Le Mans

Le Mans hosted the fastest racing cars on the planet, top speeds on the world-famous Mulsanne straight exceeding 250mph for the first time in 1988. This decade's new Group C regulations challenged motorsport engineers to achieve race-winning engine performance while saving fuel, fostering the original rationale of this historic event as a proving ground for emerging automotive technologies. It accelerated the development of control electronics and aerodynamics, and soon increasingly sophisticated racing coupés were setting new performance standards. The 1980 event was uniquely won by Jean Rondeau, a Le Mans resident, with a car of his own manufacture. After seven impressive Porsche successes, Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz, both returning to motorsport after long absences, won in 1988 and 1989. By the end of the decade, Le Mans was contested by Aston Martin, Jaguar, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Peugeot, Porsche and Toyota.- 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-color race poster artwork for each year and photographs from the ACO's archives.- The images include rare colour, 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.- Already established as a world-class event, the ACO's annual race scaled new heights during the 1980s, a time of spectacular transformation in top-flight sports car racing.