The first Le Mans winners: 1923 French success that soon fizzled out

The Bentley Boys had their hands full with the local boys in blue during the formative period of what was swiftly to become the world’s most important endurance race.

Their narrow victory of 1924 was but a speck of green.

Outnumbered – 15 of the 17 marques entered for the May 1923 inauguration were French – they were also outbraked (initially), outsmarted and outlasted for three of the first four years of the Le Mans 24 Hours.

Lorraine-Dietrich picked up the baton from the moment Chenard’s Léonard leapt clear of the flames

Yet their conquerors were busted flushes by 1926 and 1927 respectively, as harsh financial reality bit.

Of the 17 cars that started in 1930, five were Bentleys –and only three were French.

Sheltered by investor Woolf Barnato’s diamond inheritance – and driven on by his competitive stewardship and muscular relentlessness behind the wheel – Bentley’s four consecutive wins from 1927 were plentiful compensation for its five-from-five retirements of the previous two years.

Legend assured – before even Barnato had to bow to the inevitable: surety withdrawn and company sold on the QT to Rolls-Royce by mid-1931.

First French winners of the fledging Le Mans 24 Hours

Chenard et Walcker and Lorraine-Dietrich’s fame was more fleeting.

The former was established in 1899 when railway engineer Ernest Chenard set up shop with mining engineer Henri Walcker in Asnières-sur-Seine, situated within a loop of the river north of Paris. Its first car was unveiled in 1901; the company went public in 1906; and, having cornered the taxi market, it was among France’s top 10 producers prior to WWI.

Chenard’s ambitious engineering son Lucien was in charge by 1922 and he challenged long-time employee Henri Toutée to design something racier: the four-cylinder 3-litre Type U3 Sport, with overhead camshaft and four-wheeled brakes, resulted.

Two were entered for Le Mans in 1923 and they finished first and second on distance. (Their milder Touring cousin finished seventh.)

They were not declared the winners, however, for that was to be decided based on the aggregate of three consecutive performances over and above predetermined targets: a convoluted method soon to be shelved.

Buoyed, the company entered six cars for 1924. That Toutée’s genie/genius was out of its bottle was proved by their variety: a 4-litre straight-eight for defending champions André Lagache – whose FAR coachbuilding concern was responsible for those rakish ‘torpedo’ bodies – and works tester René Léonard, plus a brace of 2-litre ‘fours’, a pair of 1500s and an updated 1923 model.

Its superior strategy and pit work, prominent in 1923, suffered as a result. The big car was leading when it caught fire early in the piece, and only the 2-litres were classified as finishers: fourth and fifth.

Though trimmed to a more manageable four, its 1925 entry was perhaps even more diverse. Toutée’s fecund mind had run to a streamlined ‘tank’ design that delivered remarkable performance from 1100cc. These Z1 Spéciales were arguably the first ‘prototypes’ to tackle the race.

For the second year in succession Lagache set fastest lap in the straight-eight only to retire – but the Z1s covered the company in glory by finishing 10th and 13th, sufficient to secure the (one and only) Triennial Cup as well as the concurrent biennial competition replacing it.

Lorraine-Dietrich delivers more French success

Chenard et Walcker – despite winning the 1925 Spa 24 Hours in July – would be conspicuous by its absence in 1926, its competition department disbanded.

By which time Lorraine-Dietrich had picked up the baton. It had done so from the moment Chenard’s Léonard leapt clear of the flames in 1924, finishing second and third and coming within a lap of denying Bentley its maiden win.