Porsche 911 GT1-98 on Three Wheels – 24 Hours of Le Mans 1998
On Saturday, June 6, 1998, in the late afternoon, exiting the S curves through the forest, the Porsche 911 GT1-98 No. 26 sped by, cornering on three wheels. The front right wheel no longer touched the asphalt, lifted by the rigidity of the chassis and the stiffness of the suspension. The low sunlight highlighted the tense curves of the bodywork in one of the most spectacular sections of the circuit.
I photographed this action using my Nikon F5 equipped with a manual focus 500mm f/4 Ai-P, paired with a 1.4x teleconverter, giving an effective focal length of 700mm f/5.6. The film was Fuji Provia 100 ISO. This setup allowed me to frame tightly despite the distance, focusing on the precise trajectory of the cars through this technical section.
Positioned about thirty centimeters from the safety rail, I was asked to move back by a track marshal, concerned about a potential shockwave traveling along the guardrails in the event of a crash. I stayed at that spot for just a few laps—enough to capture this rare image of a leading car in a highly dynamic cornering phase.
Victory for Porsche and a Remarkable Trio
The car in question was driven by the winners of the 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans: Allan McNish, Laurent Aïello, and Stéphane Ortelli. With this triumph, Porsche secured its 16th victory at Le Mans. The closed-cockpit GT1-98 was entered in the LMP1 category and represented the culmination of a multi-year development program. It was powered by a rear mid-mounted, twin-turbo flat-six engine.
Its sleek design, aerodynamic appendages, and Mobil 1 livery became iconic symbols of late-1990s endurance racing. These types of firmly sprung prototypes, optimized for long-distance performance, had minimal suspension travel—explaining how the car could momentarily corner on three wheels under maximum load.
A Double-Page Spread in Auto Hebdo
On Sunday morning, June 7, I photographed the same Porsche at the entrance to the S curves in the forest. That second image, captured under different lighting conditions, was selected for the opening double-page spread of the retrospective article published in Auto Hebdo magazine—a welcome recognition in the motorsport press of the time.
This kind of image relies as much on mastering the gear as on observing the cars’ behavior and the quality of light. At 700mm with manual focus, each frame requires anticipation and precision. I’ve always aimed to create images that are readable, aesthetic, and expressive—even at full speed.
This photograph is part of my personal motorsport archive. It captures a moment of tension, technique, and energy condensed into a single lap. A way of documenting endurance racing not by its results, but by the gestures, lines, and extreme efforts demanded from both machines and drivers.
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All the photos displayed on this website are copyright protected © Sebastien Desnoulez. No use allowed without written authorization. Legal notice
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