Video: McLaren’s dream debut at Le Mans

Well, this superb, 40-minute documentary tells that story.

The Andrew Sachs-narrated film focuses on two teams – David Price Racing that ran two cars, one in Harrods livery, the other in West colours, and Lanzante Motorsport that ran the all-black Ueno Clinic machine –  and features interviews with McLaren’s technical staff, team managers and drivers, as well as superb race footage and onboard-camera action.

The intense battle for GT-class honours eventually becomes the fight for overall victory as incessant rain brings the production-based McLarens up to the front against the purpose-built prototypes, many of which fall by the wayside.

The Harrods car, crewed by five-time winner Derek Bell and his son Justin and former Jaguar winner Andy Wallace engages in a furious scrap with the Lanzante car driven by ex-F1 racer JJ Lehto, two-time winner Yannick Dalmas and Japanese hero Masanori Sekiya, the two V12 BMW-powered McLarens swapping the lead at pitstops into the final hours.

If you don’t recall the finer details of the battle for victory deep into Sunday afternoon on June 18, 1995, and the way Lady Luck cast her spell back and forth among both of the teams, not to mention the ominous presence of the last surviving prototype driven by F1 hero Mario Andretti, then enjoy this nail-biting finish to one of the most memorable endurance-racing classics.