Top 15 Most Dominant Le Mans Cars To Win Overall

The Porsche 919 Hybrid was utterly dominant in arguably the most competitive era in sportscar racing history and should have been ranked higher in my opinion

I miss Gran Turismo 4 when I see these group C cars

The fact the R8 was only beaten by a car in a different category beat them showed how dominant they were. With Bentley actually being run by Audi Sport UK just under Team Bentley. Also Joest Racing were so instrumental in the building and development of the R8, Speed 8, R10 and R18s that without them none of these dominant cars could have been what they are. Also having 15 wins at Le Mans in total, with 2 wins coming from the 956.

I think there's something to be said about cars that were dominant in lower categories. Like, yes Porsche built a lot of prototypes that won.....but they also made the 911 that won one of the GT classes almost every year there were entries. It also birthed the trim packages like RS, RSR, GT3, and GT2 either due to homologation purposes or to honor their victories in those categories. And lets not forget that the 935, essentially the racing version of the 911 turbo, won outright in 79 despite being, effectively, a GT-class car racing against prototypes.

The Ford GT40 MKIV might’ve deserved an honorable mention. Setting top speed records, a distance record, leading the entire race, and directly causing a rule change that banned all large displacement engines. I believe it was also the last time Ford fielded a factory team.

The 917 is such a cool car. It's probably one of my favourate cars ever.

The ROTHMANS PORSCHE 956/962 and similar cars are mythical. I wasn't even born when they stopped racing but as an endurance racing super geek I am in awe of them and their driver line-up: Ickx, Bell, Bellof, Mass, Holbert, Watson, Haywood, Schuppan, Wollek, Stuck, Lammers, Dumfries, Ludwig, The Andrettis and others I forgot to mention. All racing legends I do not know if the hybrid Era cars will ever field such an incredible array of talent. Both driver and car super stars who were dominant.

i've personally worked on the #9 yellow audi r8 testing and it's crazy how quick it still is in present day

My favourite little detail about the R8 (I don't know which year it was) was when they changed the rules to require smaller wing endplates, to slow the cars down. Audi figured out that they could have two large fins sticking up from the bodywork meeting, but not touching (there was a 1mm gap) the much smaller, totally legal wing endplate. To the air, it didn't matter. The I-can't-believe-they're-not-endplates worked just as well as the proper ones from the previous year and the car dominated even harder. The next year the rules were changed again to make the wing narrower, where Audi pulled a similar trick, which is the version that has the box sections at the ends of the rear wing. So the airfoil section was as wide as the rules allowed but the thing behaved as if the wing was bigger.

The Audi R8 will also be remembered in LeMans history in 2000 where they completed one of the fastest rear end changes ever and it took the Joest mechanics less than 4 minutes to complete the repairs and get the car back in the race

Surely the 4 1/2 litre Bentley deserves a mention. 4 wins and a 1,2,3,4! Puts most of the other cars mentioned well and truly in the shade.......

Fun little fact about the Ferrari 250 LM’s victory at Le Mans, it wasn’t even the main Ferrari team that won the 1965 Le Mans, it was the N.A.R.T team. Ferrari originally entered 2 of their 330 P2s, but cause they had issues with their brakes, they retired the cars and backed the remaining 250 LMs from N.A.R.T and the Belgium team, Ecurie Francorchamps. There’s a video on YT, forget who it’s by, that covers the 1965 24 hours of Le Mans. Which funny enough the winning 250 LM was given to the IMS museum and left in the basement for some number of decades. Which it’s also kinda funny too, the car that it was cozied next to was the 1979 Le Mans winning Porsche 935.

You should have another separate Honorable Mention list for greatest one-time victory cars. That would be the 787B, F1 McLaren GTR and the 79, 935. Also, completly left out the Bentley Boys dominance from the pre-war era? Those would've been better than the Audi based Bentley you included. Great vid wither way!

I would have evaluated the 956 and 962C as one distinct model. Despite the number designation change, the only difference between the 956 and 962, other than the usual year-on-year incremental improvements, is a redesigned front suspension to move the axis of the front wheels in front of the driver's feet and a change from an aluminum to steel rollcage. This was originally mandated by IMSA, resulting in the 962, and were transfered back to the 956 as the 962C, which had the same engine, twin turbocharger setup and transmission as the 956 (although they bored it out over the years). The monocoque was the same (in fact, some 956 cars were converted into 962s), and the bodywork maintained considerable continuity, mostly just having been tweaked around the nose to move the front wheel wells forward.

Certainly for me nr. 1 are the couple 956/962. Wins from 1982 until 1987. But don' t forget the speed record of Marko/Van Lennep of 1971: 39 years !!!!

Putting in the Toyota TS050 which got it‘s wins with basically no competition and not the 919 which beat it every time they competed (Yes I remember how that happened but still) feels a little bit weird.

917 was the GOAT, but the MS670 has the greatest sound ever.

Well done, very nice compendium, and top 15 choices indeed! Let's not forget the GTs though (whether it be Group 5, GTS, GT1, GT2, LMGTE etc): Porsche 935 and 935K, 961, 911 RSRs, the awesome Viper, Corvette, Ferrari 488 LMGTE, and the absolute outsider McLaren F1 GTR (courtesy of Ueno Clinic haha)

I am a Porsche fan in out and all around......but that D-type does it for me.....judgement based on looks. lol

Toyota GR might have to be re evaluated after this 24h. Seeing as each win came with virtually no serious competition. And when they finally did this year Ferrari took the front row and the. 51 car never looked back. Especially seeing as Cadillac, Porsche and Peugeot had a taste of the lead at certain points.