It has been a long time since, back in 1937, the Alfa Corse carrier truck owned by a certain Enzo Ferrari parked among those of the Ecurie Bleue (the first transporters of the 24 Hours) behind the pits at the circuit! At the time, Enzo Ferrari was a mechanic/preparer for the Alfa Romeo 8Cs that were as successful at Le Mans as they were in Grand Prix, so much so said truck was also present at the 1936 Grand Prix of Deauville organized by the ACO. It contributed, among other things, to the fact the 24 Hours of Le Mans did not take place that year. The cars having been categorized as constructor catalog models, they were registered and came from the road.

After World War II, the first tractor-trailer to appear at the 24 Hours of Le Mans was owned by Briggs Cunningham, seen after a land sea journey illustrated in the above photo. Ironically, the truck was not transporting cars but instead tons of materials necessary for the proper functioning of the team. It was a veritable second landing at Normandy, from Le Havre, home port of the steamer Liberté.

In the 1950s, the Jaguars arrived by air at the Raineries airport and the paddock was taken over by the legendary carrier trucks of Ferrari, Alfa Romeo (truck and trailer), Abarth, Maserati (whose truck broke down in 1954 near the city of Nevers, arriving late to Scrutineering and thereby eliminating the Italian marque from the field), Ecurie Ecosse (present from 1955 to 1962) and the Dubonnet team. Sometimes the help of a freight station platform, or failing that, a lift to unload the cars was needed. The most surprising without question was the Mercedes carrier truck, capable of reaching 160 km/h, allowing it - after the catastrophy of June 11, 1955 - to return to Germany in two hours both cars that had retired during the night. It was also common to modify authentic coaches into carrier trucks, like Lotus for example.