Le Mans 1970-79 ─ The Official History of the World's Greatest Motor Race

This decade at Le Mans began with the first victories by Porsche, whose awesome 917 racing car, capable of more than 240mph (385kph), established a distance record that would stand for almost four decades. One of a hat-trick of wins by Matra, effectively the French national team, was achieved in a famously frantic, head-to-head duel with Ferrari.

A past editor of Autosport, the world's top motorsports weekly, Quentin Spurring has a long-held passion for the Le Mans 24 Hours – he has reported from the race 26 times – and is the ideal author for this series of officially endorsed books. As well as his four previous books in this Le Mans series, he has written books about Jim Clark, Gilles Villeneuve and Ronnie Peterson, and his book Grand Prix: Images of the First 100 Years, from David Bull Publishing, won an award from the American Publishers Association (APA). He has been the European Motorsport Correspondent of the US publication, AutoWeek, since 1982.