The second year of Group C regulations brought no rule changes, but Porsche's decision to sell 956 customer cars transformed the entry list. Twelve customer chassis had been released at £160,000 each and eight were present at Le Mans, creating a field almost entirely composed of the same car across the top tier. Lancia remained the primary works opposition with their new LC2, designed by GianPaolo Dallara around a Ferrari 2.6-litre V8 fitted with twin KKK turbos producing 650 bhp, clothed in a Kevlar and carbonfibre Pininfarina shell. Mazda entered two of their new 717C Group C Junior cars for the newly introduced lower-cost class, powered by their 13B twin-rotor rotary engine.
The works Porsche team entered three 956s: Jacky Ickx and Derek Bell sought a hat-trick of victories; the new talent Stefan Bellof, who had just stunned the endurance world with a record lap at the Nürburgring, was paired with Jochen Mass; the third car carried Hurley Haywood, Al Holbert, and Vern Schuppan. Customer 956s were entered by Reinhold Joest (two cars, including the race-winning Bob Wollek pairing with Klaus Ludwig and Stefan Johansson), John Fitzpatrick Racing (two cars), the Kremer brothers (driven by Mario and Michael Andretti with Philippe Alliot), Richard Lloyd's Canon-backed GTi Engineering, and the Obermeier team co-driven by Desiré Wilson.
Rondeau returned with their new M482 Group C car backed by a consortium of French Ford dealers and driven by Henri Pescarolo and Thierry Boutsen, Jean Rondeau himself, and Jean-Pierre Jaussaud. The small WM squad brought their new P83 with a 3.1-litre Peugeot V6 turbo now producing 650 bhp with full factory support. The EMKA Group C car, commissioned by Steve O'Rourke and powered by a modified Aston Martin V8, was co-driven by Tiff Needell and Nick Faure. Pink Floyd's Nick Mason purchased the 1982 Dome and upgraded it with extended tail and improved cooling, retaining Chris Craft and Eliseo Salazar as co-drivers.
A new lower-cost Group C Junior class was introduced, with a 700 kg minimum weight and 55-litre fuel tanks. The Italian Alba Engineering AR2, powered by a turbocharged Giannini straight-four producing 420 bhp, had won the preceding Silverstone and Nürburgring Junior rounds and arrived as the class favourite alongside Mazda.
Porsche came prepared with qualifying engines wound to 700 bhp. Ickx claimed his third consecutive pole in three years with a 3:16.6-second lap, twelve full seconds faster than his 1982 pole time. Lancia's Michele Alboreto snatched second with a late run on qualifying tyres at 820 bhp boost. Klaus Ludwig was fifth in the first of the customer Porsches, with teammate Volkert Merl recorded at 370 km/h (230 mph) — the highest speed in practice, aided by a tow. The Rondeau M482 proved unexpectedly slow despite computer modelling predicting 355 km/h; aerodynamic bottoming and porpoising limited the cars and left Pescarolo only 17th fastest. The Jolly Club Alba was fastest in the Junior class by more than 20 seconds.
Mass overtook Ickx to lead the opening lap before a collision between Ickx and debutant Jan Lammers at Mulsanne corner on lap two sent both cars to the pits for replacement noses, costing approximately two minutes. Schuppan's Porsche inherited the lead as the works Porsches locked out the top positions. Lancia's challenge deteriorated almost immediately: Alboreto's car seized at Arnage at 5:30 pm with gearbox failure, and Ghinzani dropped back with fuel issues. Within the first hour, the two works Lancias were eliminated. The Rondeau M482 of Jaussaud retired early with an oil leak.
By the quarter-distance mark, the Ickx/Bell car had fought back to rejoin the leading works trio, and Porsches occupied all ten top positions. Bellof and Holbert had pulled away in the Mass/Bellof and Schuppan/Holbert cars. Bell nearly suffered disaster when his car coasted down the pitlane out of fuel; the resulting stop dropped them back significantly.
Around midnight, the Mass/Bellof car developed a fuel system fault causing a full-lean mixture that holed a piston. Running on five cylinders from midnight, the car eventually retired on Sunday afternoon. The leading customer Porsche of John Fitzpatrick stopped with a broken fuel-metering system and retired. The two remaining Lancia LC2s expired in the early hours; the Ghinzani/Heyer car lost fuel pressure at Porsche Curves around 2:00 am and the other surrendered to turbo disintegration.
Ickx and Bell drove hard through the night and by 3:00 am had rejoined the lead lap when the leaders pitted with a puncture. The Kremer Porsche of Mario and Michael Andretti settled into a strong second place, running three laps behind the leaders.
Bell briefly took the lead at 6:30 am Sunday but stopped at Mulsanne when a wire from his Motronic engine management system came adrift. He reattached it on the spot but the pitstop cost twelve minutes and five laps, dropping the Ickx/Bell car three laps behind the lead. Ickx set a new lap record of 3:29.1 in the subsequent charge, and the pair finally reclaimed second at 11:30 am.
The Schuppan/Holbert/Haywood Porsche had led since the fifth hour when, with less than ninety minutes remaining, a door blew off the car. Schuppan saw engine temperature gauges spike and pitted. The very hot engine proved difficult to restart; Al Holbert took the car out at a reduced pace. Driving with one hand occasionally holding the repaired door as it continued to break loose, Holbert managed the overheating engine by finding a pace that kept temperatures stable on the Mulsanne straight. He ran 3:45-minute laps as Bell, now on cracked front brake pads and effectively braking on the gearbox down the straight, pursued on 3:30–3:33 laps.
Holbert refuelled at 3:25 pm and the mechanics added a leather strap to secure the door. Bell unlapped himself during the stop, putting himself on the lead lap. With two minutes remaining, Holbert's engine seized at Arnage when it ran out of cooling water. He managed a desperate bump-start, crossed the line with a plume of white smoke, and pulled off immediately. Bell arrived 64 seconds later, switched to his reserve fuel tank on the final lap. By Ickx's estimate, neither car would likely have completed another lap.
Vern Schuppan, Al Holbert, and Hurley Haywood were declared winners having covered 5,047.93 km at an average of 210.33 km/h. The Kremer Porsche of the Andrettis finished third, five laps back; Mario Andretti only later realised he had come within minutes of achieving the Triple Crown — victories in the Formula 1 World Championship, the Indianapolis 500, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans — a feat at that point shared only with Graham Hill. The Joest Porsches finished fourth and sixth; the Sauber C7-BMW was the only non-Porsche in the top ten, placing ninth.
For Schuppan, it was his eleventh attempt at Le Mans, having previously recorded two second-place finishes; he became only the second Australian to win the race after Bernard Rubin in 1928. Porsche swept the top eight positions, surpassing Ferrari's 1963 achievement of six consecutive finishers and making it the most dominant single-marque result in race history to that point. The result delivered Porsche the Manufacturers Championship while Ickx narrowly edged Bell for the Driver's Championship. The Mazda 717C, driven by Japanese works crew Terada, Katayama, and Yorino, won the Group C Junior class in twelfth overall with the best fuel economy of the race. The Jean Rondeau company, having failed to develop their M482 Group C challenger despite winning Le Mans only three years earlier, was placed in receivership before the year ended.
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