There are just a few weeks to go until Christmas, but don’t panic – you’ll find a host of gift ideas in the official 24 Hours of Le Mans store!

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With 135 days to go before the 24 Hours of Le Mans, it’s time to announce the billing for the midweek live music acts. Two big names in France will be performing at the concert venue during the Free practice, qualifying and Hyperpole sessions on the Wednesday and Thursday before the race.

The Automobile Club de l&rsquo;Ouest is honoured to announce the first headline acts of the week. The weekend billing remains under wraps for the moment!&nbsp; 
 
Wednesday 11 June from 20:00: Eddy de Pretto + support band 
 
Eddy de Preto began his career in 2017 with a hard-hitting EP entitled Kid in which he explored differences, the shackles of tradition, and virility, setting himself up as an outlier as he did so. Yet his preoccupations echoed a strong undercurrent within society. The response was unequivocal. The infatuation was immediate.&nbsp;

A year later, de Pretto&rsquo;s album Cure acknowledged the change afoot within his generation, his heightened awareness and his firm stand. He shot to stardom. The album went triple platinum, selling 300,000 copies sold and attracting four nominations for French music awards. He barely left the stage in the next two years, filling venues all over France and ending with ten performances at the Elys&eacute;e Montmartre in Paris &ndash; a far cry from his first gigs alone on stage with his iPhone.&nbsp;

His second album &Agrave; tous les b&acirc;tards (2021) is a generous offering. The autobiographical songs are extremely personal yet mirrored in each of us. There lies the essence of Eddy de Pretto&rsquo;s popularity: he speaks to so many people. He followed up the album release with six gigs at Le Bataclan before embarking on another tour of France.&nbsp;

Thursday 12 June 2025, from 20:00: support band, followed by Pascal&nbsp;Obispo (22:00) 
 
It&rsquo;s not every day you celebrate your 30th anniversary as a singer. 
 
Following on from a sell-out tour including several festivals, Pascal Obispo presents Correspondances. The intimate new show blends his best-known and much-loved work with a host of surprises. 
 
Head for the concert venue straight after the new-format Hyperpole session.&nbsp;In the LMGT3 and LMP2 classes, the 24 cars qualified for Hyperpole take to the track for a 20-minute battle (H1). Then the top eight in each class go through to H2 (15 minutes), which determines the starting grid.&nbsp;The Hypercars follow a similar format. The 15 prototypes qualified the day before will compete in H1 to determine the 10 competitors who will take part in H2. Then comes an epic 15-minute showdown to determine who will start the race in the best position on Saturday.&nbsp;

Don&rsquo;t miss the practice and qualifying sessions!

Tickets for the race itself sold out in a matter of hours, but you can still attend the practice and qualifying sessions, including the Hyperpole &ndash; and the concerts. Admission from &euro;23 for students. Green Tickets (&euro;62) are available for Wednesday and Thursday for those who choose low-carbon transport to reach the circuit (<a href="https://www.24h-lemans.com/en/info/ticketing">Terms and Conditions</a>).

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24 Hours of Le Mans: Eddy de Pretto and Pascal Obispo head the midweek concert line-up!

Manthey Racing has unveiled the liveries of the #85 (Iron Dames) and #92 (Manthey 1st Phorm) Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3s, set to compete in the 93rd 24 Hours of Le Mans (11-15 June 2025) and the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).

Back in November, the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.24h-lemans.com/en/news/fia-wec-iron-dames-team-up-with-manthey-for-2025-59153">Iron Dames team announced their entry in the FIA WEC LMGT3 class with a Porsche 911 GT3 R</a>,&nbsp;joining forces with Manthey Racing.&nbsp;The team has now unveiled its bold new livery, featuring a vibrant pink tone with black and white accents.&nbsp;The car will be driven by&nbsp;Michelle Gatting,&nbsp;Rahel Frey, and&nbsp;Celia Martin.&nbsp;Don&rsquo;t forget that when the team claimed victory in the LMGTE Am category at the 2023 8 Hours of Bahrain, it was at the wheel of a Porsche.

Meanwhile, the Manthey 1st Phorm #92 Porsche enters the season as the current holders of the FIA Endurance Trophy for LMGT3 teams. Last year, the German squad dominated the field, winning four out of the eight races.&nbsp;For 2025, the car will be entrusted to&nbsp;Ryan Hardwick,&nbsp;Riccardo Pera, and&nbsp;Richard Lietz.&nbsp;

Both cars will face stiff competition from Aston Martin, BMW, Corvette, Ferrari, Ford, Lexus, McLaren, and Mercedes. The season kicks off on 28 February&nbsp;with the 1812&nbsp;km of Qatar,&nbsp;following the Prologue (two days of pre-season testing) at the same circuit.

While you wait for the track action to begin, feast your eyes on the newly revealed Porsche Manthey Racing and Iron Dames liveries in the photo gallery below.

Check out the liveries for the Manthey Racing and Iron Dames Porsches

After a first win in 2024, the Porsche Penske Motorsport #7 Porsche 963 took victory at the 63rd Rolex 24 at Daytona. The German hypercar’s record now includes two 24-hour race wins.

The Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche&nbsp;963, driven by Felipe Nasr, Nick Tandy and Laurens Vanthoor, triumphed at the Rolex&nbsp;24 at Daytona, the opening round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. This win marks the German manufacturer&rsquo;s 20th victory at the Florida classic and a second 24-hour race win for the Hypercar since its racing d&eacute;but in 2023.

Porsche Penske Motorsport demonstrated remarkable mastery throughout the 63rd running of the Rolex&nbsp;24 at Daytona. Late in the evening, both Porsche&nbsp;963s took the lead and maintained their position at the front of the pack until the final hours of the race, culminating in a decisive sprint to victory against the #60 Acura fielded by Acura Meyer Shank Racing.&nbsp; The #6 Porsche&nbsp;963, driven by Jaminet/Campbell/Estre, finished third.

<h2>Nick Tandy cements his place in endurance racing history</h2>

&nbsp;This was Felipe Nasr&rsquo;s second consecutive victory at the Rolex&nbsp;24 at Daytona. Meanwhile, Nick Tandy became the first driver to win all four major 24-hour races: Le Mans, Spa-Francorchamps, N&uuml;rburgring and Daytona. &ldquo;Eleven years ago was the last time I was on the top step of the Daytona podium &ndash; back then in the GT class with a red and white Porsche. Three years of hard work have brought us here. We all did it together. At some point years ago, someone told me that nobody had ever managed to achieve overall victory in the four biggest 24-hour races. Since that day, this goal has been in the back of my mind. Now it has been realised. It feels great to be the first person to achieve something like this.&rdquo;&nbsp;&nbsp;

&ldquo;Winning the 24 Hours of Daytona twice in a row is a monumental achievement,&rdquo; points out Thomas Laudenbach, Vice President Porsche Motorsport. &ldquo;The tension was huge. We did not always have the fastest car, but we were consistent and made the fewest mistakes.&nbsp; This victory is a perfect start to the new season!&rdquo;

<h2>The 24 Hours of Le Mans, the next challenge for Porsche</h2>

At the 63rd Rolex&nbsp;24 at Daytona, Porsche was up against Acura, BMW, Cadillac and Lamborghini. The #24 BMW M Hybrid V8 could have been a contender for victory, but a mistake by Dries Vanthoor wiped out its chances. Nevertheless, the car finished fourth, ahead of the Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing #10 Cadillac V-Series.R.

The United Autosports USA&nbsp;#22&nbsp;Oreca&nbsp;07-Gibson, steered by Daniel Goldburg, Paul Di Resta, Rasmus Lindh and James Allen triumphed in the LMP2 class. In GTD Pro, the Ford Multimatic Motorsports #65 Ford Mustang&nbsp;GT3 took the win, while the AWA #13 Corvette&nbsp;Z06 GT3.R secured first place on the podium in GTD.

With 138 days to go to the 93rd 24 Hours of Le Mans (11-15 June 2025), this performance puts&nbsp;Porsche firmly on the list of favourites. However, the Stuttgart-based brand will face fierce competition from the Alpine, Aston Martin, BMW, Cadillac, Ferrari, Peugeot and Toyota hypercars. Let&rsquo;s not forget the Porsche&nbsp;963&rsquo;s achievement in the Hyperpole session last year. However, as the race unfolded, it became clear that the assignment was going to be tougher than expected. Porsche was held back by some questionable strategic choices, especially where tyres were concerned, combined with a lower top speed than Ferrari and Toyota. Since then, Porsche has clearly stated its main goal for 2025: securing a 20th victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. We also know that significant modifications have been made to <a href="https://www.24h-lemans.com/en/news/will-porsche-s-new-suspension-provide-springboard-for-20th-le-mans-win-59211" target="_blank">the 963&rsquo;s suspension</a>.

The 1812&nbsp;km of Qatar race, the first round of the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) scheduled for February 28, will be an opportunity to see how the German Hypercar has evolved over the winter.

The Porsche 963 adds a second 24-hour race to its list of achievements

Tailored to the spectator experience, the 24 Hours of Le Mans consistently provokes intense emotions-turned-memories throughout race week and the main event. Plenty of factors contribute to the visual spectacle, including racing car tints.

Variety on the track has always been the name of the game at Le Mans, now more so than ever with&nbsp;Hypercars competing since&nbsp;2021. As&nbsp;it is sometime&nbsp;difficult to differentiate between&nbsp;prototypes, colour plays a crucial role, in some cases representing a sponsor and in others&nbsp;a 100-year-old story.

<h2>The Past Fully Present</h2>

Some say motorsport was invented shortly after the second car was made. Though a slight&nbsp;exaggeration, it is true the development of current&nbsp;racing&nbsp;disciplines dates back. At the beginning of the&nbsp;20th century, the first European competitions brought together carmakers from various countries. So how to make individual&nbsp;provenance recognizable to everyone? By a clever colour code.

When the&nbsp;24 Hours of Le&nbsp;Mans was created in&nbsp;1923, the French&nbsp;chose blue, the Italians red, the Germans and Americans white, the Belgians yellow and the Brits green.&nbsp;

These colours have always played a major&nbsp;role in the visual impact of the race,&nbsp;though the tradition found itself forever altered by the arrival of sponsors in the late&nbsp;1960s. Some carmakers&nbsp;are keen, however,&nbsp;to honour their legacy, particularly at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

<h2>Back to Basics?</h2>

Certain teams managed to find sponsors whose colour palette matched their own, but that proved rare. In the mid-2000s&nbsp;on the other hand, the gradual disappearance of title sponsors, who reigned&nbsp;in the 1980s, revitalised the use of&nbsp;historic colours in a rather surprising way.&nbsp;A title sponsor&nbsp;on a racing car&nbsp;is a marque who&nbsp;takes up all the space, thereby controlling colour(s) on&nbsp;the entire bodywork&nbsp;without the possibility of displaying other sponsors. These days,&nbsp;constructors competing in the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fiawec.com/en/" target="_blank">FIA World Endurance Championship (FIA WEC)</a>&nbsp;make room for&nbsp;many different marques&nbsp;so that no specific&nbsp;one dominates.

<h2>A Legacy of Colour</h2>

Two examples illustrate the point perfectly&nbsp;and currently contribute greatly to the visual identity of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.&nbsp;Alpine, founded in&nbsp;1955 by&nbsp;Jean R&eacute;d&eacute;l&eacute;, spotlights blue&nbsp;on its&nbsp;A424. A fan favourite, the French carmaker embraces&nbsp;its origins. The same can be said for&nbsp;Ferrari of course. The colour red is&nbsp;indelibly linked&nbsp;and consistenly chosen to represent&nbsp;the Italian marque on the track. It is probably the most well-known hue in motorsport, possibly ahead of British Racing Green proudly preferred by&nbsp;Bentley, Jaguar, Lotus and&nbsp;Aston Martin across the years. With just a&nbsp;quick look&nbsp;at the winner of the 2023 and 2024&nbsp;24 Hours, any fan would know it was a Ferrari,&nbsp;simply&nbsp;from the colour. For the team&#39;s #83 499P fielded last year, AF Corse opted for a vivid yellow, a direct reference to Ferrari&#39;s second historic colour, that of its logo and the city of Modena.

Engineers work hard every year to ensure the fastest possible top speed for their cars.&nbsp;But the silhouette, logo, and above all&nbsp;the colour, are invaluable in sharing with&nbsp;spectators&nbsp;the history of the marque,&nbsp;transcending&nbsp;performance level.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.24h-lemans.com/en/news/the-24-hours-of-le-mans-a-feast-for-the-eyes-59084" target="_blank">One glance</a>&nbsp;is enough to span the&nbsp;entire past century and connect us to&nbsp;the carmaker&#39;s&nbsp;future in the next century.

Emotions always run high at the 24 Hours of Le Mans

The official 24 Hours of Le Mans store has selected a vast range of stylish gift ideas inspired by the French endurance classic. They are sure to please fans of the iconic race, which will be celebrating its centenary next year! Take your pick from our clothing range, miniatures, books, luggage, collector photographs and other items and slip your gift under the Christmas tree!

You&rsquo;ll also find merchandise inspired by the other events organised by the Automobile Club de l&#39;Ouest in the official store, including the 24H Motos, the 24H Camion truck race, the European Le Mans Series and Le Mans Classic.

And don&#39;t forget &ndash;&nbsp;Club ACO members get up to 15% off on all items on sale.

<a href="https://boutique.lemans.org/en/" target="_blank">&gt;&gt; Visit&nbsp;the 24 Hours of Le Mans Christmas store&nbsp;&lt;&lt;</a>

24H LE MANS

Get set for the great race to Christmas with the official 24 Hours of Le Mans store!

Related News

24 Hours of Le Mans: Eddy de Pretto and Pascal Obispo head the midweek concert line-up!

Check out the liveries for the Manthey Racing and Iron Dames Porsches

The Porsche 963 adds a second 24-hour race to its list of achievements

Emotions always run high at the 24 Hours of Le Mans

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