The 1985 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 53rd Grand Prix of Endurance, as well as the fourth round of the 1985 World Endurance Championship. It took place at the Circuit de la Sarthe, France, on 15 and 16 June 1985. The works Porsche team returned, with a Group C version of the 962. As favourites, they could expect from their customer teams and the works Lancias. In qualifying, Hans-Joachim Stuck set a new lap record in his works Porsche, with an average speed over 250 km/h for the first time. Mercedes returned for the first time in 30 years, as engine supplier to the Sauber team. The return was short-lived though, as the car got airborne in practice and crashed. With tighter fuel regulations this year from FISA, the teams would have to be more mindful of fuel economy and speed. However, from the start the Joest and Richard Lloyd Racing teams had the measure of the field. Working in tandem, Klaus Ludwig and Jonathon Palmer took turns leading and slipstreaming behind the other. Then at 9pm Jean-Claude Andruet had a major accident when his WM had a tyre blow out a high speed at the Mulsanne kink, sending him into the Armco barriers. Andruet was uninjured, but the race went behind the pace-cars for a half-hour as repairs were done. Just as the race resumed James Weaver pitted the RLR Porsche with an engine misfire. Traced to a faulty sensor, they returned to the race in 7th.
Thereafter, the Joest Porsche was untroubled, and Ludwig and Barilla, along with a single night-time driving stint from "John Winter" (Louis Krages), drove a perfectly judged race combining speed with economy that none of the other teams could match. For only the second time, the same car-chassis won a consecutive Le Mans, following Ford in 1968–69. Ludwig took his third overall win. Palmer and Weaver came back through the field and were second in the RLR Porsche. Third was the works Porsche of Derek Bell and Hans-Joachim Stuck, seven laps behind the winners. Both Lancias finished this year, in 6th and 7th, and the first non-turbo was the EMKA-Aston Martin, coming home in 11th, 14 laps ahead of the Tullius/Ballot-Léna/Robinson Jaguar in 13th.
In his final Le Mans, Jacky Ickx finished an anticlimactic 10th as the lowest placed Porsche, after a race of constant delay. Despite the tighter fuel restrictions, the winning car covered 190 km (115 miles) further than they did winning the previous year. They recorded the second-fastest race speed ever at Le Mans, only exceeded by the 1971 race and also won the Index prize.
Regulations By the start of the season, FISA (Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile) had dropped its abrupt regulation changes for the World Championship. This was sufficient to mollify the concerns of the works teams at Porsche and Lancia. However, they still wanted to manufacturers to improve fuel economy and reduced the total available for the 24 hours down by 15% to 2210 litres. The level for the C2 class remained at 1430 litres (as did the minimum weight of 700 kg).Spurring 2012, p.201
Despite the arrival of technically specific fuels in Formula 1, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) mandated that all cars had to use the standard 105-octane supplied centrally. Instead, the new controversy was the scheduling clash between the Formula 1 races and the Endurance Championship that raised the ire of several teams. They threatened to boycott two races in response.Hamilton 1985, p.210
This year, there were significant changes in the race organisation. A cooperative of local civic bodies was formed to organise and administer the race and its preparation, with financial investment from the national government and Sarthe département. Such was the success of the Group C formula, spectator numbers were now starting to balloon upwards, particularly from foreign fans.Spurring 2012, p.7 In the World Championship, the Makes title was changed to become instead a championship for Teams, tacitly acknowledging Porsches dominance by sheer weight of numbers.
Entries Group C1 fields in Europe continued to flourish, albeit heavily filled with Porsches. It was attracting more interest from major manufacturers. This year Porsche and Lancia had cars, while Mercedes and Toyota arrived with support for their engines, joining Peugeot, Ferrari and Aston Martin. It also encouraged the arrival of one-off specials. In the C2 class, it was Mazda taking on the small constructors Alba, Tiga and Ecosse. Although the IMSA classes were eligible, the only ones accepted were the two Jaguar GTPs.Spurring 2012, p.199 The ACO was infuriated that the FIA had scheduled the Canadian F1 Grand Prix against the race, which robbed several teams of their top-line drivers. Most teams had young drivers on their books, coming through the junior ranks of single-seater racing, like Formula 2, Formula 3 and Formula 3000.
Class Quantity Turbo/Rotaryengines Group C1 41 / 27 27 / 21 IMSA-GTP 2 / 2 0 Group C2 25 / 16 7 / 5 Group B 4 / 4 0 IMSA-GTO 3 / 0 0 Total Entries 75 / 49 34 / 26 Note: The first number is the number accepted, the second the number who started.
Group C1 and GTP Porsche maintained its dominance of the C1 class with 13 out of the 29 entries. The Rothmans Porsche works team returned to Le Mans and this year was equipped with the new Group C version of the Porsche 962 that had originally been developed for the IMSA series. Under Group C rules, it could be fitted with the twin KKK (Kühnle, Kopp & Kausch) turbos. For the first time, they were fitted with the langheck chassis to maximise speed. Three were brought for the race, along with a 956 as a test car. The full might of the veteran team of drivers was present: Jochen Mass and six-time winner Jacky Ickx (the pair colloquially called "MIX") had won two of the three championship rounds to date, at Mugello and Silverstone. Three-time winner Derek Bell was partnered with Hans-Joachim Stuck ("BEST") and John Watson joined 1983 winners Vern Schuppan and Al Holbert ("WASH").Spurring 2012, p.205Clarke 1999, p.41 Autosport Jun20 1985
Last year's winner, the Joest Racing team returned with their winning 956B from the previous year. Klaus Ludwig was back as lead-driver, with Paolo Barilla and pay-driver Louis Krages (racing under the pseudonym "John Winter"). Given the tighter fuel-ration in this year's race, the team went to extraordinary lengths to minimise fuel consumption. The car was fitted with a specially designed low-profile bodyshell. The minimal wing surface risked instability from the lack of downforce. The car was also fitted with an engine built at their own workshop. The drivers had the ability to manually adjust the turbo boost themselves, in the car. The team also had their older 956, to be driven again by Colombian Mauricio de Narvaez, this time with new team driver Paul Belmondo and American Kenper Miller. Meanwhile, team manager Domingos Piedade did his calculations for the optimal race tactics, fitting the gearboxes with the highest gear-ratio settings.Spurring 2012, pp.202-3
The first three customer teams to buy the 962C were Kremer Racing, Brun Motorsport and John Fitzpatrick Racing and all three supported those with a second 956 car in their squads. While the works 962s had 17" front wheels and 19" rears, the customer cars had 16" wheels all round. The Kremer team had won the second round, at Monza, in their 962 modified with a vertical fin on the tail to improve stability. However, the winning drivers, Marc Surer and Manfred Winkelhock, had been called over by their F1 teams for the Canadian GP. In their stead, Franz Konrad, Jean-Pierre Jarier and Mike Thackwell ran the 962. South African team regulars George Fouché and Sarel van der Merwe ran the 956 with Mario Hytten.Spurring 2012, pp.214-5 Walter Brun had also lost his two top drivers to Canada – Stefan Bellof (the defending Drivers Champion had been enticed away from the works team) and Thierry Boutsen – so Brun took the lead himself with his 962, bringing in Didier Theys and Joël Gouhier. Oscar Larrauri and Massimo Sigala had the Brun 956, joined by Gabriele Tarquini for this race.Hamilton 1985, p.213Clarke 1999, p.43 Autosport Jun20 1985 Fitzpatrick instead mixed up his regular driver line-ups. In the 962 were Kenny Acheson, Dudley Wood and Jean-Louis Schlesser while Jo Gartner/David Hobbs/Guy Edwards drove the second car.
Like Joest, Richard Lloyd's GTi Engineering had done considerable work modifying their 956B, rebuilding it on a strong honeycomb-monocoque rather than the standard single-sheet hub. They also tweaked their langheck bodyshell. The regular team of Jonathon Palmer and Jan Lammers had started the season together, but just before Le Mans, Lammers abruptly left to take up a career in American IndyCar racing. His replacement, with barely a week's notice, was James Weaver, joining Palmer and Lloyd. The proposed second entry was withdrawn.Spurring 2012, p.204Clarke 1999, p.42 Autosport Jun20 1985Clarke 1997, pp.52-3 Motor Sport Jul 1985Hamilton 1985, p.213 The Hans Obermeier team returned with their 956. This year owner-driver Jürgen Lässig was accompanied by Spaniard Jesús Pareja and Belgian Hervé Regout.
The Lancia Corse team arrived with three cars. The LC2/85 had been redesigned by engineer Claudio Lombardi. It was widened by 200mm. The suspension was upgraded (to fit new Michelin tyres), as was the geartrain and an improved Weber-Marelli engine-management system. Once again, Bob Wollek teamed up with Alessandro Nannini, and reserve driver Italo-Australian Lucio Cesario. The second race-car had Mauro Baldi with guest driver Henri Pescarolo. The third car was kept aside as a test-car.Spurring 2012, p.206Hamilton 1985, p.212
Once again, WM put all its focus on this race. The P83B returned with revised aerodynamics to reduce air resistance for better fuel economy. Another change was to reduce the engines from 2850cc down to 2750cc. These were set to about 740 bhp for qualifying (1.5-bar boost) and 620 bhp in race-trim. After last year's issues, two of the three cars were now fitted with Hewland gearboxes, the third keeping its ZF box. Fellow French constructor Jean Rondeau joined team regulars Pignard and Raulet, while team leader Roger Dorchy was on notice as a Reserve entry, with veteran touring-car drivers Claude Haldi and Jean-Claude Andruet as co-drivers.Spurring 2012, p.219 In the close season Yves Courage had picked up a Porsche dealership. The Cougar C02 was modified to fit the twin-turbo Porsche engine as used in the 962s. Like the Porsches, It had to be mounted at an angle to accommodate the underfloor ground-effect venturis. Former Renault designer Marcel Hubert tweaked the aerodynamics, and all of which made this the fastest car seen at Le Mans since 1978: reaching 370 km/h (230 mph) on the Hunaudières Straight. With such speed, Alain de Cadenet came back to race with Courage.Spurring 2012, p.221 Another team using the Porsche engine was the Kreepy Krauly March. South African father and son, Ferdinand and Daniel Chauvier, were introducing their pool-cleaning robot into the USA. With the money made they set up an IMSA racing team named after the machine, and based in Atlanta, Georgia. With the ex-Al Holbert March 83G, the new team had immediate success winning the 1984 24 Hours of Daytona. They then bought the ex-Pegasus Racing March 84G and swapped the Buick V6 engine for the Porsche flat-6. To comply for Group C, an 80x100cm flat floorplate was fitted under the chassis while still leaving the ends open for airflow and downforce. The scrutineers, however, took a dim view of this and the team lost the first 90 minutes of practice closing off each end for the undertray to comply with the regulations. Drivers Christian Danner and Almo Coppelli were going to be joined by Ian Scheckter. However, when he fell ill, his spot was taken by fellow South African Graham Duxbury who had been in the Daytona winning crew.Spurring 2012, p.222