24 Heures du Mans (24 Hours of Le Mans)

The greatest auto race in the world starts tomorrow, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It's our favorite because since 1923, people have been racing whatever they could bring for a whole day without stopping. There have been cars taken straight off showroom floors: Porsches, Corvettes, Aston Martins, Jaguars, Ferraris, Maseratis, Lamborghinis, Bentleys, Lotuses, Cobras. And then there are the prototypes--the no holds barred version of racing that exists nowhere else. These are the fastest vehicles on the planet with bleeding edge technology that defines where automobiles will be decades in the future. Or not. Some of the ideas are downright weird and fail miserably. Racing doesn't get any better.

Join us for live coverage at: http://en.lemanslive.com/
http://www.24h-lemans.com/live/en/

Start: Saturday, June 13, 2015, 3:00 PM in Europe, 6:00 AM in San Francisco

Sebring 12 Hours Looks Like a NASCAR Race

Ferrari 458 crash at 2011 12 Hours of Sebring
Photo by Rick Dole for Michelin North America

Race winning Peugeot 908 at 2011 12 Hours of Sebring

Almost Everything Autobody watched the 59th running of the 12 Hours of Sebring on ESPN.  We thought we were watching a NASCAR event instead of American Le Mans. Endurance racing used to be tough enough without worring about other racers hitting you on purpose. No longer. Drivers bumped & grinded all 12 hours. Cars were destroyed, carried back to the pits, rebuilt and went back out on the track. Favorites from Audi & Ferrari were totaled allowing Peugeot to win overall for the 2nd year in a row and BMW to win the GT2 class.

Here's footage from one of the big crashes that took out the Ferrari 458: