who drove with Maurice Benoist (Robert's brother). Bugatti was still a small company, yet to achieve its great fame. Recently relocated back to Molsheim when the Alsace was ceded to France after the war, Ettore Bugatti was still only producing small touring cars. The two T22 "Brescia Bugattis" were privately owned, fitted with the new 1495cc engine capable of 95 km/h (50 mph). However the cars were heavy and further stymied by the 180kg of required passenger-ballast to be carried for a 4-seat car. SARA was a new Parisian company, only formed a year earlier to build cars based around the pioneering new pressurised air-cooling system of August Tisserant. The new ATS 2-seater model had the only French 4-cylinder air-cooled engine, and produced 30 bhp and two cars were entered. French financier and company co-owner François Piazzoli drove a lightened version without running boards. Amilcar was another new Parisian company formed in 1921 producing small-engined cars and cyclecars. Their CC model won Europe's first 24-hour event at the 1922 Bol d’Or, beating Salmson. An entry to Le Mans was filed at the behest of privateer owners Maurice Boutmy and Jérôme Marcandanti to race the new CV model. The 1004cc engine produced just 18 bhp. But as a 2-seater it was also given the smallest target distance of just 48 laps. Practice With no official practice session, some teams (including La Lorraine, Chenard-Walcker and Bignan) arrived earlier in the week before Friday scrutineering to learn the track. For the standing start, the cars were lined up on the front straight two-by-two with engines off. Pictures show them in numerical order, although the "Autocar" review of the time says it was in the order their entries were received by the ACO. Salmson's race engineer Émile Petit was furious when he arrived at the track to find company director André Lombard had changed the cars’ electrics to a new supplier. Race Start In an inauspicious omen, the early summertime start of the first 24 Hours of Le Mans at 4 pm began just after a hailstorm, in cold rain and wind. The honour to drop the flag to start the race fell to Monsieur Carpé, the ACO chief timekeeper. The big Belgian Excelsiors were overtaken from the start by Robert Bloch's Lorraine-Dietrich. What was supposed to be an "endurance trial" soon became a race along the narrow country roads. It was perhaps surprising