These Are Our Readers’ Favorite Le Mans Race Cars

As you are reading this I am (hopefully) having the time of my life at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the oldest still-running endurance race in the world. It’ll be my first time ever at the race — and the first time my hosts Genesis have competed — and in the lead-up to the trip I’ve been thinking about the best Le Mans race cars. Earlier this week I posed the question to our readers: What’s your favorite Le Mans race car?

You all had a lot of great answers, from lots of different decades and classes. I said my favorite was the Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR, or more specifically the CLK LM that actually competed in 1998 (and sadly DNF’d), mainly because of how cool it looks. But the reasoning behind your picks was also quite varied, which I appreciate. Some of you cared the most about race results or the engineering behind the car, while others cared the most about design or engine sound. Without further ado, these are my favorite examples of our readers’ favorite Le Mans race cars.

Toyota GT-one. Beautiful machine, only for its program to be completely abandoned so that Toyota could focus its efforts on running midpack in Formula 1 for eight years.

Submitted by: DiRF

I’ve always loved the GT-One.

There is only one correct answer: 787B

The Mazda 787b. First Japanese car to win Le Mans, only Rotary to ever win, capable of 900hp from 2.6 liters with no turbo, arguably the greatest sounding racecar of all time, one of the best looking…

I got to see the real #55 at Mazda’s factory museum in Hiroshima, it was like a religious pilgrimage. To me it’s the pinnacle of internal combustion engines.

Gosh I’d love to have a unique answer for this one but I don’t, I gotta give it up for the Mazda 787B. It’s easily my favorite race car of all time. It looks amazing and the banshee wail of that four-rotor motor is like nothing else. That win in 1991 is still such a monumental achievement, and I would put money down that there will never even be another rotary-engined car to enter the race again (unless Mazda loses their marbles and decides to try making lightning strike twice 🤔).

Submitted by: JL, Jake Wetherill, HakosukaDreaming

I wouldn’t have been surprised if every single answer was the 787B.

Being somewhat fossilized, I’d pass all of these by in favor of an Aston Martin DBR1. Second choice, a D-Type Jaguar.

Or a Ferrari 250LM.

Submitted by: ExAutoJourno

I LOVE the DBR1.

Nissan R390 GT1

yes, it might be the most unsuccessful in entire LeMans history compare to other automaker but I applaud Nissan honoring the rule by making road car version first then race car later on, unlike most of its rival which mostly just thinly-disguised racecar as roadcar

Also that lead to Nissan R390 GT1 roadcar which is also suffer the same failure as its racecar and have a very extremely hard time to find and convince buyer, in fact its much more worse than Lexus LFA which managed to sold all 500 units even though Toyota need more than 5 years (jalopnik once published article about remaining unsold LFA)

A stark contrast of fate when compare to its cheaper siblings from same time and era, Nissan Skyline GT-R R32-R34 which attain collector and cult status all over the world and dominating both racing and commercial success

Submitted by: Derry

Maybe the coolest Nissan ever made?

I think I have to go with the Ferrari P4. It’s got to be one of the most beautiful racecars of all time. That swooping bodywork, the bubble canopy, rosso corsa with gold wheels… sublime.

Submitted by: JohnnyWasASchoolBoy

Definitely one of the most beautiful race cars ever.

2023 Car 56 Camaro from Hendrix Motorsport.

What I love is that the race organizers had this full plan in place to warn everyone where this car that they assumed would be dangerously slow was located on the track.

Without realizing that Hendrix would “cheat” (read the rules in a beneficial manner). Stuff like minimum weight and engine restrictions that Nascar had were ignored since Le Mans didn’t have them. With aero tweaks, a major diet and a serious injection of power, the things about warning the race teams where Car #56 was moot.

But even without this, the warning system was moot anyway, given how fricking loud a Nascar Motor is at full song.

Deep down, I respect the cars and drivers of Nascar. It was fun to see LeMans fans struggle to understand a Nascar (ish) car hauling the mail in the loudest possible way on the track.

Garage 56 Camaro. Not the fastest, or the most high tech, or the best looking, or the one with the most wins, or history, but it ran, and ran, and ran. It sounded great and everybody liked it.

They took a Nascar Cup car, made as few changes as possible to fit the rules and the reality of 24 hours no stop racing, and it just….worked.

Submitted by: hoser68, That Guy

Hell yeah brother.

1999 Winner BMW V12 LMR!

Ferrari 333SP is a close 2nd; I guess I like the open-seaters.

There have been soooo many great Le Mans cars that I have enjoyed watching and wish I had seen race. But, hands down, my favorite is the 1999 BMW V12 LMR art car, by Jenny Holzer. She’s been a favorite artist of mine for decades, and her work on this car was fantastic. I desperately want a model of it on my desk.

Submitted by: WeryPert1, Poorsche

An awesome era of race cars, and one of my favorite designs of the lot.

I consider the Group C era to be the greatest in motorsport history, and the GT1 era is right up there too, so it’s very difficult to pick just one. Many of my picks have already been mentioned, so I’ll say the Alfa Romeo SE 048SP, and I’m fully aware of the irony of having a favorite Le Mans car that never actually raced.

With Lancia locked into the World Rally Championship and Ferrari in Formula 1, Alfa Romeo was the only manufacturer under Fiat without a factory racing program. However, although at least one SE048SP was built, the program was shelved as Fiat focused all of their efforts on Ferrari & Formula 1.

I guess I’m very drawn to “what could have been” stories, not to mention how utterly gorgeous the Alfa is. I like how Group C cars look in general, but they do end up looking quite similar to one another. The Alfa really stands out to me, especially in its all red, sponsor-free finish.

Submitted by: Aldairion

This is a great answer.

The Panoz LMP-1 – specifically the LMP-01 EVO, which ran at Le Mans in 2002.

At a time when prototypes with small, turborcharged, engines mounted amindships were the formula everyone followed, Panoz bucked the trend with the front-engined LMP-1, featuring a 6.0L NASCAR-derived V8!

I first saw the car race on Speedvision in 2000 and then saw it race in person in 2002 and 03 and it’s been my favorite car (not just Le Mans race car) ever since.

The V8 engine was somehow absolutely brutal, yet sounded more refined than other cars running big American V8s, and the front-engined layout was a big American bird flipped at the European establishment.

The LMP-1 never won Le Mans, but the car DID beat the legendary Audi R8s more times than any other car in the period. And Panoz did go on to win Le Mans in the GT2 class a few years later. It was such a cool time in endurance sports car racing and I’m lucky it was among my formative years as a car guy.

Submitted by: Mike Laney

Panoz rules. Another crazy open-top racer!

How can I choose? I fell in love with the GT-40 when I was a kid. As an adult, I like the weird ones. There’s nothing weirder than the Nissan GT-R LM Nismo. Everyone says that FWD isn’t a good race car. I’ve seen plenty of good FWD race cars, but this was probably the best. Too bad Nissan abandoned it.

Submitted by: Clay Horste

I wish Nissan would have stuck with that car.

Any of the TWR Jags, but lets go with the XJR-9. That Silk Cut livery is so iconic. Right behind is one of the many 917s to run at Le Sarthe.

Submitted by: Rick Novak

Such a great design.

This one right here. The 1996 Nissan Skyline GT-R LM. Based on the BCNR33 which is the car that got me into the whole JDM car culture thing after seeing Big Bird in The Fast and the Furious back in 2001 when I saw that on the big screen, this is my favorite. Only the R33 GT-R has been to Pikes Peak, Le Mans, the Nurburgring 24, Super GT/JGTC, and everywhere else. The BCNR33 is my dream car and I got into endurance racing when Porsche campaigned the 919 Hybrid; it was like my favorite worlds meeting together. There are more successful cars and faster ones, but I love this one the most when asked about my favorite Le Mans car. Runner up is the 919 Hybrid.

Submitted by: GTRakun

It also spawned one of the coolest homologation road cars.

In terms of accomplishment, the 1995 McLaren F1 GTR.

Designed as a road car, McLaren was pressured by customers to build a racing version. In its first-ever attempt at Le Mans, it beat purpose-built prototypes to take the overall victory. McLaren became the first manufacturer to win its debut attempt since Ferrari in 1949. The heavily road-derived GT cars filled four of the top five spots, outpacing lighter, faster Le Mans Prototypes. This was all with a detuned engine.

Submitted by: LostItsWheel

I’m only including this one because I know y’all would yell at me if I didn’t