Porsche at Le Mans
By Glen Smale
Porsche has won overall honors at the 24 Hours of Le Mans on a record 16 occasions. Perhaps less widely known is the fact that over the years the marque has taken an additional 81 class wins, far and away the most by any carmaker. Porsches won six different classes in 1981, and five in both 1978 and 1982, and on only 11 occasions since the company’s first foray to France in 1951 has a Porsche failed to win one of the available classes. That is the kind of information available in this book, and author Smale seems to have done a good job of telling a familiar story in a fresh way. Using year-by-year chapters, he summarizes the events of each individual race, then goes further with extended captions for the wealth of excellent photos that illustrate the stories. Also here is a listing of those Porsches that raced each year and their results, although this information was somehow omitted for 1976.
Essentially, if you care about Le Mans or Porsche or both, this 352-page book is for you. Available for US$72.95 from Quayside Publishing Group at (612) 344-8031 or www.qbookshop.com
