Product description
On Saturday, July 19, 1924 at 4:00 p.m., twenty-seven cars launch for the first edition of the 24 Hours of Francorchamps. At the end of a lap made tiring by rain and fog, Springuel-Becquet imposes a Bignan 2.0l capable of reaching 135 km/h in the long straight lines of the 15 km route.
One hundred years later, the seventy-sixth edition of the double turn of the watch saw more than seventy GT3s at the latest cry entrusted to the world’s best specialists in the category. One hundred years… This is worth a book, especially since the test of the Ardennes has followed a surprising evolution. Remained in the shadows for a long time, it was revealed in 1964 when its principals opted for the only touring cars. The ”racing sedans” occupied the top of the bill until 2000 before handing over the baton to the GTs becoming the most important appointment of the season for builders, teams and drivers.
Over these hundred years, illustrator-editor Benoît Deliège and journalist Eric Faure have wanted to evoke them from an unprecedented perspective. Rather than a simple chronological review, these two ”regional stage” offer on more than 300 pages abundantly illustrated – more than 850 photos and 20 watercolors! – a properly articulated alphabet around 26 main themes. The range is very wide, from the King’s Cup to the most original machines seen in action, passing through the performances of the female competitors, the characters ”of the shadows” without which the race could not take place, the resounding feats and failures, the miracles and misfortunes that have enameled these seventy-five editions, the records, the animations on and around the track, in short, the countless facets of a race now known in all corners of the planet. But that’s not all: every letter of the alphabet is entitled as a bonus to a small ”dictionaries” based on some keywords, obviously in relation to these 24 Hours that were… by Francorchamps before being from now on from Spa.
