The 1955 edition brought together the strongest field yet assembled at Le Mans. A total of 87 cars were registered, of which 70 arrived for practice to contest 60 grid places. Title-holders Ferrari arrived with the new 735 LM, powered by a 360 bhp straight-six derived from the previous year's Formula 1 car. Jaguar entered three D-Types, the 1955 version developing 270 bhp, with a line-up built around 1953 winners Tony Rolt and Duncan Hamilton, plus rising star Mike Hawthorn.
The headline addition was Mercedes-Benz, fresh from a 1-2 victory in the Mille Miglia with the 300 SLR. Team manager Alfred Neubauer assembled an international driver roster pairing Juan Manuel Fangio with Stirling Moss in the lead car, with Karl Kling sharing with Andre Simon and John Fitch sharing with the French veteran Pierre Levegh. The fuel-injected 3-litre straight-eight was widely regarded as the most advanced car in the field, though its inboard drum brakes were considered marginal for the high-speed demands of the Mulsanne Straight. A large air-brake flap on the rear deck was permitted to compensate.
Aston Martin brought three DB3S with disc brakes and a strengthened driver line-up including Peter Collins and Paul Frere. Porsche entered four 550 Spyders in the S-1500 class. Maserati fielded a pair of new 300S cars for regular Formula 1 drivers.
Practice saw Eugenio Castellotti set the fastest time in the Ferrari, a full second ahead of Fangio. The race opened at a furious pace; Castellotti led the first hour before a braking error at Mulsanne let Hawthorn and Fangio through. By lap 28 Hawthorn had broken the lap record ten times in succession.
At 6:20 pm, as the first pit-stop window opened, the 1955 Le Mans disaster unfolded. Hawthorn braked sharply to pit in front of Lance Macklin's Austin-Healey. Macklin swung right and then back left across the track to avoid rear-ending the Jaguar, cutting directly across the path of Levegh's Mercedes running in sixth place. Travelling at approximately 150 mph, Levegh's right-front wheel struck the left rear corner of Macklin's car and launched the Mercedes into the air. It cartwheeled for roughly 80 metres over spectators packed along an earthen bank that was the only barrier between them and the track. The engine, radiator and front suspension separated and tore through the crowd for nearly 100 metres. The magnesium-alloy bodywork burned ferociously. Levegh was killed instantly; the death toll among spectators reached at least 81.
Race officials chose to keep the race running, calculating that a mass evacuation would block the roads and prevent emergency services from reaching the injured. After an emergency directors' meeting in Stuttgart, Neubauer withdrew the two surviving Mercedes at 1:45 am, at which point they were running first and third.
With Mercedes gone and Ferrari having retired through mechanical failures, Jaguar ran unchallenged to the finish. Hawthorn and Ivor Bueb won with a record 306 laps completed at an average of 172.31 km/h. Second place went to Collins and Frere in the Aston Martin, the team's best result since 1951. The podium was completed by the Belgian Ecurie Francorchamps Jaguar D-Type of Johnny Claes and Jacques Swaters.
Porsche took fourth, fifth and sixth overall, with Helmut Polensky and Richard von Frankenberg winning the S-1500 class and the Index of Performance. Three Bristols finished seventh, eighth and ninth to dominate the two-litre class.
The catastrophe triggered immediate bans on motor racing in Switzerland and a temporary suspension in France, with the French government imposing new safety regulations before allowing the 1956 race to proceed. Several teams including Mercedes-Benz, MG and Bristol withdrew from racing by year's end. Drivers John Fitch, Phil Walters and Sherwood Johnston retired from competition in the aftermath.
Before the 1956 event the ACO demolished the grandstands and pits, straightened and widened the track at the pit straight, added wider separation between the road and spectator areas, and realigned the Dunlop Curve. Juan Manuel Fangio never returned to Le Mans. The 1955 crash remains the single most fatal accident in the history of motorsport.
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