Christopher Hilton documents the race that caused the worst crash in motor racing history in this new & full study of the fateful day. Through a host of interviews
- with drivers team members journalists & spectators
- & original research at Le Mans Hilton examines the aftermath of the crash that has affected what we see of motorsport on our television screens today. The worst crash in motor racing history
- killing more than 80 people
- was produced by a ferocious & haunting combination of circumstances: nationalism raw speed the nature of a 24-hour race & chance. The crash drew in Mike Hawthorn the blond playboy from Farnham in a Jaguar & Juan-Manuel Fangio one of the greatest drivers of all in a Mercedes. A crowd of 250 000 watched hypnotised as Hawthorn set out to break Fangio the two cars going faster & faster...and faster. Another English playboy Lance Macklin was caught up in the crash in his Austin-Healey along with a 50-year-old Frenchman driving under the assumed name of Pierre Levegh. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It cost him his life even as his car was torn to pieces that scythed into the dense crowd. After 6.2 7pm on 11 June 1955 nothing would ever be the same again & the consequences of the momentous crash are still being felt. In this new & full study of the fateful day Christopher Hilton sets the race itself in the context of the 1950s. Through a host of interviews
- with drivers team members journalists & spectators
- & original research at Le Mans & in the Mercedes archive in Stuttgart he recreates every aspect of the race & the crash. Much of the material has never been seen before. He examines the aftermath
- the bitter blame game the conflicting testimonies the direct threat to motorsport in Europe
- & chronicles the beginning of the culture of safety that has affected what we see of motorsport on our television screens today.