Very outstanding review of the 1981 Lemans. Two things really grabbed my attention: 1.) DeCadenet got as high as 4th! 2.) Derek Bell's near collapse in Victory Lane with Ickx helping to steady him.
Great documentary. Being passionate by Le Mans 24h, I love to see how much things have change or not. Back when big team had their garages in the small villages around Le Mans
I've been 18 times, 22 if you count pre-qual/test days, since 1998. Its funny, i curse the safety changes like acres of gravel, red zones, debris fencing and firesuits in the pitlane...but watching the way it was scares the hell out of me!
@Eugene Tuorto I know it says 1982, but this is actually the 1981 Le Mans 24hrs In 1982 Guy Edwards was partnered with Nick Faure and Rupert Keegan, but at 29:54 the narrator states "Three hours gone and Guy's car is running well with Villota at the wheel" - this is Emilio de Villota (father of Maria de Villota, who was badly injured during testing of a Marussia F1 car at Duxford Aerodrome in 2012. She died of cardiac arrest a year later at the age of 33) The 1981 race was also notorious for two deaths; a marshal (27:17) and Edward's friend Jean-Louis Lafosse (28:50) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1981_24_Hours_of_Le_Mans
@@melodicpie Has to be, Porsche was running the 936 then. If it was 82 they would have had the 956 there and all the other Group C cars would have been there.
Instead of big words, eplosions and drama, it starts off with a bloke talking about stuffing some socks into his trousers...I so love these older documentaries!
Thank you for sharing this. Such different times from now. While the racing sure is harder and safer these days, it really doesn't cary the same atmosphere, and the tracks feel so clinical cin comparrisson to back then.
Am rationing my viewing . I think a rainy evening and a beer to watch thru in one go. I love LeMans and 1982 was my first as a very green Dunlop Motorsport track support tyre tech.. I got all the privateers - who of most got thru the 24 hours. Was such great fun. Got to sip champagne out of the winning trophy when a group of us Dunlop guys popped into the Porsche after race dinner.
I'm fascinated by the cars, the drivers and the atmosphere of this time period... But I'm also thankful that many other things (such as safety) are much improved since then.
I went to Le Mans once in the 1970s, not that far from Belgium. I spent the full 24 hours walking around the circuit taking pictures of everything that popped lip in front of my camera. I still remember this great experience some 50 years later. I went with a jaguar mechanic...it was the first time Jaguar entered the race so I may haver the years wrong...
Really nice to see my ride on the track at 28 seconds into the tape, additionally, it was a great surprise to see myself in the frame at 37 seconds in...Well done!
Its amazing to see them talk about safety improvements over the old days, and now almost 40 years later the safety is absolutely incredibly improved over those days.
A long time ago I read that near the Mulsanne straights end there's (was?) a restaurant that serves a midnight supper (?? courses), where the cars scream by at peak performance (hopefully) , adding their individual shifting tones (Doppler shift), reverberating from the woods (?) surrounding it. This video should be watched after seeing the movie "Le Mans". ;-)
@@nevercommitsuicide I'm sure his mum would say the same thing my mom did like "its better to have him not here rather than being here and miserable taking it out on us" but it doesn't help much
30:14: "Running at a pace"...18 seconds off from qualifying. The cars were much less reliable back then. Today the cars are running flat out, only about 2-3 seconds off qualifying, for the entire 24 hours. A "24 Hour Sprint Race".
The track was changed before the 1991 race, chicanes were introduced on the Mulsanne Straight by order of FIA. this due to very high speed accidents caused by tire wear at the high speeds on the straight. Specifically the fatal accidents in 81 and 86 were at the base of those chicanes So you can't compare 81 times to 2020 times, the cars now have to slow down to very slow speeds , twice , on the straight.. And even with those 2 chicanes they are still much much faster. The top speeds are lower but it doesn't matter, because the cornering speeds are waaaaaay faster now
It is a little confusing. This was the 1981 race and the notes above should have mentioned that. The Lafosse crash and Boutsen's accident before that which killed a marshal were in 1981.
Back in those days it was all recorded on actual film, no electronic media at all, so editing it all together took a huge amount of time. As you say, it was the 1981 race, but the film was released in 1982 after a huge amount of production work and a lot of wrangling to get the legal permissions necessary to show the sections that didn't include the De Cadenet Lola team or Guy Edwards in the Lola...
0:31 ... Bagheera taillights 😗 ? .. strange to see a Mercedes 126 as Pacecar . whoever can maintain such high levels of concentration and skill, throughout day dusk night and dawn, numbed and cooking from head to toe has nailed it 😓
DeCadenet is one of mt favorite car guys. I briefly met him at the Monterey Historics one year, when I was doing Timing and Scoring. The guy is the same age as me, and looks like a million bucks to my 20 cents lol
What a Great documentary about Le Mans.... I've been a huge fan of Le Mans but Jesus fuck that was so crazy dangerous back then still very exciting. and I wasn't expecting the adult entertainment strippers lol.. freak show.. gotta love the sound of the engines. so remarkable!
@@jfv65 it makes think what state of mind would the drivers be in that time you know?! racing for 24hrs in ridiculous high speed taking in turns cars would eventually not work, accidents, deaths. what surprised me was that a British reporter at the time reported a fatal accident at lemans and the organisers of the Le Mans never invited him ever again.
Last time it raced at La Sarthe it was modified so it could enter... a small hole cut in the roof. Entered by the Kremer brothers. The 917 K81 was outclassed unfortunately.
The engine that blew translates to about 90 grand USD in today's money, the sad part is had it lasted a rebuild would have only costed about 7 percent of that.
It really makes you think, 55 started and only 21 finished in a time when the drivers only pushed the cars 100% very rarely and for short periods... Now they're on it pretty much 100% of the time from go to woah yet DNFs are far, far rarer. That's definitely progress...
49 entries at Daytona on a 3.5 mile course can’t be too easy. Bathurst is no walk in the park either. Spa might be ranked as tough as well. I’d rather drive 24 hours at LeMans than be beaten senseless for 12 hours at Sebring from a driver’s point of view.
“This old couple provides for me fresh water and a nice place to peepee”
This is a great doc. Loved it.
Thank you.
Very outstanding review of the 1981 Lemans. Two things really grabbed my attention:
1.) DeCadenet got as high as 4th!
2.) Derek Bell's near collapse in Victory Lane with Ickx helping to steady him.
One of the best documentarys about Le Mans that I ever seen ! Le Mans 1981 !
The movie is 1982 but you where the the 956's are...1981 race ahh
The movie was fina she's and release 82, the race was of course 81.
Thanks for this, remember watching when it was first broadcast on TV way back in 1982. The glory, tragedy and heartbreak of Le Mans.
I remember watching this when it was originally released. Thank you so much for uploading this.
Brilliant remastered quality documentary. Child of its time which has advantages and disadvantages, but ty!
Great documentary. Being passionate by Le Mans 24h, I love to see how much things have change or not.
Back when big team had their garages in the small villages around Le Mans
J'y vais tous les ans, aux 24 heures du Mans. Mais en 1981, je n'y étais pas. Merci pour la vidéo.
I've been 18 times, 22 if you count pre-qual/test days, since 1998. Its funny, i curse the safety changes like acres of gravel, red zones, debris fencing and firesuits in the pitlane...but watching the way it was scares the hell out of me!
I was there in 82, Always a good time at Le Mans.
@Eugene Tuorto I know it says 1982, but this is actually the 1981 Le Mans 24hrs
In 1982 Guy Edwards was partnered with Nick Faure and Rupert Keegan, but at 29:54 the narrator states "Three hours gone and Guy's car is running well with Villota at the wheel" - this is Emilio de Villota (father of Maria de Villota, who was badly injured during testing of a Marussia F1 car at Duxford Aerodrome in 2012. She died of cardiac arrest a year later at the age of 33)
The 1981 race was also notorious for two deaths; a marshal (27:17) and Edward's friend Jean-Louis Lafosse (28:50)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1981_24_Hours_of_Le_Mans
The race was from 1981 though!
@@melodicpie Has to be, Porsche was running the 936 then. If it was 82 they would have had the 956 there and all the other Group C cars would have been there.
I constantly watch search and watch stuff like this (classic LeMans) on YT and never once came across this till right now. YT blows my mind.
Instead of big words, eplosions and drama, it starts off with a bloke talking about stuffing some socks into his trousers...I so love these older documentaries!
When men were men, cars were cars and Rolex watches were obviously real.
One of the best motor sport documentaries ever
Brilliant ! Thank you for that epic video.
Thank you for sharing this. Such different times from now.
While the racing sure is harder and safer these days, it really doesn't cary the same atmosphere, and the tracks feel so clinical cin comparrisson to back then.
I remember this from 1982. Great documentary!
Thanks for sharing, excellent quality
Am rationing my viewing . I think a rainy evening and a beer to watch thru in one go. I love LeMans and 1982 was my first as a very green Dunlop Motorsport track support tyre tech.. I got all the privateers - who of most got thru the 24 hours. Was such great fun. Got to sip champagne out of the winning trophy when a group of us Dunlop guys popped into the Porsche after race dinner.
I'm fascinated by the cars, the drivers and the atmosphere of this time period... But I'm also thankful that many other things (such as safety) are much improved since then.
Thank you for posting. A really great doc. . MAybe the best I have seen.
Great vid... even though the production date on the footage this is 1982, this the 1981 Le Mans.
I went to Le Mans once in the 1970s, not that far from Belgium.
I spent the full 24 hours walking around the circuit taking pictures of everything that popped lip in front of my camera.
I still remember this great experience some 50 years later.
I went with a jaguar mechanic...it was the first time Jaguar entered the race so I may haver the years wrong...
Popped lip?
@EagleOneM, not only did Jaguar enter the race in previous years, they also won it in 1951 (XK-120C), 1953 (C-Type) 1955, 1956 and 1957 (D-Type)
Always neat to see a time capsule like this to see the changes in living from then until now
Alan de Cadenay fan for a while, never knew the story of his dad and brothers. Very cool documentary.
Really nice to see my ride on the track at 28 seconds into the tape, additionally, it was a great surprise to see myself in the frame at 37 seconds in...Well done!
Wow! Amazing doc! Thank you so much for sharing!!
An Everest, a Waterloo, and a Mecca, in one sentence: excellent start!
Amazing doco, thanks for posting
Thank you for posting. Way cool.
Thank-you for sharing this great video. I love how the cars sounded back then, like proper beasts, not like today.
I was there in 84 and 90, god I'm old!
RIP Alain de Cadenet , 02/07/2022
Marvelous - very evocative of the privateer period. I did this one and half a dozen others.
Amazing documentary. I wish there were more of these.
Agree with you
Nimrod the mighty warrior is a good one, being the story of the 1982 Le Mans race.
@@keithashley6298 Awesome! Thanks so much for pointing it out. I have found it, and bookmarked it for watching tonight!👍😀
@@edteach3r Hope you enjoy it sir! 🙂👍
Its amazing to see them talk about safety improvements over the old days, and now almost 40 years later the safety is absolutely incredibly improved over those days.
true, but the race's appeal and story given to fans is much less impactful from like it seemed back in the days. It's safe but bland.
Improvements but now boring.
I love these old films from the eightieth.
This is 1981, but anyway thank you for uploading this amazing documentary.
1981 race, broadcast in 82
All the way from the early 70s to the early 2000s is when Le-mans was doing excellent, new cars, every car had its own unique mechanism.
Thanks!
@6:05 "Alain has driven out from England in his 1931 Alfa Romeo". Of course he did.
More likely drove out 'with', rather than 'in'..!
Muchas gracias!!
epic video thx for sharing
A long time ago I read that near the Mulsanne straights end there's (was?) a restaurant that serves a midnight supper (?? courses), where the cars scream by at peak performance (hopefully) , adding their individual shifting tones (Doppler shift), reverberating from the woods (?) surrounding it.
This video should be watched after seeing the movie "Le Mans". ;-)
40:00 and 44:40: Alain is not pulling any punches. At the end it was good to see Guy finish the race.
15:48 oh man you can hear how hurt he is deep down, he tries to play it off as badly as I do when I talk about my dad
man i feel you
@@nevercommitsuicide I'm sure his mum would say the same thing my mom did like "its better to have him not here rather than being here and miserable taking it out on us" but it doesn't help much
well spotted Erik, been there done that.
30:14: "Running at a pace"...18 seconds off from qualifying. The cars were much less reliable back then. Today the cars are running flat out, only about 2-3 seconds off qualifying, for the entire 24 hours. A "24 Hour Sprint Race".
The fastest lap in 1981 was 3.34 - only about 18 seconds off today's times, nearly 40 years on...amazing!
The margin of victory at Daytona yesterday showed that. Five care on the lead lap of a corse far shorter than LeMan.
@@Penguin_of_Death the track has changed. Big chicanes were put in to slow the cars down. The times are not comparable.
The track was changed before the 1991 race, chicanes were introduced on the Mulsanne Straight by order of FIA. this due to very high speed accidents caused by tire wear at the high speeds on the straight. Specifically the fatal accidents in 81 and 86 were at the base of those chicanes
So you can't compare 81 times to 2020 times, the cars now have to slow down to very slow speeds , twice , on the straight..
And even with those 2 chicanes they are still much much faster.
The top speeds are lower
but it doesn't matter, because the cornering speeds are waaaaaay faster now
Alain de Cadenet is one the few rich men to keep his head in MY French Revolution. He's a good sort.
A very nice documentary about the greatest race in the world. Thanks for sharing.
It is a little confusing. This was the 1981 race and the notes above should have mentioned that. The Lafosse crash and Boutsen's accident before that which killed a marshal were in 1981.
I was completely amazed by Borat appearing at 23m20s!
😂😂😂
23:17 👍👍
Crazy man listening to these cars I hear the B16B VTECS engine sounds the same.
deCadenet is a treasure...
Absolutely as daft as a brush, but a real gentleman and a lot of fun...
26:37 These two old people have a very nice place to go to pipi
At 40:55 did he say "blow the engine, that's 12 grand!" me laughing in 2021
12 thousand 1981 English pounds equaled over $80 grand USD in 2021.
What did I just hear 12:01 I can't stop laughing at this
it is the same nowadays... if you have cash you can compete. Skills are not so important.
I do not know if the FILM is from 1982 but the race it shows is the 1981 Le Mans race, not 1982. The images are great !
Back in those days it was all recorded on actual film, no electronic media at all, so editing it all together took a huge amount of time. As you say, it was the 1981 race, but the film was released in 1982 after a huge amount of production work and a lot of wrangling to get the legal permissions necessary to show the sections that didn't include the De Cadenet Lola team or Guy Edwards in the Lola...
It was the film, I saw many years later I passed the track,
41:25 benjamin britten’s sea interlude from the opera peter grimes.
0:31 ... Bagheera taillights 😗 ? .. strange to see a Mercedes 126 as Pacecar . whoever can maintain such high levels of concentration and skill, throughout day dusk night and dawn, numbed and cooking from head to toe has nailed it 😓
Man Those crash helmets in the 80s looked doped as hell
Back when it was racing.
Great year for sports cars. Not so much Detroit but elsewhere
Epic! 😍🏁
I really miss that fairground nowadays.
BMW M1? Flippin' sweet!
'a car costs 10's of thousands of pounds' oh how times have changed lol
DeCadenet is one of mt favorite car guys. I briefly met him at the Monterey Historics one year, when I was doing Timing and Scoring. The guy is the same age as me, and looks like a million bucks to my 20 cents lol
What a Great documentary about Le Mans....
I've been a huge fan of Le Mans but Jesus fuck that was so crazy dangerous back then still very exciting.
and I wasn't expecting the adult entertainment strippers lol.. freak show.. gotta love the sound of the engines. so remarkable!
Agreed. And the Mulsanne was still a full lenght straight! Over 400km/h fast...
@@jfv65 it makes think what state of mind would the drivers be in that time you know?!
racing for 24hrs in ridiculous high speed taking in turns cars would eventually not work, accidents, deaths. what surprised me was that a British reporter at the time reported a fatal accident at lemans and the organisers of the Le Mans never invited him ever again.
12:23: LeMans before the chicanes on the Mulsanne.Yes!!!
Didn't work out to well for LaFosse though.
Fuel pickup problems at 13:30....
R.I.P.
Le Mans 1981 !!!
There was a 917 in this race that is truly remarkable. Considering it was initially designed in 1969.
Last time it raced at La Sarthe it was modified so it could enter... a small hole cut in the roof. Entered by the Kremer brothers. The 917 K81 was outclassed unfortunately.
@@nicjackson5741 my point being it was unusual that a 13 year old car could qualify for a race such as LeMans. Even if it was modified.
@@bradgotch Agreed 100% Simeon.
8:00: "Drivers need a medical certificate. It is only a formality". Not in 2020.ha.ha !!!!
This was 1981, not 1982
Steve McQueen the man and le man's documentary 1970 . Great movie .
Not without it's problems..
I just watched it wtf
@9:56 "You wouldn't expect Alain to stay at a mere hotel."
RIP Alain
Great video ... but the race is 1981 and not 1982 as the title would indicate
Holy shit they didn't have hardly any lights on the track back then!
You should have been there the decades before that. Surreal doesn't begin to describe it.
The engine that blew translates to about 90 grand USD in today's money, the sad part is had it lasted a rebuild would have only costed about 7 percent of that.
1981! No Porsche 956!
........it might say 1982, but this is 1981!
Yea, just like many of the cars coming out this year go as far as 2,018.
when he gets out of the car at 36:00 you can see in his eyes he knows it's getting too dangerous
Damn good
@Perky Pork 2 This is actually the 1981 race
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1981_24_Hours_of_Le_Mans
It really makes you think, 55 started and only 21 finished in a time when the drivers only pushed the cars 100% very rarely and for short periods...
Now they're on it pretty much 100% of the time from go to woah yet DNFs are far, far rarer. That's definitely progress...
In your judgement, it's progress. In mine, it's boring.
The spirit of a privateer is great to watch..
1:53 probably several hundreds of thousands today in auctions.
1981 teste
Great job, I suppose there would have been some changes made before the race following the death of Jean Louis Lafosse.
theses are not 1982 cars Bell won in the Porsche 956 that year
It's the 1981 race, the programme was broadcast in 1982
I got carpal tunnel just watch him do push-ups like that.
Peh... the chap can't even tell a burgundy from a claret.
71 ,pal.
Why not get a Porsche for next year ?
Interesting that Le Mans had a safety car before F1 ever did.
“Toughest race”. Nürburgring 24 hour anybody?
Are you offended ?
49 entries at Daytona on a 3.5 mile course can’t be too easy.
Bathurst is no walk in the park either.
Spa might be ranked as tough as well.
I’d rather drive 24 hours at LeMans than be beaten senseless for 12 hours at Sebring from a driver’s point of view.
Is there a 24 hr of Nordschliefer, now that would be a challenge!
I guess you’re talking about the Nordschleife 24hour racing? There could have been only one person, Sabine Schmitz R.I.P.
Where is Allen now?
He’s on the toilet right now.
@@AtheistOrphan just checked. At the pub
Still like this as a way of life?
I been doing pushups wrong all my life😮 @3:12