The 1962 24 Hours of Le Mans was a motor race for Experimental cars and Grand Touring cars, staged at the Circuit de la Sarthe, Le Mans, France on 23 and 24 June 1962. It was the 30th Grand Prix of Endurance and the eighth round of the 1962 International Championship of Manufacturers.
The race was won by Olivier Gendebien and Phil Hill driving a Ferrari 330 TRI/LM.
Regulations
The CSI (Commission Sportive Internationale - the FIA’s regulations body) initiated its new championship aimed specifically for GT cars. The International Championship of Manufacturers was expanded to fifteen races, including endurance and short races and hill-climbs, open to all or some of the eligible classes.
However the Le Mans organisers, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO), realised the public popularity of the Sports Car category and formulated their own development of the existing rules. The aim was to encourage prototypes of potential future GT designs. The maximum engine size for those cars (now called ‘Experimental’) was lifted from 3 to 4 litres. This approach was adopted by the four major endurance events (Sebring, Targa Florio, Nürburgring and Le Mans) who combined to create the Challenge Mondial de Vitesse et Endurance (Speed World Challenge) within the FIA championship that lasted to 1974.
Entries
The ACO's ideas had the desired effect and there were 79 applications for the race to be reduced to 60 cars to practice for the 55 starting places.
Aside from Ferrari and Maserati, a number of companies arrived with new prototypes including Aston Martin, Tojeiro, TVR, Abarth and OSCA. The CSI windscreen rules were influencing design, favouring closed-cars, and only 6 of the 55 starters were open-top.
There were 28 ‘works’ entries. Four-car teams came from Ferrari, Abarth and Panhard et Levassor. Most other works and privateer teams brought 3-car teams.
Again, Ferrari was the dominant marque in the race with 18 entries – the biggest representation from any marque at a Le Mans. Sports-car specialist Abarth was next with 9 cars.
SEFAC Ferrari had bounced back from the chaos at the end of 1961, when top designer Carlo Chiti led a walkout of key staff from the company. His last design, the new 330 TRI/LM was finished by Mauro Forghieri. This last front-engined Ferrari sports car had a 4-litre V12 developing a mighty 390 bhp. It was given to Ferrari's best endurance pair, Phil Hill and Olivier Gendebien. The same engine was also fitted into an updated version of the 250 GTO (Chassis No. 3765), the 330 LMB to be driven by Mike Parkes and Lorenzo Bandini. Ferrari also arrived with two variations of its successful mid-engine cars, the 246 SP V6 for the fan-favourite Rodriguez brothers, and the 268 SP V8 for Ludovico Scarfiotti / Giancarlo Baghetti.
The previous year's TRI/61 cars were sold, one each, to the two Ferrari customer teams: the North American Racing Team (NART) who also had a non-standard 250 GT that had to enter the ‘Experimental’ category. The other went to Italian Count Giovanni Volpi’s Scuderia Serenissima team. However, the count had incurred Enzo Ferrari’s wrath by hiring Chiti and his fellows and could no longer buy Ferrari cars. He therefore got Chiti to redesign a 250 GT with large aerodynamic back end. Nicknamed the ‘breadvan’ its low profile made it very fast, and it was given to Carlo Maria Abate and Colin Davis.
Bucking the trend of moving toward mid-engined cars, the new Maserati T151 was a front-engined 3.9-litre V8 generating 360 bhp and an aerodynamic Kamm tail. Four were entered, including two for Briggs Cunningham and the new Maserati France team. They proved to be the fastest cars on the straights, reaching 287 kp/h (180 mph). However they lost time to the better-handling Ferraris through the curves.
Aston Martin returned to Le Mans with a new prototype based on its DB4 – the Project 212. John Wyer, the team manager and mastermind behind their 1959 Le Mans win was now the company's CEO. The 4-litre Straight-6 engine developed 330 bhp and pushed the car to 270 kp/h (170 mph) down the Mulsanne straight. The car would be raced by Masten Gregory and Graham Hill.
Le Mans regulars, the Ecurie Ecosse team, got John Tojeiro to build them a pair of coupés, utilising a mid-mounted 2.5-litre Coventry Climax F1 engine. The chassis were barely finished in time, and were dispatched to Le Mans unpainted. When the transporter had a traffic accident in Kent en route, it damaged the ready car, so the team chose to scratch the unassembled car.