Declarações
| Mike Hawthorn | ||
| Depois de passar o Mercedes de Levegh em Arnage, passei pelo Austin-Healey entre White House e as boxes e, depois de ter dado o sinal de mão necessário, travei e entrei nas boxes, de acordo com as instruções das boxes, dadas no decorrer da volta anterior. Na minha opinião, permiti tempo suficiente para que o piloto de qualquer carro seguinte estivesse ciente de minhas instruções e para que tomasse as medidas necessárias, sem perigo para os outros. | ||
| Le Mans "The Jaguar Years" 1949 - 1957 | ||
| Sobre o acidente de 1955 | ||
| «Absurd and extreme, one of the smallest cars, a twin-boom Nardi, was probably further removed from honest 'prototype' intent than any entry before or since» | ||
| The Illustrated encyclopedia of extraordinary automobiles | ||
| David Hodges no livro The Le Mans 24-Hour Race, 1963 | ||
| Pierre Levegh | ||
| Este circuito é estreito de mais para estes carros tão rápidos» tinha dito Levegh durante os treinos. «cada vez que passo perto das boxes sinto uma espécie de incómodo, como se me encontrasse afogado pela multidão que parece que se me deita para cima.» «Não gosto de me sentar no lugar esquerdo de um carro de corridas. É dificil distinguir os sinais da equipa numas boxes tão estreitas como estas. E além disso há-de sentir-se comodamente e eu não me sinto cómodo neste carro. | ||
| Sobre o acidente de 1955 | ||
| At the end of the flat-out Mulsanne straight the Ferrari brake lights were going on at around the 500 metre marker post and the Jaguars a little later. Moss lights were not even starting to flicker until the 300 metre post, full braking coming still later. | ||
| in The Autocar | ||
| Stirling Moss | ||
| It was fantastic! Not just for braking, but for cornering, too, because it gave you the most tremendous down-force and - wet or dry - you had the same benefit in stopping, whereas the Jags could lock a wheel. Lofty England tried to get them banned in practice because his drivers complained that they couldn't see past the Mercs when the brake went up. load of balls! Mercedes countered that by cutting little windows in the pannel. The D-type was a fantastic car, but as a road-racing car the Mercedes was certainly superior, with its independent suspension, as opposed to the jags' solid rear axle. Normally, they would have eaten us alive at the end of Mulsanne, but with the air brakes we could stay right with them. And at corners like White House we didn't bother with the foot brake at all, we just flipped the air brake up at 170 mph and sailed through at 150 without touching the pedal. That thing would really pull you back! | ||
| Sobre o acidente de 1955 | ||
| Juan Manuel Fangio | ||
| Although Moss was the expert in Le Mans starts, I decided to drive the first session because it was a 24-hour race, not a sprint. Our Team Manager, Alfred Neubauer, gave me no instructions for the race, but before the start he spat on the ground several times to wish me luck. It wasn't much-help to begin with because when I jumped in the car I go the gear lever stuck up my trouser-leg and got away-at the back of the field. | ||
| Sobre o acidente de 1955 | ||
| Juan Manuel Fangio | ||
| The Jaguar was not really faster than the Mercedes, in spite of having 3.5-litres to our 3. We had the air brake, which was fantastico! At 250 kph when I raised it, it was like being pushed backwards. Once, coming out of Tertre Rouge onto the Mulsanne straight, I forgot to lower it and couldn't understand why the damn car wouldn't go! It was truly wonderful, when you used it properly... | ||
| Sobre o acidente de 1955 | ||
| Stirling Moss | ||
| Fangio and I were terribly disappointed when the cars were withdrawn because we would have won the race. John Fitch - Levegh,s co-driver - had spoken with some of the directors of D-B and told them that he thought the cars should be withdrawn, that in deference to the people who had died they should pull the team out. I thought that was wrong - I didn't think it was his place to say that. | ||
| Sobre o acidente de 1955 | ||
| Juan Manuel Fangio | ||
| I understood why Mercedes disappointed because we would have had a very easy victory. The car was going better and better. | ||
| Sobre o acidente de 1955 | ||
| Juan Manuel Fangio | ||
| Levegh m'a sauvélavie. Levegh saved my life. We had only a few more laps to do - Levegh, Kling and I - before stopping at the Mercedes pits to refuel and change drivers. I was driving at more than 260 Kph (160 mph) when, almost as we arrived at the first pit I saw, barely fifty metres in front of me, Levegh suddenly raising one arm. He was signalling to me about a danger that was invisible to me. I braked, but at that speed there is no question of stopping in a few metres. Everything happened so fast that I was not able to grasp the complete picture of the drama. I saw going off to my left, while the Austin-Healey of Macklin/Leston was thrown to the right. How I was able to slip through and avoid Macklin I don't know. It was purely a matter of reflexes. All I can say is that I was able to avoid the Austin-Healey just as I entered a cloud of smoke coming from my left and which was, unfortunately, from Levegh's car, as I later learned. | ||
| Sobre o acidente de 1955 | ||
| Monsieur Pierre Trouille | ||
| Leading the group of cars coming into the straight by the grandstand, the Jaguar number 6 driven by Mike Hawthorn braked suddenly and swerved to the right, as if to go to its pit, perhaps to refuel. Surprised by this sudden braking, Lance Macklin in Austin-Healey number 26, who was just behind, pulled over to the left sharply to avoid a collision, but this movement put him in the path of the Mercedes number 20, which Pierre Levegh was driving at some 250 kph (155 mph) and the result was horrifying. The Austin-Healey spun several times and then broke up, whereas the Meicedes went into an amazing leap which threw it into the crowd before it bounced out again and finally crashed onto the protective bank, where it burst into flames. This (first part of the accident) caused several deaths, but it seems that the greatest number was caused by the car's front assembly (suspension and engine), which was hurled violently into the crowd, decapitating several and crushing many others. | ||
| Sobre o acidente de 1955 | ||
| Lance Macklin | ||
| After passing me, Hawthorn turned too sharply towards the right and braked. In turn, I braked my car as hard as I could to avoid him. My wheels locked and I was carried towards the left. The Mercedes driven by Pierre Levegh hit the back of my car. I was spun round. I saw the Mercedes knocked aside and you know the rest... In an affair of this kind it is difficult to speeak of responsability. Hawthorn no doubt committed an error, but the real responsability was the speed of our cars. Going at 137 to 150 mph, Hawthorn could not halt within a distance of 220 yards and he made a mistake in passing me. I attribute this mistake to the fact the Hawthorn was then engaged in a ferocious struggle with Levegh's and Fangio's cars who were following me (sic). In the excitement of this struggle, Hawthorn executed a manoeuvre which astonished me, and he left me no other alternative to either run into him or turn to the left. | ||
| Sobre o acidente de 1955 | ||
| Mike Hawthorn | ||
| After passing Levegh's Mercedes at Arnage, I passed the Austin-Healey between White House Corner and the pits and, having given the necessary hand signal,I braked and pulled into my pit in accordance with pit instructions given during the course of the preceding lap. In my judgement I allowed sufficient time for the driver of any following car to be aware of my intentions and for him to take such action as might be required without danger to others. | ||
| Sobre o acidente de 1955 | ||
| Lance Macklin | ||
| A few hundred yards behind me, coming out of White House Corner, a silver and a green car were neck and neck. I moved over to the right-hand side of the road to give them room to pass... The Jaguar came alongside me. It was Hawthorn. I was delighted that he was so clearly leading the race. I thought, Fabulous! Old Mike's doing a great job... By now we were approaching the dangerously narrow pit area at about 150 ft a second. Almost immediately Hawthorn overtook me I was surprised when he shot across to the right slap in front of me. I believe that he misjudged the speed of the Austin-Healey. It was known not to be a fast car, but it was going more quickly then he realised. For a moment I thought he must be making way in case Fangio wanted to overtake him in front of the grandstand. In motor racing people often put on a display for the crowd, and I thought that Mike might be going to let Fangio go past to give the crowd a bit of excitement. Instead, I suddenly saw his brake lights come on twenty or thirty yards - no more - in front of me. I thought, Christ! What the hell is he doing? I had to stand on my brakes as hard as I could to try to avoid running into the back of him. And then I realised that I couldn't stop; that he was slowing faster than I was. The jaguars had tremendously powerful double-calliper, power-assisted disc brakes. I had just ordinary little single-pad discs....For a couple of agonising seconds I waited as the gap between my car and the jaguar rapidly diminished. I hoped that Mike might see in his mirror that I was about to crash into him, and ease off his brakes. But I believe he was concentrating too hard on not overshooting his pit. I was as hard as it was possible to be on my brakes. One of the front wheels locked and I thought, "Oh Christ, I'm going to hit him!" I could really feel myself going into the back of him. In a last, desperate effort to re-pass him, I pulled the car over to the left. It wasn't a swerve. You can't swerve at that speed without spinning or worse. I just managed to ease the car over enough so that I barely got past without touching him. For a moment I felt a flush of elation, Then the car went into a long slide, with all four wheels tobogganing. It was virtually out of control. There was a terrifying instant when I thought that my right front wing was going to touch the back of the Jaguar as I went by... but I got the thing corrected and pointing straight again with the speed at about 120 mph, although I still wasn't in real control... At the point where I got the car straightened out - there were tyre marks indicating the spot, and measurements were taken for the inquiry - there were 16 ft of road between the nearside of the Austin-Healey and the side of the track. I knew that, even though I was in the middle of the road as we entered the pits area, there was ample room for anyone to pass me on the left side of the road in the normal way. And then came an indescribable shock. I felt the most almighty BANG! There was a blast of searing heat from an exhaust near my face and my car was catapulted down the road backwards. Out of the corner of my eye I glimpsed a silver shape with the driver hunched over the wheel hurtling through the air ten of fifteen feet above me. Almost at the same moment there was a roar on my other side, and another Mercedes scraped by with only inches to spare between Hawthorn and myself. | ||
| Sobre o acidente de 1955 | ||
| Desmond Titterington | ||
| I was in the main grandstand and I must say that I've always had the feeling that if there was one person who started the chain of events it was Mike, who was a bit hairy and exuberant when driving into the pits. | ||
| Sobre o acidente de 1955 | ||
| John Wyer | ||
| The accident happened immediately opposite our pits, so I was in a better position to see it than anybody... I must say, with regret but great sincerity, that I believe that the chain reaction was triggered by Mike Hawthorn. | ||
| Sobre o acidente de 1955 | ||
| Duncan Hamilton | ||
| I can assure you that Mike was in no way involved in the accident. I had a very good view of it myself. Pierre Levegh had been out of his depth in the Lago Talbot in previous years, so he should never have been let out in the Mercedes. | ||
| Sobre o acidente de 1955 | ||
