The Mulsanne Straight at Le Mans, 1956-1969: Suitcases, Elevons and things that Go Bump in the Bodywork

This survey of automotive aerodynamics at Le Mans, 1956-1969, continues an earlier paper, SAE Paper No. 2000-01-3556, presented at the 2000 SAE Motorsports Engineering Conference & Exposition. Like the earlier work, our perspective here is expository as opposed to analytical. We make use of narrative and photographic archives of Road & Track magazine. Of particular interest is the interplay of regulation and (occasionally highly bizarre) response.