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156-551: Matech also had their own race team which competed in the FIA GT3 Championship under the title of Matech GT Racing , and in the FIA GT1 Championship as well as at the 24 Hours of Le Mans under the title of Matech Competition . Matech GT Racing were the 2008 FIA GT3 Teams Champions in their second year of involvement in the series. The Matech companies ceased business operations prior to the start of

312-487: A First World nation by the 1990s; President Carlos Andrés Pérez of Venezuela likewise launched his Le Gran Venezuela project intended to make Venezuela into a First World nation; and President Yakubu Gowon of Nigeria told his people that henceforward Nigeria's main problem would be "managing abundance". After the oil shock, Nigeria presented itself as the first African nation that would reach First World status and in Lagos

468-788: A Saudi leader since 1953 as he met King Faisal to ask him to end the embargo. Within two week of the embargo being launched, all of the foreign ministers of the nations of the European Economic Community (now the European Union) met in a conference to issue a statement calling for Israel "to end the territorial occupation which has maintained since the conflict of 1967". On December 11, 1973, the Japanese Foreign Minister Masayoshi Ōhira flew in to Riyadh to meet King Faisal for "talks on improving bilateral relations". Shortly afterwards,

624-555: A break as all applications that year were deemed unfit by the ACO. Frederic Sausset, a quadruple amputee, drove a modified Morgan LMP2 in the 2016 race. Financial problems forced Welter Racing to cancel its 2017 Garage 56 run with the Green4U Panoz Racing GT-EV, a biomethane -fuel prototype featuring a 3-cylinder 1.2-liter engine fueled by biomethane stored in cryogenic tanks. Welter Racing went on to develop

780-452: A car inspection on Monday and Tuesday. Currently, these sessions are held in the evening, with two separate two-hour sessions held each night. Friday serves as a day of rest, and a parade of all the drivers through Le Mans is held. Test days held at the end of April or beginning of May served as a pre-qualification weeding out the slowest cars. However, in 2005 the exorbitant cost of transporting cars to and from Le Mans led organizers to move

936-511: A committee to review the Eisenhower-era quota program. Shultz's committee recommended that the quotas be abolished and replaced with tariffs but Nixon decided to keep the quotas due to vigorous political opposition. Nixon imposed a price ceiling on oil in 1971 as demand for oil was increasing and production was declining, which increased dependence on foreign oil imports as consumption was bolstered by low prices. In 1973, Nixon announced

1092-651: A conference in Vienna when it was announced the price for a barrel of oil was to from $ 5 US dollars per barrel to $ 11.65 US dollars per barrel. Faisal was opposed to the price increase, which was largely the work of the Iranian delegation. Over the long term, the oil embargo changed the nature of policy in the West towards increased exploration, alternative energy research, energy conservation and more restrictive monetary policy to better fight inflation. For further details see

1248-410: A different test. Instead of focusing on the ability of a car company to build the fastest machines, the 24 Hours of Le Mans would concentrate on the ability of manufacturers to build sporty yet reliable cars. This encouraged innovation in producing reliable and fuel-efficient vehicles , because endurance racing requires cars that last and spend as little time in the pits as possible. At the same time,

1404-519: A few months. Most scholars agree that the 1967 embargo was ineffective. Although some members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) supported the use of oil as a weapon to influence the political outcome of the Arab–Israeli conflict , Saudi Arabia had traditionally been the strongest supporter of separating oil from politics. The Saudis were wary of the tactic due to

1560-727: A fixed amount of gold. After 1971, OPEC was slow to readjust prices to reflect this depreciation. From 1947 to 1967, the dollar price of oil had risen by less than two percent per year. Until the oil shock, the price had also remained fairly stable versus other currencies and commodities. OPEC ministers had not developed institutional mechanisms to update prices in sync with changing market conditions, so their real incomes lagged. The substantial price increases of 1973–1974 largely returned their prices and corresponding incomes to former levels in terms of commodities such as gold. Arab oil producing countries had attempted to use oil as leverage to influence political events on two prior occasions—the first

1716-690: A global leader, courted by elites in both the First World and the Third World. The oil embargo led a sudden interest in the Palestinian issue. Between 1973 and 1981, Saudi Arabia donated a sum worth $ 1 billion US dollars to the Palestine Liberation Organization , which thus had a budget that exceeded that of many Third World nations. On November 8, 1973, Kissinger became the first Secretary of State to meet with

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1872-612: A global recession and increased tension between the United States and several of its European allies, who faulted the US for provoking an embargo by providing what many viewed as unconditional assistance to Israel. OAPEC demanded a complete Israeli withdrawal from all territories beyond the 1949 Armistice border . The embargo lasted from October 1973 to March 1974. During a summit in Cairo on November 6, Kissinger asked Sadat what Faisal

2028-565: A hybrid electric car based on the DeltaWing's design, took the Garage 56 slot in 2014. Despite an early retirement from the race after only 23 minutes due to a gearbox issue, the ZEOD RC achieved its goals of hitting a top speed of 300 km/h (186.41 mph), and completing the first ever lap of Le Mans using exclusively electric power at racing speed. In 2015, the Garage 56 program took

2184-566: A plan to invade Abu Dhabi , Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. Kissinger publicly threatened "countermeasures" in a Nov 21st, 1973 press conference if the embargo was not lifted, and the Saudis responded with threatening further oil cuts and to burn their oil fields if the US military invaded. After the CIA confirmed these threats, Kissinger gave up military intervention and decided that dealing with Israel's troop withdrawals and settled on diplomatic solutions to

2340-429: A relief driver can take over during a pit stop while eating and resting. Current regulations mandate that three drivers share each competing vehicle. Competing teams race in groups called "classes", or cars of similar specification, while competing simultaneously for outright placing amongst all classes. Originally, the race showcased cars as they were sold to the general public, then called "Sports Cars", in contrast with

2496-493: A series of stately modernist buildings were erected as appropriate for a nation that saw itself as the leader of all black Africa. Much of the oil wealth in Nigeria was stolen by corrupt politicians. However, at least some of Nigeria's new oil wealth went to rebuild the areas devastated by the civil war of 1967-1970 and to address the complaints that too much of Nigeria's oil wealth went to the federal government in Lagos instead of

2652-457: A sign of the pro-Israeli slant of American foreign policy. Faisal also felt insulted that Nixon had just promised Saqqaf a "honorable" peace the day before he submitted the request to Congress for some $ 2.2 billion worth of arms for Israel, which he saw as an act of duplicity on Nixon's part. Faisal had been opposed to a total embargo and only agreed to the 5% cut on October 17 under pressure from other Arab states. Faisal felt his efforts on behalf

2808-554: A single one of its stated objectives. The ceasefire which the USA and the USSR together imposed two days later upon Israel, Syria and Egypt would have been imposed in any case; Israel ended the October war, thanks to US aid, better equipped militarily than she had ever been before, and Faisal's ambition to shrink Israel back inside her pre-1949 boundaries remains unfulfilled to this day. Nor did

2964-405: A standard 4.2-litre Gibson V8 engine. LMP1 teams are subject to no such restrictions. Their extra power, lower weight, and more complex aerodynamics result in much quicker lap times; LMP1 cars also may use hybrid technology. The next class is LMGT3 , which are similar to production-based sports cars. Concept cars intended to test new automotive technologies may participate in the race under

3120-460: Is 2010's 5,410 km (3,360 mi), six times the length of the Indianapolis 500 , or about 18 times longer than a Formula One Grand Prix . Drivers and racing teams strive for speed and avoiding mechanical damage, as well as managing the cars' consumables, primarily fuel , tires , and braking materials. It also tests endurance, with drivers frequently racing for over two hours before

3276-451: Is that cars must be switched off while refueling in the pits. Not only is this safer and less of a fire hazard, but it is also another test of reliability, demanding a guaranteed ability to restart many times under race conditions. Another element of this rule is that mechanics are not allowed to work on the car while it is being refuelled (other than helping a driver in or out of the car), which has led teams to adapt innovative ways to decrease

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3432-560: Is track marshals waving safety flags during the race's final lap, congratulating the winners and other finishers. Le Mans was the venue for the first televised instance of a winning driver celebrating by spraying champagne instead of drinking it. When Dan Gurney won the 1967 race with co-driver A. J. Foyt , the two drivers mounted the victory podium, and Gurney was handed a magnum of champagne. Looking down, he saw Ford CEO Henry Ford II , team owner Carroll Shelby and their wives, as well as several journalists who had predicted disaster for

3588-546: Is widely considered to be one of the world's most prestigious races, and is one of the races—along with the Monaco Grand Prix and Indianapolis 500 —that form the Triple Crown of Motorsport , and is also one of the races alongside the 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring that make up the informal Triple Crown of endurance racing . Run since 1923, it is the oldest active endurance racing event in

3744-480: The "drain America first" policy. Some scholars believe the policy contributed to the decline of domestic US oil production in the early 1970s. The cheapness of oil compared with coal led to the decline of the coal industry. In 1951, 51% of America's energy came from coal, and by 1973, only 19% of America's industry was coal-based. When Richard Nixon became president in 1969, he assigned George Shultz to head

3900-448: The 1969 race, Jacky Ickx opposed it by walking across the track while his competitors ran. Although he was nearly hit by a faster competitor's car while walking, Ickx took the time to fasten his safety belts before pulling away. Privateer John Woolfe died in an accident on the first lap of that race; Ickx won. 1973 oil crisis In October 1973, the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) announced that it

4056-650: The Bar Lev Line in the Sinai Peninsula and Syria launched an offensive in the Golan Heights , both of which had been occupied by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War . The war began during the height of the Watergate scandal and Nixon largely let Kissinger manage foreign policy as he was distracted by the scandal. On 8 October 1973, Faisal told two Egyptian envoys: "You have made us all proud. In

4212-660: The Middle East , including several wars . The Suez Crisis , also known as the Second Arab–Israeli war, was sparked by Israel's southern port of Eilat being blocked by Egypt , which also nationalized the Suez Canal belonging to French and British investors. As a result of the war, the Suez Canal was closed for several months between 1956 and 1957 . The Six-Day War of 1967 included an Israeli invasion of

4368-592: The Netherlands , the United Kingdom , and the United States . This list was later expanded to include Portugal , Rhodesia , and South Africa . In March 1974, OAPEC lifted the embargo, but the price of oil had risen by nearly 300%: from US$ 3 per barrel ($ 19/ m ) to nearly US$ 12 per barrel ($ 75/m ) globally. Prices in the United States were significantly higher than the global average. After it

4524-525: The Rolex Sports Car Series ' 24 Hours of Daytona ) held all four major American endurance classics in preparation for teams to race at Le Mans . The race has approximately 60 competitors. Each car was required to have at least two seats. However, recently cars only need to have space to accommodate a second seat in the cockpit rather than the seat itself. Two doors are allowed; open cockpit cars do not require doors. Since 2014, all cars in

4680-401: The "Energy crisis" series by Facts on File. The effects of the embargo were immediate. OPEC forced oil companies to increase payments drastically. The price of oil quadrupled by 1974 from US$ 3 to nearly US$ 12 per 42 gallon barrel ($ 75 per cubic meter), equivalent in 2018 dollars to a price rise from $ 17 to $ 61 per barrel. Saudi Arabia had 25% of the world's oil, but only 4% of the oil used in

4836-478: The "Garage 56" banner. Such entries are classified in the race results, though are not expected to be competitive as their sole focus is to demonstrate experimental features. The program debuted in 2012 with the DeltaWing , an unusual rocket-shaped car fielded by All-American Racers and supported by Nissan. The DeltaWing concept showed promise, delivering nearly LMP2-level performance while only consuming 48% of

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4992-535: The "oil weapon". It came in the form of an embargo and production cutbacks from the Arab states. The weapon was aimed at the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Japan and the Netherlands. These target governments perceived that the intent was to push them towards a more pro-Arab position. Production was eventually cut by 25%. However, the affected countries did not undertake dramatic policy changes. The risk that

5148-508: The "peace of the brave" (i.e. a victorious leader being magnanimous to his defeated opponents) meant there was a possibility that Sadat at least would make peace with Israel provided that the war ended in such a way that Egypt was not perceived to be defeated. Likewise, Kissinger regarded Meir as being rather arrogant and believed that an armistice that ended the war in a manner that was not an unambiguous Israeli victory would make her more humble. As both Syria and Egypt lost much equipment during

5304-421: The $ 850 million worth of arms requested sent a request to Congress for some $ 2.2 billion worth of arms to Israel, which was promptly approved. Nixon, whose administration was being badly battered by the Watergate scandal, felt that a bold foreign policy move might resuscitate his administration. Nixon later boasted in his memoirs that the U.S. Air Force flew more sorties to Israel in October 1973 than it had during

5460-702: The 1973 "oil price shock" and the accompanying 1973–74 stock market crash as the first discrete event since the Great Depression to have a persistent effect on the US economy. The embargo had a negative influence on the US economy by causing immediate demands to address the threats to U.S. energy security. On an international level, the price increases changed competitive positions in many industries, such as automobiles. Macroeconomic problems consisted of both inflationary and deflationary impacts. The embargo left oil companies searching for new ways to increase oil supplies, even in rugged terrain such as

5616-410: The 2011 racing season. This sports car racing -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This motorsport-related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . 24 Hours of Le Mans The 24 Hours of Le Mans (French: 24 Heures du Mans ) is an endurance-focused sports car race held annually near the town of Le Mans , France . It

5772-508: The ACO deeming none of the applications sufficiently mature. 2020 saw Frederic Sausset attempting to return to Garage 56 under the SRT41 banner by fielding a specially modified Oreca 07 LMP2 car with a lineup of three disabled drivers; however, the attempt was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic . The SRT41 program was delayed to 2021, which saw Garage 56 successfully making a return for

5928-724: The Algerian state to end many of its more generous social policies between 1986 and 1988, leading to an unemployment rate of 30% by 1988 along with the knowledge that the FLN regime had stolen millions. In the aftermath of the October riots, President Chadli Bendjedid began a transition to democracy. The first free elections in Algeria in January 1992 were won by the Islamist FIS, which led to a military coup and an outbreak of civil war that

6084-558: The American nuclear industry as a way to achieve "energy independence" from the Middle East. On 7 November 1973, Nixon in an address to Congress called for Project Independence to make the United States self-sufficient in energy by 1980, which called for a massive investment in the nuclear industry. Nixon seems to have assumed that nuclear energy was economical, and was encouraged by the faddish enthusiasm of many officials who more on

6240-427: The American oil imports came from the Middle East. Throughout the 1960s, the price for a barrel of oil remained at $ 1.80, meaning that with the effects of inflation considered the price of oil in real terms got progressively lower and lower throughout the decade with Americans paying less for oil in 1969 than they had in 1959. Even after a price for a barrel of oil rose to $ 2.00 in 1971, adjusted for inflation, people in

6396-464: The Americans simply imported more oil from nations that were not part of the embargo such as Iran, but the 400% increase in the price of oil caused by the embargo did damage the American economy. A number of nations such as Venezuela, Nigeria, Iran and Iraq increased their oil production during the embargo, but just sold their oil at a higher price. The leader who pushed the most for higher oil prices

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6552-497: The Arab oil embargo of 1973–74 that for people in the West life suddenly become "slower, darker and chiller" as gasoline was rationed, the lights were turned off in Times Square, the "gas guzzler" automobiles suddenly stopped selling, speed limits became common and restrictions were placed on weekend driving in a bid to conserve fuel. As the American automobile industry specialized in producing heavy "gas guzzler" vehicles, there

6708-855: The Arctic. Finding oil and developing new fields usually required five to 10 years before significant production. The average US retail price of a gallon of regular gasoline rose 43% from 38.5¢ in May 1973 to 55.1¢ in June 1974. State governments asked citizens not to put up Christmas lights. Oregon banned Christmas and commercial lighting altogether. Politicians called for a national gasoline rationing program. Nixon asked gasoline retailers to voluntarily not sell gasoline on Saturday nights or Sundays; 90% of gas station owners complied, which produced long lines of motorists wanting to fill up their cars while they still could. The "oil shock" provided considerable impetus to

6864-600: The Berlin Airlift of 1948–49, flying in a gargantuan quantity of arms, though he also admitted that by the time the arms lift had begun, the Israelis had already "turned the tide of battle" in their favor, making the arms lift irrelevant to the outcome of the war. In an interview with the British historian Robert Lacey in 1981, Kissinger later admitted about the arms lift to Israel: "I made a mistake. In retrospect it

7020-624: The Egyptian Sinai Peninsula , which resulted in Egypt closing the Suez Canal for eight years . Following the Yom Kippur War , the canal was cleared in 1974 and opened again in 1975. OAPEC countries cut production of oil and placed an embargo on oil exports to the United States after Richard Nixon requested $ 2.2 billion to support Israel's war effort. Nevertheless, the embargo lasted only until January 1974, though

7176-645: The French foreign minister Michel Jobert arrived to sign an agreement that provided oil for France for the next twenty years. On January 24, 1974, as the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi , was coming off the ski slopes of St. Moritz , he was met by the British Chancellor of Exchequer, Anthony Barber , and the Trade Secretary, Peter Walker . In a role-reversal, Barber and Walker paid homage to

7332-549: The Grand Mosque and the surviving "renegades" as the rebels were labelled were executed. Likewise, the perception that that most of the wealth being generated by the now higher price of oil was being stolen by a corrupt Shah along with the unfulfilled promises of the "Great Civilization" project played a major role in causing the Iranian Revolution of 197–1979 that toppled the Shah and led to the establishment of

7488-435: The Iranian delegation left Kuwait City as the Shah of Iran was only interested in higher oil prices. The Oil Minister of Iraq, Sa'dun Hammadi demanded the "total nationalization" of all assets of American oil companies in the Middle East, the withdrawal of all Arab funds from the United States and for all Arab states to break diplomatic relations with the United States. The Libyan Oil Minister, Izz al-Din al-Mabruk, called for

7644-786: The Iraqi and Libyan demands for an embargo as Yemani maintained that forcing through an increase in the price of oil was the best way to influence the United States. Hammadi and the rest of the Iraqi delegation left in a huff as Yemani had won over the majority of the delegations to the Saudi viewpoint. The statement issued after midnight at the Sheraton Hotel was handwritten and reflecting the tense talk had several paragraphs crossed out while other paragraphs were written in by different hands. On October 17, Arab oil producers cut production by 5% and instituted an oil embargo against Israel's allies:

7800-551: The Islamic Republic of Iran in February 1979. In Algeria, the "oil shock" led to the establishment of a welfare state where none had existed previously. The lower oil prices of the 1980s along with cutbacks and the belief that the FLN regime was corrupt helped cause the riots of October 1988 against the FLN regime that killed at least 500 people. The riots were largely caused by the fact that the low oil prices had forced

7956-504: The LMP category as rules have been changed to their benefit and to further push efficiency. The race is held in mid June, meaning the shortest night and very hot conditions for drivers, particularly in closed vehicles with poor ventilation. Rainy weather is common. The race begins in mid-afternoon and finishes the following day at the same hour the race started the previous day. Modern competitors often cover well over 5,000 km. The record

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8112-446: The Middle East could become another superpower confrontation with the USSR was of more concern to Washington than oil. Further, interest groups and government agencies more worried about energy were no match for Kissinger's dominance. In the US production, distribution and price disruptions "have been held responsible for recessions, periods of excessive inflation, reduced productivity, and lower economic growth." Some researchers regard

8268-538: The Middle East. In the early 1960s Libya , Indonesia and Qatar joined OPEC. OPEC was generally regarded as ineffective until political turbulence in Libya and Iraq strengthened their position in 1970. Additionally, increasing Soviet influence provided oil producing countries with alternative means of transporting oil to markets. Under the Tehran Price Agreement of 1971 , signed on February 14,

8424-778: The October War more in terms of the Cold War rather than Middle Eastern politics, both seeing the Soviet arms lifts to Egypt and Syria as a Soviet power play that required an American answer. On October 12, 1973, US president Richard Nixon authorized Operation Nickel Grass , a strategic airlift to deliver weapons and supplies to Israel in order to replace its materiel losses, after the Soviet Union began sending arms to Syria and Egypt. The first American weapons to Israel arrived only on 15 October 1973, and despite Nixon's orders

8580-658: The Red Sea port of Jeddah , there were so many ships queuing up laden with cement for the construction boom in Saudi Arabia that construction contractors hired helicopters to fly the cement in, twenty bags per flight. A number of families engaged in the Saudi construction industry such as the Juffali, Alireza, al-Khasshoggi and the bin Laden families all become very wealthy as a result of the construction boom. The period after

8736-481: The Shah, who promised them that his nation would sell the United Kingdom 5 million tons of oil in exchange for some £100 million of British goods to aid his plans to industrialize Iran. Saudi Arabia experienced an upsurge of prosperity and affluence after the oil embargo whose consequences horrified King Faisal. Faisal who was devoted to a harsh puritanical strain of Sunni Islam known in the West as Wahhabism

8892-488: The Soviet military personnel in Egypt in a signal that he wanted better relations with the United States. Kissinger was taken completely by surprise by Sadat's move, saying: "Why has he done me this favor? Why didn't he demand all sorts of concessions first?" Sadat expected as a reward that the United States would respond by pressuring Israel to return the Sinai to Egypt, but after his anti-Soviet move prompted no response from

9048-674: The Suez War. If the United States had done the same after 1967, we would not have witnessed the this deterioration... Before the Jewish State was established, there existed nothing to harm good relations between Arabs and Jews. There were many Jews in Arab countries. When the Jews were persecuted in Spain, Arabs protected them. When the Romans drove the Jews out, Arabs protected them. At Yalta, it

9204-452: The United States forced prices to raise, which in turn led prices to rise everywhere all over the world as oil producers that had not joined the embargo such as Iran, Venezuela, Libya and Iraq demanded higher prices in Japan and Europe as an initiative to ship oil to those places instead of the United States, thus settling off a worldwide inflationary spiral. The only European nations subject to

9360-419: The United States in 1973 came from the kingdom. However, Saudi Arabia plays an over-sized role within the Arab world, and as a Beirut oil consultant noted in 1974: "If Saudi Arabia moves from A to B, then every other oil producer must move at least as far, if not to C." In 1973, about 25% of the oil used in the United States came from Arab countries. The mere shortage of oil caused by the Arab oil embargo within

9516-517: The United States were not being appreciated in Washington, which increased his fury at Nixon. Saudi Arabia only consented to the embargo after Nixon's promise of $ 2.2 billion in military aid to Israel. On the afternoon of October 19, 1973, Faisal was in his office when he learned about the United States sending $ 2.2 billion worth of weapons to Israel, and discussed the issue with two of his closest advisers, Abdullah ibn Abdul Rahman and Rashad Pharaon. The king called Yamani at about 8 pm, and told him he

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9672-503: The United States, by November 1972 Sadat moved again closer to the Soviet Union, buying a massive amount of Soviet arms for a war he planned to launch against Israel in 1973. For Sadat, cost was no object as the money to buy Soviet arms came from Saudi Arabia. At the same time, Faisal promised Sadat that if it should come to war, Saudi Arabia would embargo oil to the West. In April 1973, the Saudi Oil Minister Ahmed Zaki Yamani visited Washington to meet Kissinger and told him that King Faisal

9828-413: The United States, the Netherlands, Rhodesia , South Africa, and Portugal. On October 17–19, 1973, the Saudi Foreign Minister, Omar Al Saqqaf , visited Washington together with the foreign ministers of Algeria, Kuwait and Morocco to warn that there was a real possibility of an oil embargo being imposed. Saqqaf complained to King Faisal that Nixon seemed more interested in a dispute about "a burglary" (i.e.

9984-408: The Watergate scandal) than about the October War. During a press conference, an American reporter mocked the threat, contemptuously saying the Saudis "could drink their oil", leading Saqqaf to reply in anger "All right, we will!". Joined by the foreign ministers of Algeria, Kuwait and Morocco, Saqqaf met with Nixon in the Oval Office who promised him that the United States would mediate a settlement to

10140-463: The Western nations were paying less for oil in 1971 than they had in 1958. The extremely low price of oil served as the basis for the " long summer " of prosperity and mass affluence that began in 1945. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), was founded by five oil producing countries at a Baghdad conference on September 14, 1960. The five founding members of OPEC were Venezuela , Iraq , Saudi Arabia , Iran and Kuwait . OPEC

10296-407: The World Championship. The race is also known as a leg of the informal Triple Crown of Motorsport which links Formula One , IndyCar , and Sports car racing to represent a career achievement for drivers. Additionally, it is seen as a leg of the Triple Crown of endurance racing , which links the three largest sports car races together, with 12 Hours of Sebring and 24 Hours of Daytona forming

10452-491: The availability of oil from non-Arab oil producing countries, and in the decades leading up to the crisis, the region's conservative monarchies had grown dependent on Western support to ensure their continued survival as Nasserism gained traction. On the other hand, Algeria, Iraq and Libya had strongly supported the use of oil as a weapon in the conflict. Arab newspapers like the Egyptian Al-Ahram , Lebanese An-Nahar and Iraqi Al-Thawra had historically been supportive of

10608-438: The basis of faith than rationality saw nuclear energy as the technology of the future. By the late 1960s, a lively environmentalist movement had emerged in the United States, and the Project Independence nuclear program was the subject of much debate in both the media and Congress. The ensuing debates revealed that many of the claims made for nuclear power vast underestimated the true costs of nuclear reactors. Equally problematic

10764-399: The bunched field at the start. This starting method inspired Porsche to locate the ignition key switch to the left of the steering wheel. In a left-hand drive car, this allowed the driver to use his left hand to start the engine and his right hand to put the transmission into gear, which in turn shaves off a few tenths of a second. Stirling Moss developed another method for speeding up

10920-441: The car with hopes of entering the car in 2018 and 2019, but ultimately did not compete due to complex issues with the car in 2018, and due to Don Panoz 's death suspending the program in 2019. The 2019 slot was also eyed by UK-based constructor Perrinn with the Project 424, an LMP1-based electric-powered car with an autonomous driving mode; however, this did not come to pass, and Garage 56 was left empty in both 2018 and 2019 due to

11076-427: The car. The car marked NASCAR's 75th anniversary, which coincided with the race's centenary. Chad Knaus , Johnson's crew chief during each of his Cup Series championships, was project manager, while the car bore #24 in honor of Hendrick vice chairman and former driver Jeff Gordon . Initially, there were no rules on the number of car drivers or how long they could drive. Although almost all teams used two drivers in

11232-403: The case for nuclear power in the ensuring debates. By 1989, only 18% of American energy came from nuclear power plants, which was a faction of what Project Independence had envisioned in 1973. The "oil shock" led to anti-Arab feelings becoming common. Cartoons published in American newspapers during the "oil shock" depicted Arabs as disgusting, ugly, obese, corrupt and greedy. In the cartoons,

11388-453: The demand being made that the government find some other community to store the rods. Many of the nuclear reactors ordered in 1973 were cancelled due to the horrendous cost overruns while over 100 nuclear plants were shut down as uneconomical over the next 10 years. Unlike nations that tried to use nuclear power as a way for "energy independence" such as France and Sweden, the United States had substantial reserves of its own oil, which weakened

11544-626: The demands of speed with the cars' ability to run for 24 hours without mechanical failure. The race is organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). It is held on the Circuit de la Sarthe , composed of closed public roads and dedicated sections of a racing track. The 24 Hours of Le Mans was frequently part of the World Sportscar Championship from 1953 until that series' final season in 1992 . In 2011 , it

11700-550: The dollar inconvertible to gold directly, except on the open market, and was soon dubbed the Nixon Shock , leading eventually to the collapse of the Bretton Woods system in 1976. Because oil was priced in dollars, oil producers' real income decreased when the dollar started to float free of the old link to gold. In September 1971, OPEC issued a joint communiqué stating that from then on, they would price oil in terms of

11856-650: The early 1970s led organizers to adopt a fuel economy formula known as Group C that limited the amount of fuel each car was allowed. Although it was later abandoned, fuel economy remains important as new fuel sources reduce the time spent during pit stops. Such technological innovations have had a trickle-down effect and can be incorporated into consumer cars. This has also led to faster and more exotic supercars as manufacturers seek to develop faster road cars in order to develop them into even faster GT cars. Additionally, hybrid systems (flywheel, super-capacitor, battery coupled with both petrol and diesel) have been championed in

12012-405: The early decades, some Le Mans drivers such as Pierre Levegh and Eddie Hall attempted to run the race solo, hoping to save time by not having to change drivers. This practice was later banned. Until the 1980s, there were teams in which only two drivers competed, but by the end of the decade, the rules were changed to stipulate that at least three drivers must drive each car. By the 1990s, due to

12168-417: The embargo of 1973–1974 had caused about 500,000 Americans to lose their jobs and caused a GNP loss between $ 10 billion–$ 20 billion. This price increase had a dramatic effect on oil exporting nations, for the countries of the Middle East who had long been dominated by the industrial powers were seen to have taken control of a vital commodity. The oil-exporting nations began to accumulate vast wealth. Some of

12324-618: The embargo was a failure because the countries that were targeted by the embargo did not change their policies on the Arab–Israeli conflict. Licklieder believed that any long term changes were caused by the OPEC increase in the posted price of oil, and not the OAPEC embargo. Daniel Yergin , on the other hand, has said that the embargo "remade the international economy". Lacey wrote: "King Faisal's momentous oil embargo of 20 October 1973 did not achieve

12480-534: The embargo. The crisis eased when the embargo was lifted in March 1974 after negotiations at the Washington Oil Summit, but the effects lingered throughout the 1970s. The dollar price of energy increased again the following year, amid the weakening competitive position of the dollar in world markets. The Arab oil embargo ended the long period of prosperity in the West that had begun in 1945, throwing

12636-407: The end of the quota system. Between 1970 and 1973 US imports of crude oil had nearly doubled, reaching 6.2 million barrels per day in 1973. Until 1973, an abundance of oil supply had kept the market price of oil lower than the posted price. In 1970, American oil production peaked and the United States began to import more and more oil as oil imports rose by 52% between 1969 and 1972. By 1972, 83% of

12792-454: The fact that The Protocols had been exposed as a forgery in 1921. Initially, Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger suggested to Kissinger that the USA invade Saudi Arabia and another Arab countries and seize their oil fields. Kissinger stated in a private state department meeting that it's “ridiculous that the civilized world is held up by 8 million savages... Can’t we overthrow one of the sheikhs just to show that we can do it?” They formed

12948-492: The famous race as to claim victory for their commercial partners). The race was a part of the World Sportscar Championship in every season from its inception in 1953 until its demise in 1992 except the 1956 , 1975 – 1979 and 1989 – 1990 seasons , and since 2012 the race has been the part of the FIA World Endurance Championship . However, Le Mans has always had a stronger reputation than

13104-562: The fighting, the Soviet Union began to fly new equipment in starting on October 12, and the Soviet flights to Syria and Egypt were recorded by the British radar stations in Cyprus. Though the Soviets were flying in an average of 60 flights per day, exaggerated accounts appeared in Western newspapers speaking of "one hundred flights per day". At this point, both Nixon and Kissinger began to see

13260-470: The fighting. So we agreed to cut back production by just 5 percent per month. A full embargo, we agreed, was something we would implement only if we felt that things were absolutely hopeless". At an OPEC summit at the Sheraton Hotel in Kuwait City on October 16, 1973, it was announced the price of oil would go from $ 3.01 U.S. dollars per barrel to $ 5.12 per barrel. After agreeing to the price increase,

13416-532: The first time in five years. Two of the drivers, paralyzed from the waist down, became the first disabled teammates to compete in the history of the race. In 2022, Garage 56 was once again empty. For 2023, a modified NASCAR Cup Series Next Gen Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 stock car fielded by Hendrick Motorsports was the Garage 56 entry, with seven-times Cup champion Jimmie Johnson , 2009 Formula One world champion and NASCAR driver Jenson Button , and 2010 Le Mans overall and LMP1 winner Mike Rockenfeller driving

13572-440: The first to win them all in the same year. The "greatest distance" rule was modified with the introduction of a rolling start in 1971. Now, the car that completes the greatest distance as of the final lap's completion—where "greatest distance" is measured by the start/finish line for all competitors—wins. When two cars finish the same number of laps, their finishing order is determined by the faster overall completion time. This rule

13728-530: The followers of the Mahdi (a messianic figure said to appear at the dawn of every Muslim century to strike down the enemies of Islam). The leader of the uprising, Juhayman al-Otaybi , read out a list of grievances as he accused the House of Saud of being corrupt and degenerate as he listed by name a number of Saudi princes who were engaged in dubious business dealings and/or who drank alcohol. The Saudi Army recaptured

13884-572: The fuel, but retired after a collision with an LMP1 car six hours into the race. In 2013, Garage 56 was given to the Swiss-designed hydrogen-fueled GreenGT H2, which was to be the first car without an internal combustion engine to compete at Le Mans. However, the car was pronounced unfit to take part in the race by the team a few days before the race. In 2016, the H2 went on to complete a single demonstration lap at Le Mans. The Nissan ZEOD RC ,

14040-423: The grid than Miles's, McLaren's car had covered the greatest distance over the 24 hours. With the margin of victory determined to be eight metres, McLaren and his co-driver, Chris Amon , were declared the winners. The decision cost Miles and Denny Hulme a victory. Miles had already won the other two endurance races at Sebring and Daytona. With a win at Le Mans, he would have become the first man to win all three and

14196-577: The high-profile duo. Gurney shook the bottle and sprayed everyone nearby. Gurney autographed and gave the bottle of champagne to Life photographer Flip Schulke , who used it as a lamp for years before returning it to Gurney. The first race was held on 26–27 May 1923 and has since been run annually in June with exceptions in 1956, when the race was held in July; 1968, when it was held in September due to nationwide political turmoil in May ; 2020, when it

14352-477: The income was dispensed in the form of aid to other underdeveloped nations whose economies had been caught between higher oil prices and lower prices for their own export commodities, amid shrinking Western demand. Much went for arms purchases that exacerbated political tensions, particularly in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia spent over 100 billion dollars in the ensuing decades for helping spread its fundamentalist interpretation of Islam, known as Wahhabism , throughout

14508-403: The king end the oil embargo after Sadat, whom he trusted, reported to him that the United States was being more "evenhanded" and after Kissinger had promised to sell Saudi Arabia weapons that it had previously denied under the grounds that they might be used against Israel. More importantly, Saudi Arabia had billions of dollars invested in Western banks, and the massive bout of inflation set off by

14664-536: The layout of the track required cars with better aerodynamics and stability at high speeds. While this was shared with Grand Prix racing, few tracks in Europe had straights of a length comparable to the Mulsanne . Additionally, because the road is public and thus not as meticulously maintained as permanent racing circuits, racing puts more strain on the parts, increasing the importance of reliability. The oil crisis in

14820-410: The long hooked Semitic noses that had traditionally been featured in anti-Jewish cartoons were applied to the Arab sheiks as a way to illustrate their supposed greed. American public opinion did not see the use of the "oil weapon" as due to politics, and tended to explain the embargo as only due to the excessive greed of King Faisal and the other Arab leaders, hence the use of the hooked Semitic nose in

14976-579: The nationalization of all the assets of all Western oil companies in the Middle East. The news about the war on October 16 was grim from the Arab viewpoint with the Syrians steadily being pushed back while Israelis had opened a counter-offensive against the Egyptians and crossed the Great Bitter Lake. The Saudi delegation led by Yemani, supported by the Algerian delegation, fought hard against

15132-586: The number of American planes flying into Tel Aviv were initially limited. After the first week of the war, the Israelis had halted the Syrian offensive in the Golan Heights and were pushing back the Syrians back towards Damascus, but along the Suez canal, there was heavy fighting with the Egyptians holding their own. Yamani stated in a 1981 interview: "The king still wanted to give America a chance to stay out of

15288-446: The odds of making peace along the lines of United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 calling for a "land for peace" deal if an armistice was signed with Egypt and Syria gaining some territory in the Sinai and the Golan Heights respectively. Nixon had ordered an arms lift to Israel on 12 October 1973, but Kissinger used the excuse of bureaucratic delays to limit the amount of weapons and ammunition sent to Israel. The Arab concept of

15444-494: The oil embargo was a threat to this fortune as inflation eroded the value of the money, giving Faisal a vested interest in helping to contain the damage he himself inflicted on the economies of the West. Since Israeli forces did not withdraw to the 1949 Armistice Line, the majority of scholars believe that the embargo was a failure. Roy Licklieder, in his 1988 book Political Power and the Arab Oil Weapon , concluded that

15600-594: The oil embargo were the Netherlands (because the Dutch Foreign Minister Max van der Stoel was strongly pro-Israeli) and Portugal (in a support of show for the independence movements in Portugal's African colonies), but the shortage of oil in the United States led to sharp price rises in all of the European nations. The embargo itself did not cause much economic difficulty in the United States as

15756-474: The oil embargo, oil exports from the Middle East to the West were down by 60–70% by November 1973. Japan and the nations of western Europe imported some 75% of their oil from the Near East, and the embargo led to immediate and sharp price raises as Lacey noted that "competing desperately for dwindling supplies, consumers showed themselves willing to pay unparalleled money for their oil". Saudi Arabia had 25% of

15912-530: The oil embargo. On November 7, 1973, Kissinger flew to Riyadh to meet King Faisal and ask him to end the oil embargo in exchange for promising to be "evenhanded" with the Arab-Israeli dispute. As the plane carrying him prepared to land in Riyadh, Kissinger was clearly nervous at the prospect of negotiating with the stern Wahhabi Faisal who had a marked dislike of Jews. Kissinger discovered that King Faisal

16068-423: The oil shock of 1973–1974 is still fondly remembered in Saudi Arabia as the "age of abundance" where nearly everyone had a significant increase in their standard of living. The wealth and corruption generated by the oil shock led to a fundamentalist backlash in Saudi Arabia. On 20 November 1979, Islam's most holiest shrine, the Grand Mosque of Mecca, was seized by a group of fanatics who proclaimed themselves to be

16224-813: The other legs. Since 1998, the American Le Mans Series (now the IMSA Weathertech Sports Car Championship ) has held an endurance race, along with the 12 hours of Sebring, every year called " Petit Le Mans ", as a 10-hour American version. In 2014, the Weathertech Sports Car Championship (a merger of the races at Sebring; Petit Le Mans in Braselton , Georgia; the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen in Watkins Glen , New York; and

16380-552: The past we could not lift our heads up. Now we can". Faisal promised to give to Egypt a quality of aid worth $ 200 million US dollars to assist with the war effort, and stated he was willing to use the "oil weapon" if necessary to support Egypt. Kissinger promised the Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir the United States would replace its losses in equipment after the war, but sought initially to delay arm shipments to Israel as he believed it would improve

16536-433: The people. In Iran, the Shah who was aware by 1974 that he had developed the cancer that was to ultimately kill him in 1980 pushed very strongly for his "Great Civilization" for rapid modernization not the least because he wanted to see the "Great Civilization" before his death, which explained his grandiose announcements. The new wealth generated by the "oil shock" allowed for Chairman Houari Boumédiène of Algeria to become

16692-405: The posted price of oil was increased and, due to a decline in the value of the US dollar relative to gold, certain anti-inflationary measures were enacted. Because of a severe drain on U.S. gold reserves, leading to higher inflation and lack of confidence in the strength of the dollar, President Nixon issued Executive Order 11615 on August 15, 1971, closing the " gold window ". This action made

16848-410: The premier LMP1 category must have a roof due to safety concerns, with open-cockpit cars only permitted in the slightly slower LMP2 category. Since 2017, all prototype cars, LMP1 or LMP2, must have closed cockpits. Although all cars compete at the same time, as of 2021 there are separate classes. A prize is awarded to the winner of each class and the overall winner. The number of classes has varied over

17004-567: The price of oil by 400% within a matter of days threw the world's economy into a sharp recession with unemployment mounting and inflation raging came as a profound shock. The end of what the French called the Trente Glorieuses ("Glorious Thirty" [years]) led to a mood of widespread pessimism in the West with the Financial Times running a famous headline in late 1973 saying "The Future will be subject to Delay". Kurt Waldheim,

17160-574: The price of oil remained high afterwards. By 1969, American domestic output of oil was peaking and could not keep pace with increasing demand from vehicles. The U.S. was importing 350 million barrels (56 million cubic metres) per year by the late 1950s, mostly from Venezuela and Canada . Because of transportation costs and tariffs, it never purchased much oil from the Middle East. In 1973, US production had declined to 16% of global output. Eisenhower imposed quotas on foreign oil that would stay in place between 1959 and 1973. Critics called it

17316-530: The public. These are further broken down into two sub-classes: constructors' prototypes, privateer prototypes, and two subclasses of GT cars. Competing teams have had a wide variety of organizations, ranging from competition departments of road car manufacturers (eager to prove the supremacy of their products) to professional motor racing teams (representing their commercial backers, some of which are also car manufacturers who want to win without paying for their own teams) to amateur teams (racing as much to compete in

17472-454: The race has had different regulations for safety and competition reasons partly due to its length. For many decades, cars had to run at least an hour into the race before they could refill fluids for the car, such as oil or coolant, except for fuel. This was an attempt by the ACO to help increase efficiency and reliability. Those who could not last the first hour without replacing lost fluids risked disqualification. Another rule unique to Le Mans

17628-555: The race returning to its original start time of 16:00 in 2021, 2023 and 2024 respectively. The only exceptions were as follows: Initially, the car that covered the greatest distance from its starting position was the winner. This is known to have caught out the Ford team in 1966 . With a dominant 1–2 lead, the two cars slowed to allow for a photo opportunity at the finish line, with Ken Miles slightly ahead of Bruce McLaren . However, since McLaren's car had started much farther back on

17784-458: The race stewards. The race traditionally began with what became known as the Le Mans start , in which cars were lined up along the length of the pits. Until 1962, cars lined up by engine capacity. Beginning in 1963, qualifying times determined the lineup. The starting drivers stood on the opposite side of the front stretch. When the French flag dropped to signify the start, the drivers ran across

17940-522: The second summit of Islamic states in Lahore (which, unlike the first summit that Faisal had chaired in 1969, was not boycotted by Iraq and Syria ) where he was acclaimed as a conquering hero who humiliated and humbled the West by wrecking its economy. The prime minister of Pakistan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, opened the conference by stating: "The armies of Pakistan are the armies of Islam. We shall enter Jerusalem as brothers-in-arms!" Only on March 18, 1974 did

18096-643: The secretary-general of the United Nations in an address to the General Assembly complained about "the note of helplessness and fatalism creeping into world affairs". The sudden and abrupt end of the "long summer" of prosperity in 1973-1974 played a major role in the pessimistic mood that characterized the culture of the rest of the 1970s. In 1975, a report to Congress from the Federal Energy Administration estimated that

18252-490: The specialised racing cars used in Grand Prix motor racing . Over time, the competing vehicles evolved away from their publicly available road car roots. Today, the race comprises two classes: the purpose-built Sports prototypes which are also known as Le Mans Prototypes (LMP) and are the highest level in sports car racing, and the production-based Grand Touring (GT) cars which are similar to sports cars sold to

18408-420: The speeds of the cars and the strain it puts on drivers, additional rules to reduce driver fatigue mandated that drivers could not drive for over 240 minutes (over 4 hours) and that no one driver could run for over 840 minutes (14 hours) total. With careful management of driver stints, this makes it possible to complete the race with only two drivers (as Jeroen Bleekemolen and Cooper MacNeil did in 2014), although

18564-408: The start. His car was waiting with first gear already engaged. He switched the starter on when he jumped in without depressing the clutch. The starter motor immediately jerked the car forward, but the engine did not start due to low RPM. After a few seconds of motion, he pushed the clutch down, allowing the engine to speed up and start while the car was moving. Feeling this type of start was unsafe, in

18720-670: The test day to the first weekend of June. Pre-qualification was eliminated in 2000, meaning that all competitors invited to the test would be allowed into the race. Since 2001 the Le Mans Legend races have also been part of the schedule, usually running exhibition races during qualifying days, a few hours prior to the sessions for the Le Mans entrants. From its inception, until 2008, the race started at 16:00 local time on Saturday, and consequently from 2009 to 2019, 2022 and come 2025 & hereafter it started at 15:00 local time, with

18876-482: The time of these lengthy pit stops. Drivers can get out of the car and be replaced by another driver during refuelling. Those rules are also applied in the FIA World Endurance Championship . There are various long-standing traditions at Le Mans, including the waving of the French tricolor to start the race. This is usually followed by a fly-over featuring jets trailing blue, white, and red smoke. A similar flag tradition

19032-423: The track, entered and started their cars without assistance, and drove away. This became a safety issue in the late 1960s when some drivers ignored their safety harnesses, then a recent invention. This led to drivers running the first few laps either improperly harnessed due to attempting to do it while driving or sometimes not even harnessed at all, leading to several deaths when cars were involved in accidents due to

19188-502: The use of oil as a weapon. In 1970, President Nasser of Egypt died and was succeeded by Anwar Sadat , a man who believed in the diplomacy of surprise, in engaging in sudden moves to upset the diplomatic equilibrium. Sadat liked to say that his favourite game was backgammon , a game where skill and persistence was rewarded, but was best won by sudden gambles, making an analogy between how he played backgammon and conducted his diplomacy. Under Nasser, Egypt and Saudi Arabia had engaged what

19344-443: The vast majority of teams still continue to use three drivers. In 2017, the driving time rules were further changed. If necessary, officials may require a drive time limit of 80 minutes of consecutive time behind the wheel and a minimum 30-minute rest break. The rule applies only if the air temperature is at least 32 °C (89.6 °F). Although it has been a part of the World Sportscar Championship for most of its existence,

19500-574: The war that would be "peaceful, just and honorable" to both sides. Saqqaf reported to King Faisal that Nixon told him that he ended the Vietnam war on an honorable basis and now intended to end the October war in the same manner. Israel took heavy losses in men and material during the fighting against Egypt and Syria, and on October 18, 1973, Meir requested $ 850 million worth of American arms and equipment to replace its material losses. Nixon decided characteristically to act on an epic scale and instead of

19656-417: The warning that Faisal was considerably tougher, more intelligent and more ruthless than his half-brother Saud whom he had deposed in 1964, and his threats were serious. Kissinger declined to meet the four CEOs. In an assessment done by Kissinger and his staff about the Middle East in the summer of 1973, the repeated statements by Sadat about waging  jihad against Israel were dismissed as empty talk while

19812-478: The warnings from King Faisal were likewise regarded as inconsequential. In September 1973, Nixon fired Rogers as Secretary of State and replaced him with Kissinger. Kissinger was later to state he had not been given enough time to know the Middle East as he settled into the State Department's office at Foggy Bottom as Egypt and Syria attacked Israel on October 6, 1973. On October 6, 1973, Egypt attacked

19968-448: The way his subjects had been seduced into a consumerist lifestyle, becoming lost in a sense of "melancholia". Faisal's son, Crown Prince Mohammad told Lacey in 1981: "The profligacy, the greed, he felt he could not stem it. He become so bound up in his work, there was almost nothing private of him left". A sign of the changed values was that despite the total ban on alcohol in Saudi Arabia that drinking along with drug use become common with

20124-533: The withholding of the 638,500 barrels of oil which the Saudi Arabia had been selling to America every day for the first 10 months of 1973 ever come, in itself, to jeopardizing the power or diverting the policies of the United States, since it accounted for less than 4 percent of America's daily 17 million barrel consumption. It was the interaction which Faisal's embargo had with other forces that made it so decisive. Arab politics had an immediate multiplier effect". Because every Arab state except for Iraq and Libya joined

20280-468: The world's economy into the steepest economic contraction since the Great Depression. The "long summer" of prosperity in the post-war years had made possible the "swinging sixties" and the related rise of a rebellious youth culture as it was very easy to be hedonist and/or in rebellion against traditional values in a time of unprecedented affluence and prosperity. Lacey wrote about the impact of

20436-452: The world's oil reserves and the embargo imposed on the United States led to shortages of oil in the United States, which set an inflationary spiral as the new high prices for oil in the American market led to sharp increases of the price of oil in nations not subjected to the embargo. When the Iranian state oil company held an auction on December 16, 1973, bids for some $ 17 US dollars per barrel of oil were made. In late December 1973, OPEC held

20592-609: The world, via religious charities such as the al-Haramain Foundation , which often also distributed funds to violent Sunni extremist groups such as Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. The 400% increase in the world oil prices led to extravagant promises being made by the leaders of oil-producing nations. The Shah of Iran told his subjects in a speech in December 1973 that he was launching "Great Civilization" project that would make Iran into

20748-527: The world. Unlike fixed-distance races whose winner is determined by minimum time, the 24 Hours of Le Mans is won by the car that covers the greatest distance in 24 hours. The cars on this track are able to achieve speeds of 366 km/h (227 mph), and reached 407 km/h (253 mph) on the Mulsanne Straight in 1988  – instigating the addition of more chicanes to the track to reduce speed reached. Racing teams must balance

20904-620: The years, but there are now three: Hypercar, LMP2, and LMGT3. Successor to the Le Mans Prototype 1 (LMP1) is the custom-built Hypercar (LMH or LMDh) class. It is the top class and debuted in 2021. The new technical regulations are intended to prevent cost escalations while enabling greater variety in technical approaches and car aesthetics. This is followed by the LMP2 class where teams are obliged to run one of four approved chassis—ORECA, Ligier, Dallara, or Multimatic/Riley—mated with

21060-461: The younger members of the House of Saud. James Akins, the American ambassador in Riyadh reported; "the sky over Riyadh is black with vultures with new get-richer-quicker plans under their wings". In 1974, property prices in Riyadh doubled on a weekly basis for the entire year as the prosperity led to a real estate speculation bubble that was often compared to the Klondike gold rush of 1898–1899. At

21216-480: Was Stalin who said there had to be a Jewish state...Israel is advancing Communist objectives...Among those of the Jewish faith there are those who embrace Zionism...Most of the immigration to Israel is from the Soviet Union...They want to establish a Communist base right in the Middle East...And now, all over the world, the Jews are putting themselves into positions of authority". On February 22, 1974, King Faisal chaired

21372-582: Was a part of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup . Since 2012 , the race has been a part of the FIA World Endurance Championship . In the World Endurance Championship's super-season of May 2018 to June 2019, the 24 Hours of Le Mans was both the second and the last round of the season. Launched when Grand Prix motor racing was the dominant form of motorsport throughout Europe, Le Mans was designed to present

21528-552: Was a worthy companion to Lê Đức Thọ in terms of stubbornness as the king accused the United States of being biased in favor of Israel, going on in a long rant about the balefulness of "Jewish Communists" in Russia and Israel, and despite all of Kissinger's efforts to charm him, refused to end the oil embargo. Faisal told Kissinger: "The United States used to stand up to aggression-you did that in World War Two and in 1956 during

21684-471: Was an immediate shift on the part of consumers to the lighter and more fuel efficient vehicles produced by the Japanese and West German automobile industries, sending the American automobile industry into decline. The years from 1945 to 1973 had been a period of unprecedented prosperity in the West, a "long summer" that many believed would never end, and its abrupt end in 1973 as the oil embargo which increased

21840-491: Was appalled by the way that his subjects became materialistic, devoted only to conspicuous consumption and greed as they lost interest in Islam. Lacey wrote: "The spiritual dangers of easy affluence distressed him more. His simple gesture of piety and honor seemed to have opened a Pandora's Box that threatened to turn his realm into a parody of all he held dear". In the last two of years of his life, Faisal fell into depression over

21996-558: Was becoming more and more unhappy with the United States, saying he wanted America to pressure Israel to return all the lands captured in the Six Day War of 1967. In a later interview, Yamani accused Kissinger of not taking his warning seriously, saying all he did was to ask him not to speak anymore of this threat. Angry at Kissinger, Yamani in an interview with the Washington Post on April 19, 1973, warned that King Faisal

22152-534: Was considering an oil embargo. At the time, the general feeling in Washington was the Saudis were bluffing and nothing would come of their threat to impose an oil embargo. The fact that Faisal's ineffectual half brother King Saud had imposed a cripplingly oil embargo on Britain and France during the Suez War of 1956 was not considered an important precedent. The CEOs of four of America's oil companies had after speaking to Faisal arrived in Washington in May 1973 with

22308-504: Was implemented, the embargo caused an oil crisis, or "shock", with many short- and long-term effects on the global economy as well as on global politics. The 1973 embargo later came to be referred to as the "first oil shock" vis-à-vis the "second oil shock" that was the 1979 oil crisis , brought upon by the Iranian Revolution . Ever since Israel declared independence in 1948 there was conflict between Arabs and Israelis in

22464-455: Was implementing a total oil embargo against countries that had supported Israel at any point during the 1973 Yom Kippur War , which began after Egypt and Syria launched a large-scale surprise attack in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to recover the territories that they had lost to Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War . In an effort that was led by Faisal of Saudi Arabia , the initial countries that OAPEC targeted were Canada , Japan ,

22620-600: Was known as the Arab Cold War , but Sadat got along very well with King Faisal of Saudi Arabia , forming an alliance between the most populous Arab state and the wealthiest Arab state. Unlike the secularist Nasser, Sadat was a pious Muslim and he had a strong personal rapport with King Faisal, who was an equally pious Muslim. The man largely in charge of American foreign policy, the National Security Adviser, Henry Kissinger , later admitted that he

22776-561: Was like and was told: "Well, Dr. Henry, he will probably go on with you about Communism and the Jews". King Faisal's two great hatreds were Communism and Zionism as he believed that the Soviet Union and Israel were plotting together against Islam. When King Faisal was shown a translation into Arabic of The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion , he instantly believed in the authenticity of The Protocols and therefore talked to anyone who would listen about what he had learned, despite

22932-459: Was moved to 19–20 September due to the COVID-19 outbreak; and 2021, when it was moved to 21–22 August. The race has been cancelled ten times—in 1936 (a labour strike during the Great Depression ) and between 1940 and 1948 (World War II). The race usually takes place on the second weekend of June, with qualifying and practice taking place on the Wednesday and Thursday before the race, following

23088-480: Was needed at the Riyassa Palace immediately. Yamani told the king: "The TV news goes out at nine. If you make a decision now, we can get it announced at once". The king replied "Write this down" and announced he was placing a total embargo on the United States. The embargo was accompanied by gradual monthly production cuts—by December, production had been cut to 25% of September levels. This contributed to

23244-464: Was not the best considered decision we made". The arms lift enraged King Faisal of Saudi Arabia and he retaliated on October 20, 1973, by placing a total embargo on oil shipments to the United States, to be joined by all of the other oil-producing Arab states except Iraq and Libya. Faisal was angry that Israel had only asked for $ 850 million worth of American weapons, and instead received an unsolicited $ 2.2 billion worth of weapons, which he perceived as

23400-545: Was organized after the oil companies slashed the posted price of oil, but the posted price of oil remained consistently higher than the market price of oil between 1961 and 1972. In 1963, the Seven Sisters controlled 86% of the oil produced by OPEC countries, but by 1970 the rise of "independent oil companies" had decreased their share to 77%. The entry of three new oil producers— Algeria , Libya and Nigeria —meant that by 1970, 81 oil companies were doing business in

23556-589: Was so engrossed with the Paris peace talks to end the Vietnam war that he and others in Washington missed the significance of the Egyptian-Saudi alliance. At the same time that Sadat moved closer to Saudi Arabia, he also wanted a rapprochement with the United States and to move Egypt away from its alliance with the Soviet Union. In 1971, the US had information that the Arab states were willing to implement another embargo. In July 1972, Sadat expelled all 16,000 of

23712-606: Was the Suez Crisis in 1956 when the United Kingdom, France and Israel invaded Egypt. During the conflict the Syrians sabotaged both the Trans-Arabian Pipeline and the Iraq–Baniyas pipeline , which disrupted the supply of oil to Western Europe. The second instance was when war broke out between Egypt and Israel in 1967, but despite continued Egyptian and Syrian enmity against Israel, the embargo lasted only

23868-481: Was the Shah of Iran, and the Italian historian Giuliano Garavini has argued that the leader most responsible for the West's economic problems during the "oil shock" was not King Faisal, but rather the Shah. Some of the nations that were classified as "friendly" to the Arab viewpoint in regards to the Arab-Israeli dispute such as France and Belgium were the ones who suffered the most from the worldwide inflation caused by

24024-409: Was the troublesome issue of where to safety store the spent nuclear rods that emitted a toxic level of radioactivity for centuries afterward in an cost-effective manner. The issue of the spent nuclear rods was especially difficult because in a classic case of NIMBYism , communities proved very unwilling to accept a storage place for the inevitable by-product of nuclear power, the spent nuclear rods, with

24180-542: Was to kill hundreds of thousands. OPEC-member states raised the prospect of nationalization of oil company holdings. Most notably, Saudi Arabia nationalized Aramco in 1980 under the leadership of Saudi oil minister Ahmed Zaki Yamani . As other OPEC nations followed suit, the cartel's income soared. Saudi Arabia undertook a series of ambitious five-year development plans. The biggest began in 1980, funded at $ 250 billion. Other cartel members also undertook major economic development programs. Control of oil became known as

24336-401: Was used in the 2011 24 Hours of Le Mans to determine the race winner. The top two finishers completed 355 laps, with only 13 seconds difference between them. Although "greatest distance run" determines the provisional order of finishers, additional requirements must be met for a car to be classified. All classification requirements hold except in exceptional circumstances, as determined by

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