The main novelty was the new scrutinising order. For the first time Monday was reserved for the GT2s of which there were 17. The GT1s and the sports prototypes (24 and 11 respectively) made their bow on Tuesday. It was Ladies first as Lilian Byrner set the ball rolling on Monday morning in muggy temperatures under lowering skies.

LM GT2

 PORSCHE: The (German company had a numerical advantage in this category with no fewer than eight 911 GT2s pre-qualified. Statdler Motorsport was back after being eliminated last year due to an accident in the pre-qualifying session. The car was driven by team regulars Enzo Calderalri and Lilian Bryner backed up for the first time by the Italian, Angelo Zadra. There was a Schum acher in the Konrad Motorsport car but it was neither Michael nor Ralf: it was Larry, an IMSA Porsche specialist! He was teamed up with Toni Seiler from Switzerland, a regular in this team with Michael Ligonnet who is also racing in IMSA this season. The team Haberthur car was tacking its 3rd Le Mans 24 Hours and Mchael Neugarten was backed up by G. Schindler , G. Martinolle and Jean-Claude Lagniez who first raced here in l970. 
Roock Racing tuned up with 3 cars one of which was entered under the GT Racing Team banner. No. 74 was aiming for a second consecutive class victory in the hands, among others, of Bruno Eichmann, winner of the 1996 Porsche Cup. No. 73 was entrusted to the Mello Bryner brothers, the first Portuguese team in the history of Le Mans (and also the first time that 3 brothers have raced together). In no.80 was Claudia Hurtgen from Germany, the only other woman entered. The Larbre Competition car was racing for the 3rd time in the event with local boy Patrick Bourdais as lead driver. The newest of the Porsches was the Chereau entry also prepared by Larbre. The driver line-up consisted of Jean-Luc Cherau from Avranches, Jack Leconte from Caen and Jean-Pierre Jarier who, with Migault and Berettat is one of the few GT2 drivers to have raced in F1 . Technically speaking, most of the teems have prepared their own engines except for Larbre and Chereau who called upon he factory. Power output varies between 500 and 550 bhp for the GT2 Porsches.

 MARCOS: Jem Marsh, the make's founder was there to keep an eye on things. The Mantara LM 600s are still powered by the V8 Chevrolet engine whose cubic capacity has been reduced to 5.9 litters to benefit from larger air restrictors. They have been prepared in the Netherlands by Kok Motorsport and the newest of the cars is driven by the team boss, Kor Euser, with Harald Becker. The Japanese, Taki Suzuki, president of the Japanese Porsche club, made his Sarthe debut in 1996 in the Seikel Motorsport team. In the other Marcos, local hero, François Migault, is getting ready to take part in his 23rd Le Mans 24 Hour race.

 FORD: The Mustangs were back after a 30 year absence! California-based Steve Saleen is the Carroll Shelby of the 90s. As he has already sold over 4000 Mustangs in North America, he wants to make himself known in Europe and reckons that the best way to do it is through racing. A number of Englishmen with a lot of experience in endurance have come along to strengthen the team, in particular, Roy Baker (team manager} and Dave Prewitt and Ron Elkins (ex-Jaguar). In no. 67 Saleen has teamed up with Price Cobb, winner here in 1990 in a Jaguar. The 5.9 litters engines have been prepared by McLaren USA and the gearbox is an X-Trac sequential. 

 CHRYSLER: The blue GTS-R Viper entered by Chamberlain Engineering is a standard model (ex-Oreca) fitted with steel brakes and the lead driver is Jari Nurminen from Finland. In the Oreca camp no. 61 and 62 are fitted with carbon ones and an ABS system (the only GT2 cars to have such refinements }. No.63 is an older model and has steel brakes (no ABS) as it a 96 car that was not homologated with carbon brakes. Caldwell prepared the engines in the USA but on the spot back up is provided by Heini Mader. The Weism ann gearbox tested in pre- qualifying has been abandoned for a tried and tested Borg & Warner. The 24 hour test carried out on the Paul Ricard circuit went off well and Hugh de Chaunac is confident of a win in the GT2 Category. The driver line-ups have been modified with Beretta-Gache-Dupuy in no.61 and Marc Duez has joined Archer and Ayari in no.62 with Morton going on to 63 with Justin Bell and Pierre Yver. It is the latter's 20th Le Mans and his advice will be helpful to Soheil Ayari, recent winner of the Helsinki F3000 race and Le Mans debutante. 

 CALLAWAY: The Agusta Racing team has remained faithful to their Corvette whose engine is no longer prepared by Callaway himself but by Comptech (already worked for Courage). Like the Marcos the cubic capacity has been reduced to 5.9 litters . Almo Coppelli and Rocky Agusta are both the bosses and drivers of the team based at Silverstone.

LMGT1

 PANOZ: For their Le Man debut, the Atlanta-bases team managed to qualify 3 of their cars and turned up at scrutineering after a GT. win in the Watkins Glen 6 Hour event. Two cars have been entered by David Price Racing who manufactures all the composite parts of the Panoz. The sole DAMS entry has a Zytek engine management system instead of Motec which, Jean Paul Driot hopes, will eliminate the engine problems met during pre-qualifying. The Panozes are powered by a V8 Ford engine prepared by the legendary NASCAR wizard, Jack Rousch. The DAMS driver line-up consists of Bernard, Lagorce and Bouillon three of the team 's former F3000 aces. In the Dave Price camp Andy Wallace, James Weaver and David Brabham lead the attack.

 PORSCHE: The factory had to build a new car following Dalmas's accident on the Spa circuit in which he broke 2 fingers. This will not prevent him from lining up alongside Collard and Ralf Kelleners. The 2 works GT1s can be distinguished by wider front tracks and more evolved aerodynamics. Only after Le Mans will their clients benefit from these modes.
According to Jurgen Barth the factory engines are identical to those powering the clients' cars as are the manual gearboxes. Among the numerous talented drivers are : Karl Wendlinger who is in the Roock entry with MCNish and Ortelli, Pedro Lamy backing up the Caen coming-man, Patrick Gouselard, Pierluigi Martini, pole position setter last year, in the Scuderia Italian car, Alalin FertŽ in the J. R Racing 911 GT1 and of course Bouchut and Gachot plus Andy Evans, the new owner of the Sports Car Championship in the USA (ex-lMSA}.

 LOTUS: The English make has slightly modified the Chevrolet-based V8 (10 bhp gained) and has also done an endurance test on its Hethel test track. In no.49 are Jan lammers and Mike Hezemans(son of Toine) from Holland backed up by Sandy Grau from Germany, a former ITC driver. Fabien Giroix and Jean-Denis Deletraz have decided to race without a third driver.

 LISTER: 71 -year-old Brian Lister, the make's founder, will be at the start on Saturday to cheer on Laurence Pearce's team . The 2 GTL Storms have been fitted with a new wing and the ex-Group C Jaguar engine prepared by Lister puts out around 600 bhp. Geoff Kingston, the team's technical director and designer, is in charge d the Lees-Needell-Fouche car while in the second is a newcomer to Le Mans, Mark Skaife, one of the stars of Touring Car racing in Australia.

 McLAREN: The factory has made modifications to all the cars since pre- qualifying, particularly in the area of aerodynamics. The BMW Motorsport cars (under Charlie Lamm's management) are the only ones to be fitted with ABS. The extra weight engendered by this system allows the filling of larger air restrictors (15bhp more). The technical direction is in the hands of Gordon Murray himself even though he is still available to the other teams, Gulf and Lark. The latter carries the name of its sponsor, a Japanese cigarette company. The car in fact, belongs to Parabolica Motorsport and Dave Sims (ex-Toyota) is the team manager while Graham Humphries (ex-Spice and Kokusai Kaihatso in 1995) has been entrusted with the technical side. In the Gulf camp, the chassis destroyed at Silverstone by Gounon, has been rebuilt and alongside the team manager Michael Cane, Frank Coppuck is in charge of the technical management. After thinking about racing as a 2 driver team, Nielsen and Bscher have called upon the services of English GTand Touring Car driver, Chris Goodwin. NlSSAN: The Nissan R390 GT1s, now painted in red and black, were tested for the last time last weekend at Silverstone. Mauro Martini drove the car there for the first time but the Italian driver was hit by a car last weekend when on his cross-country bike! He has been replaced by Florida-based South African, Wayne Taylor, ex-lMSA champion and winner of the Daytona 24 Hour race as well as having considerable Le Mans experience. Tom Walkinshaw will be obliged to shuttle between Canada and Le Mans leaving the Sarthe on Thursday and returning on Saturday before going back to Montreal on Sunday. His right-hand man, Roger Silm an will look after the nitty-gritty backed up by Kunihiko Kakimoto. Tony Southgate, the Nissan designer, is looking after the Brundle-Taylor-Muller car and Steve Farrell that of van de Poele-Patrese -A.Suzuki while the Hoshino-Comas-Kageyama Nissan is in the hands of Nismo.

PROTOTYPES

 KREMER: Nothing very new in the technical department for the K8 spiders whose Porsche engines are still prepared by Kremer. The lead car is in the hands of Saldana-Rosenblad-Laessig and the second has been rented out to Jean-Luc Maury-Laribière and has been taken in charge by BBA Competition. It has been painted in the same colors as the McLaren that failed to qualify. Bernard Chauvin, a Lamborghini Trophy specialist has replaced Paul Belmondo alongside Giovanni Lavaggi, a former F1 driver for Pacific and Minardi.

 BRM: Pacific Racing has transformed the chassis that raced here in 1992 into a spider. The engine is the V6 twin turbo Nissan prepared by Janspeed that also powered the 300 ZX Nissans in 1994. Team manager is Ian Dawson and in the driving seat are Toivonen, Salazar and Spaniard, Jesus Pareja.

 COURAGE: The"Vaillante" C41 is backed up by a brace of C36s all of which are powered by the flat 6 twin turbo Porsche engine prepared by Courage himself. While Porsche does not help its clients in prototype racing, Bosch still supplies the Motronic system plus technical back-up. AlI 3 Courages are now fitted with a Salisbury differential. In no.9, looked after by Michael Phillips and Lucien Monte, are Mario and Michael Andretti together for the 4th time after 1982,83 and 88 with Olivier Grouillard as third helmsman. In no.l 0 we find Jean-Louis Ricci plus Jean-Paul Libert and Fredrik Ekblom from Sweden. The third C36 has been entered by La Filière Elf and Henri Pescarolo is backed up by Clerico and Belloc in a car powered by a Joest prepared Porsche engine. In the C41 are Cottaz and Pollicand with Marc Goossens from Belgium . Yves Courage will look after no.l3 personally.

 JOEST: Repainted in FAT colours the chassis 001, winner last year, is back to try for the double. Joest has prepared the engine himself and has worked on reducing the drag. The suspension geometry and dampers have also been revised. Tom Kristensen, the current F3000 Championship leader, has been chosen to back up Alboreto and Johansson, former F1 Ferrari team -mates!

 FERRARI: The last cars to undergo scrutinising were the two 333 SP Ferraris much to the delight of the public. Moretti's car has been entered in LMP1 so as to benefit from carbon fibrebrakes as opposed to that of Michael FertŽ which is the only car complying with the WSCregs. Moretti's 333 SP which he shares with Didier Theys and Max Papis, has special bodywork designed by Kevin Doran who is also acting as team manager. Michael Ferte's car, which he rented from a collector, is the one hat scored the first win by a 333 SP (Road Atlanta in 1994). The other drivers of the Pilot car are American, Charles Nearburg (a USA sports car specialist) and Adrian Camps from Spain who drove for Minardi in F1. The Ferrari engines come from Michelotto.

 MAZDA: During the tests carried out at Roabling Road, not far from Atlanta, the Kudzu team tested 10 evolutions 8 of which have been retained. Thus, the car is very different from the one that tuned up for pre-qualifying. The aerodynamics have been revised with a better streamlined front bonnet. The engine has found more power (530bhp) and is more flexible. 
Anti-roll bars have been fitted. The power unit is Kudzu-prepared but with parts from Mazdaspeed. Fréon-Downing and Terada hope to start in their 3rd Le Mans 24 Hour race provided that they qualify!