First held in 1923, the 24 Hours of Le Mans is one of the most grueling races in the history of motorsports. Few other events on this side of the Dakar Rally take such a big toll on both man and machine. It goes without saying that racers have evolved considerably over the past nine decades. The first car to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans was a 1923 Chenard-Walcker Sport, which was powered by a 3.0-liter straight-four engine. It drove for 1,372 miles at an average speed of 57 mph; by comparison, in 1989 a Sauber C9 hit nearly 250 mph on the Mulsanne Straight and the Audi R18 e-tron quattro, the winner of last year’s race, logged over 3,200 miles over the course of the day.
