘slow’ Porsche that started a Le Mans legend
The long-tailed 917Ls dominated practice in 1971 and reached speeds (240mph) on the Mulsanne that wouldn’t be approached again until Group C, but each hit trouble. So too did Penske’s Ferrari 512M, the only car capable of keeping the Porsches in sight, and the race became a duel between the Martini car of Gijs van Lennep/Helmut Marko and similar JWA Gulf 917K of Attwood/Herbert Muller.
A gearbox problem meant Attwood/Muller was always playing catch-up, leaving the Martini car to win with a new distance record – 3315 miles – that would not be broken until 2010.
PLUS: Is the 917 the greatest racing car of all time?
The 917 was then made obsolete in the world sportscar championship, and therefore at Le Mans, by the arrival of three-litre regulations. But in its three Le Mans years it had pushed motorsport’s boundaries, developed aerodynamic understanding, smashed records and established itself as an automotive icon.
2. Jaguar D-type
Key years: 1954-60
Engines: 3.4-litre, 3.8-litre and three-litre straight sixes
Wins: 3 (1955-57)
The D-type was specifically designed to win Le Mans and did so three times following a near-miss on its debut. The wind-cheating bodywork and disc brakes helped offset the power advantage of bigger-engined rivals.
In a wet and bruising 1954 encounter, the race boiled down to a fight between the Ferrari 375 Plus of Jose Froilan Gonzalez/Maurice Trintignant and the 3.4-litre D-type of 1953 winners Rolt and Hamilton.
The brute force of the five-litre V12 helped it eke out a lead during the drier parts of the race, but late problems restarting the Ferrari allowed Jaguar back into contention. A heroic final effort by an ill Gonzalez secured victory for Ferrari, the real gap being less than the official one-lap margin in the final classification.
The 1955 race started as an epic contest between Ferrari, Jaguar and Mercedes, but was overshadowed by the horrific crash that claimed the lives of 300 SLR driver Pierre Levegh and more than 80 spectators. Mercedes withdrew, leaving Mike Hawthorn and Ivor Bueb to win, with the privately entered Ecurie Francorchamps D-type third.
PLUS: The greatest sportscars never to win Le Mans
An early crash eliminated two of the three factory D-types in 1956, with the third severely delayed by a cracked fuel line soon after, but help was at hand. Long-time Jaguar customer Ecurie Ecosse fought a long battle with the works Aston Martin DB3S of Stirling Moss and Peter Collins. In the end the pace of the D-type overcame Aston’s driver advantage, Ninian Sanderson and Ron Flockhart scoring Jaguar’s fourth Le Mans win.
Jaguar’s works effort withdrew for 1957, but that year’s 24 Hours was the D-type’s finest moment. Ecurie Ecosse led a Jaguar 1-2-3-4-6, Flockhart and Bueb winning with the latest 3.8-litre version, chased by its 3.4 sister and similar French, Belgian and British-entered D-types.
Engines were limited to a maximum of three litres from 1958. Jaguar developed a smaller version of the legendary XK engine, but it was not reliable and the D-type was overtaken by more modern designs, never again finishing on the podium at the French classic. More than any other car, though, it had forged Jaguar’s legend at Le Mans and remains one of the most evocative sports-racing designs.
1. Porsche 956/962
Key years: 1982-94
Engines: 2.6-litre, 2.8-litre, three-litre, 3.2-litre flat six turbos
Wins: 7 (1982-87, 1994)
Could top spot be taken by anything else? The 956 and its 962 successor not only won the 24 Hours more times than any other design, they also provided the backbone of the grid thanks to the hordes of privateer cars that chased – and occasionally beat – the works entries.
Porsche’s first ground effect and monocoque racer, the 956 finished 1-2-3 on its Le Mans debut in 1982. And, by the following year, the customer ranks meant it was hard for any other marque to get a look in.
Despite late drama for both the leading factory cars, the 956 filled nine of the top 10 places in the 1983 24 Hours, topped by the overheating Rothmans machine of Al Holbert, Vern Schuppan and Haywood.
Archive: The greatest forgotten Le Mans finish
Controversy over the fuel regulations meant the works team skipped Le Mans in 1984, but it mattered little. Despite Lancia’s popular LC2 starting from pole, 24 hours later it was all about Porsche. The 956s filled the top seven places, led by the Joest entry of Klaus Ludwig and Henri Pescarolo.
Joest did it again in 1985 with the same chassis, this time against the factory, now running the 962 with its longer wheelbase. Fuel efficiency was crucial to Joest’s second success.
Despite growing challenges from Sauber and Jaguar – which knocked Porsche off its perch in the shorter races in 1987 – the 962 kept the Le Mans run going. The opposition wilted in 1986, but the following year was harder as many of the 962s were struck by fuel-management issues that led to piston failures.
Hans Stuck, Bell and Holbert were left alone to battle Jaguar, but it was the V12 machines that struck problems and Porsche won again. Privateer 962s finished second and fourth.
Porsche, with the works team focusing on Le Mans, was finally defeated in 1988, narrowly losing out in an epic contest against Jaguar. Even so, the ageing design remained not only a backbone of Group C but proved good enough to finish on the Le Mans podium in 1989 and 1990.
PLUS: Why the 956/962 is the greatest sportscar of all time
There was still time for one last great day. Porsche used the Dauer 962 road car to homologate the flat-bottomed version into the LMGT1 class for 1994 and finished first and third, cementing the case for a car that would have topped this list anyway.
What about the best lookers? Here’s our list of the best-looking Le Mans cars.
