A bridge through time - The black and white is a 1977 photo of the fourth Renault-Alpine A442 (#16) shared by René Arnoux, Guy Fréquelin and Didier Pironithe sitting on the third row of the starting grid before a fire broke out in the car as Pironithe was taking the first lap. After an excellent showing early in the race resulting in second position, the #41 Porsche 935 driven by Rolf Stommelen and Manfred Schurti was forced to retire during the fourth hour. In 2018, the two Toyota TS050 Hybrids monopolized the first row with the #8 of Fernando Alonso-Sébastien Buemi-Kazuki Nakajima ahead of the #7 of Mike Conway-Kamui Kobayashi-José María López. The two Japanese prototypes claimed the top two steps on the overall podium in the same order.

The 1977 24 Hours of Le Mans - Jacky Ickx, Jürgen Barth and Hurley Haywood won as underdogs after the #3 Porsche 936 driven by Henri Pescarolo was forced to retire at the beginning of the race. Ickx, who had yet to do a stint, took the wheel of the #4 (beyond 40th position at the time). On Sunday shortly after 09:00, the car took the lead and went on to win despite a slow finish due to an engine problem. Jacky Ickx matched the win record (four) held at the time by his fellow countryman Olivier Gendebien. Le Mans native and constructor Jean Rondeau passed under the checkered flag in fourth place along with Jean Ragnotti.

Motorsport in 1977 - Winner of the 24 Hours 10 years earlier with Ford, American driver A.J. Foyt became the first four-time Indianapolis 500 winner in history. He was later joined by Al Unser, Sr. in 1987 and by Rick Mears in 1991. A three-time winner at Le Mans (1972, 1973 and 1974), on 19 June the Matra V12 engine scored its first Formula 1 victory at the Swedish Grand Prix at the wheel of Jacques Laffite's Ligier. One month later on 16 July, a turbocharged engine made its first appearance in F1 thanks to the Renault of Jean-Pierre Jabouille. After his accident the previous year at the Nürburgring, in 1977 Niki Lauda won his second F1 world title and left Ferrari at the same time.

In other news that year - The first American space shuttle - dubbed the Enterprise in honor of the Star Trek spaceship first seen on TV in 1966 - was in its testing phase in 1977. One of its scheduled pilots was Apollo 13 mission astronaut Fred Haise. However, the Enterprise never made it into orbit since the first launch of space shuttle wouldn't take place until 12 April 1981: the Columbia.