The 1932 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 10th Grand Prix of Endurance that took place at the Circuit de la Sarthe on 18 and 19 June 1932. A significant year for the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) with the biggest changes to the circuit in the race's history. A new section bypassing Pontlieue suburb was built starting with a long right turn after the pits, going over a hill then down to the Esses, a left-right combination, before rejoining the Hunaudières straight at the new right-hand corner of Tertre Rouge. This shortened the track by almost 3 km down to .
On paper it looked like it would be a race between the seven 2.3-litre supercharged Alfa Romeos and the two similarly powered Bugatti T55 four-seaters (backed by the Bugatti factory). But from the start it was the Alfa Romeos that set the pace, led by the two works cars in a furious duel. But a first-lap accident by a privateer Bentley at the tricky White House corners caused much disruption for drivers who would not slow down. First Minoia went off at the same place, taking Brisson's Stutz with him, then Marinoni smacked the Bentley trying to make up for an hour lost digging himself out from the Arnage sandbank after another excursion.
After the first pit stops around 6pm, the works Alfa of Franco Cortese held the lead. But when that car had to pit around 10pm to get its windscreen fixed, it was the similar car of 1931 winners, Earl Howe and Birkin that took its place. Their chance of a repeat win ended with a blown gasket at 3am, whereupon Raymond Sommer took the lead. He was forced to drive most of the race himself as his co-driver, Italian ex-pat Luigi Chinetti, had got a fever after working long hours to prepare their short-wheelbase Alfa Romeo for the race. Having driven one 3-hour shift Chinetti was unable to do any more.
As dawn broke, Cortese/Guidotti were closing on him, but their challenge wilted as they had to make repeated stops to secure loose and broken parts of their car. Their delays allowed the remaining Bugatti of Czaykowski / Friderich, now running third seven laps back, to start chasing them down. That chase came to an end though after midday, when the Bugatti came to a halt on the track having got down to four laps in arrears. This took the pressure off the two Alfa Romeos.
Meanwhile, behind the race for outright victory was the quest for winning the Biennial Cup. The initial six eligible cars from the 1931 race had quickly been whittled down to just three: the 3-litre Talbot, versus the smaller 1.5-litre Aston Martin and 1.1-litre Caban. For most of the race, the three cars were running very closely to their designated target distances. Just as one would start building a lead over the others it would be stymied by mechanical delays. As the main race ran down to a predictable finish, it was only on the Sunday afternoon that the Aston Martin of "Bert" Bertelli / Pat Driscoll got enough reliability to pull out a sufficient gap to claim the Biennial Cup.
In the end Sommer won by two laps. In a remarkable drive he had been at the wheel for over twenty hours, and during the Sunday, the exhaust pipe had broken that left it pumping its noxious fumes into the cockpit. His distance covered also won the Index of Performance, going over 20% beyond the designated target. Cortese and Guidotti were second in the works Alfa Romeo. After many tribulations, the Talbot of Lewis / Rose-Richards had pushed hard enough to finish third, albeit 36 laps behind. Fourth was Odette Siko’s privateer Alfa Romeo entry – still the best overall finish by a female driver at Le Mans.
Regulations and organisation This was a watershed year for the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) with a number of major changes happening all at once. It saw the end, after nine years, of the partnership with founding-sponsor Rudge-Whitworth, as money problems drastically affected the British wheel-parts company.Spurring 2017, p.90-1Clarke 1998, p.109-110: Autocar Jun24 1932 The Cup was thus renamed the Biennial Cup of the Automobile Club de l'Ouest.Laban 2001, p.71
The suburban growth of the city of Le Mans caused the second major change: residents’ complaints had already forced the removal of the Pontlieue hairpin in 1929. So, in 1931 the ACO acquired 75 hectares of land beyond the start-finish straight and set about constructing a completely new section of track to bypass the transit into the city's southern suburbs. Bounded by earth banking and wattle fencing, the new section started with a sweeping right-hand turn after the finish-line, cresting a low hill before dropping into a technical left-right series of corners (the Esses). The track then rejoined the main road to Tours - the Hunaudières Straight – at the new corner of Tertre Rouge (“red hillock”)Clausager 1982, p.19-20 named after the major rise the new track traversed.
This shortened the circuit by almost 3 km down to . The new track set the basis for the iconic layout and has remained essentially the same ever since aside from periodic deviations added to improve safety and surfacing. New viewing and camping areas on the ACO land increased the official capacity to around 60000 spectators. which also saw the start of an extensive new public entertainment “village”. There were also two footbridges built over the new section to allow pedestrian access to the infield (originally sponsored by Champion Sparkplugs)
The reduced track also demanded an overhaul of all the lap-distance scaling needed for the Index of Performance and the restrictions on fluid replenishment. The ACO gave handsome distance reductions to the smaller engines, while the premier 3-litre class had its required distance raised. The minimum refuelling distance of 320 km / 200 miles was recalculated from 20 laps on the old 16.4 km circuit to 24 laps of the new 13.5 km one.
Recognising the current trend to put bigger engines in popular runabout models, the 2-seater eligibility was extended from 1.0 up to include 1.5-litre cars as well. The ACO also removed the longstanding requirement for each car to carry ballast representing passengers was finally rescinded, greatly reducing the cars weight (180 kg for cars over 3-litres for example) and improving handling performance. The equivalence formula for supercharged engine capacity was adjusted slightly from 130% to 133%.
Given the tribulations that many teams had the previous year with tyre wear, to encourage tyre development, the ACO mandated that each car could only use seven new tyres in the race, including the four it started on. The committee also awarded the fuel-supply contract to Société l’Économique, French agent for Esso/Standard Motor Oil. This was with a view to alternating the contract each year between them and Shell. The company had previously had the contract for the 1927 race. This year it offered three fuel choices: its regular fuel, the new Esso premium grade or 100% benzole.
Engine size 1931Minimum distance 1932Minimum distance Average speed Equivalent laps Minimumvehicle weight 4000cc+ 192.7 laps 1215 kg (5L)1820 kg (8L) 3000cc 179.7 laps 875 kg 1500cc 148.2 laps 670 kg 1100cc 133.4 laps 430 kg 750cc 114.9 laps 330 kg Clarke 1998, p.106: Motor Jun14 1932Spurring 2017, p.360
Entries The global economic recession meant a dearth of big-engined cars was being produced, and the six cars entered over 4-litres were all 1920s vintage and showing their age. The team to beat was undoubtedly Alfa Romeo, currently dominating Grand Prix racing, and the marque was the best represented in the entry list with 7 cars. Bugatti was their main opposition, supporting entries made by its works-team drivers. Both manufacturers fielded straight-8 supercharged cars of about 2.3-litres (equal to 3-litres with the 1.33 equivalency factor). The only other works team present came from Aston Martin with the remaining entries coming from privateer teams and “gentleman-drivers”.
After the record low number of finishers in the 1931 race there were only six cars eligible for the Biennial Cup (although when the Mercedes-Benz entry did not arrive this became five).Spurring 2017, p.89
Category Entries Classes Large-sized engines 14 / 10 over 3-litre Medium-sized engines 17 / 15 1.0 to 3-litre Small-sized engines 2 / 1 up to 1.0-litre Total entrants 33 / 26 Note: The first number is the number of entries, the second the number who started.
Alfa Romeo's dominance in the racing year had started with victory in the Mille Miglia for the works team, and then in the Targa Florio for the works-supported Scuderia Ferrari. The 8C-2300 Monza was modified for Le Mans with a 4-seater lungo (long) touring body styled by Carrozzeria Touring. Five were prepared for the works drivers as well as three customer entries. The two works cars had a finer tuning with exclusive engine parts to increase their output and supercharger power.Spurring 2017, p.95 Their drivers were Franco Cortese/Giovanni Battista Guidotti and "Nando" Minoia/Carlo Canavesi. The Alfa test-driver, Attilio Marinoni, was seconded to the customer car of Georgian-exile Prince Dmitri Djordjadze, with Mille Miglia specialist Angelo Guatta as his co-driver.Spurring 2017, p.96-7
Earl Francis Howe, winner in the previous year's race, had one of the brand new cars, once again running it with former Bentley-Boy, Sir Henry "Tim" Birkin. The wealthy Parisian bankers, Pierre Louis-Dreyfus and Antoine Schumann, traded their Bugatti this year for the fifth lungo car. A smaller 6C-1750 model was also entered by Miss Odette Siko in the 3-litre class. She raced with Louis Charavel (using the pseudonym "Sabipa"), having his first race after surviving a bad accident at the 1930 French Grand Prix at Pau.Spurring 2017, p.102
Raymond Sommer, rising star of French motor-racing, had spied a short-wheelbase Mille Miglia corto 8C on display at the Paris Salon. He bought the car and asked Luigi Chinetti, an Italian émigré running the Alfa Romeo agency in Paris, about converting it to a four-door for touring car racing. The car was fitted with two small rear seats, an oversize fueltank, streamlined fairings and an externally-mounted exhaust (to reduce engine temperatures). It was also the only Alfa Romeo running on Englebert tyres, while the others ran on Dunlop. The shorter wheelbase gave better handling as well as being 100 kg lighter. Sommer also engaged Chinetti as his co-driver.Spurring 2017, p.92-3
After a tragic race the year before, Ettore Bugatti was very wary about any bad press to the company if a similar accident were to happen again. No works team officially arrived however two cars were entered under the drivers’ names with strong works’ backing. Bugatti’s new car, the Type 55, was a tourer based on the T54 using the supercharged 2.3L racing engine of the Type 51. But being a two-seater, it was ineligible to run at Le Mans for its engine size. Instead the T55 power-train and running gear was retrofitted onto the older Type 44 four-seater model. The engine was slightly detuned down to 130 bhp.Spurring 2017, p.103-4 They were run by Guy Bouriat with Louis Chiron, and Russian émigré Count Stanisław Czaykowski with French veteran Ernest Friderich (who had won the voiturette race here in 1920 for Bugatti).Clausager 1982, p.52-6 There were also two other privateer entries. Jean Sébilleau returned with his 1.5-litre Type 37 that he had raced the year before, while Charles Druck had a Type 40 tourer with its supercharged 1.5-litre engine.Spurring 2017, p.106