Back 24-Stunden-Rennen von Le Mans 1983 German 24 Heures du Mans 1983 French 1983-as Le Mans-i 24 órás verseny Hungarian 24 Ore di Le Mans 1983 Italian 1983年のル・マン24時間レース Japanese 24 uur van Le Mans 1983 Dutch 24h Le Mans 1983 Polish 24 Horas de Le Mans de 1983 Portuguese 24 ur Le Mansa 1983 Slovenian 1983 Le Mans 24 Saat Yarışı Turkish
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The 1983 24 Hours of Le Mans was a motor race staged at the Circuit de la Sarthe, Le Mans, France on 18 and 19 June 1983. It was the 51st Grand Prix of Endurance and was also the fourth round of both the 1983 World Endurance Championship and the 1983 European Endurance Championship. The 1983 race was held eight days before the 60th anniversary of the inaugural race held in 1923.
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The Porsche 956 was the dominant car in the Championship series, as the company had released cars for customer sale. Although Lancia were quick in practice they were too unreliable in the race. From the start, the works Porsche team took the lead. As rival marques fell away with engine issues, the Porsches consolidated the top-ten. The Kremer car of Mario Andretti led the pursuit, running 2nd for a time on Sunday morning. The Ickx/Bell car had been delayed early in the race, but hard driving had got them back to the top-three. They briefly took the lead soon after dawn but Bell stopped at Mulsanne and lost five laps repairing an electrical fault.
With less than ninety minutes to go, the third works Porsche looked set for victory, after taking the lead in the fifth hour. However, when a door blew off the car Schuppan saw his temperature gauges spike. Al Holbert took the car out for the final stint at a careful pace, with Bell closing in relentlessly, although he was suffering from damaged front brakes. With half an hour to go, Bell unlapped himself to put himself on the lead lap. With two minutes to go, Holbert's engine seized as he passed the pits, having run out of water and overheated. However, by good fortune he was able to get it going again. He made it around one last time, to the finish line, and pulled off straight away. Bell came home just over a minute later running on his reserve fuel-tank. Neither car would likely have done another lap, which would have potentially given the victory to the Kremer Porsche that finished third, six laps back.
The crushing victory by Porsche saw nine of their cars in the top-10, also winning the Index Prize and the win in Group B. The works Mazda had a trouble-free run for a comfortable win in the new Group C Junior class.