Le Mans Unveils Transformed M24 Motorsport Museum: A Global Racing Mecca
Prepare to have your engines revved: the new M24 – Motorsport Museum at Le Mans has officially reopened after an ambitious overhaul, bringing fans closer than ever to the thrill, history, and innovation of motorsport.
Reimagined from the ground up, the legendary site now delivers a fully immersive experience that celebrates speed, engineering, iconic machines, and the people who shaped racing history.
Key Highlights of the Transformed M24 Motorsport Museum
- Rapid Transformation: Achieved an unprecedented nine-month completion goal, mirroring the intensity of a racing team's preparation.
- Expanded Vision: Evolved from solely focusing on the Le Mans 24 Hours to embracing the entire spectrum of global motorsport.
- Immersive Experience: Doubled in size to 10,000m², featuring 130+ iconic vehicles and cutting-edge interactive displays.
- Legendary Collection: Showcases priceless artifacts from Formula 1, IndyCar, Rallying, and classic Le Mans winners.
Le Mans Unveils a Global Motorsport Sanctuary
For nearly a year, racing enthusiasts eagerly awaited the reopening of the former Le Mans 24 Hours Museum. What has emerged is nothing short of spectacular: the M24 – Motorsport Museum, a facility purpose-built to narrate the grand saga of motorsport worldwide. Nestled beside the iconic Circuit des 24 Heures, it aims to be the undisputed world reference.
Pierre Fillon, president of the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO), expressed immense pride just hours before the May 28th inauguration. “It’s the culmination of a long-term project,” he recalled. “There is enormous pride, above all in the work done by the teams, because this museum represented a real challenge. We’ve been working on it for a long time, but completing it in nine months was a day-to-day challenge.
“All the teams, at every level, and everyone involved, worked towards one single objective. I told them: the Le Mans 24 Hours starts at 4pm on Saturday, and the museum had to open on 28 May at 10am.”
Beyond endurance racing
The scale of the transformation is reflected immediately in the museum’s new identity. No longer solely dedicated to the Le Mans 24 Hours, the rebranded M24 now embraces the wider world of motorsport, offering visitors a far broader and more immersive experience. The ambition, according to museum director Fabrice Bourrigaud, is clear: establish Le Mans as the global benchmark for motorsport museums.
“We truly believed that Le Mans was the legitimate place to create something that doesn’t exist today: a motorsport museum, meaning a museum capable of telling the great history of motorsport,” the museum director said.
“We are in Le Mans, known for the Le Mans 24 Hours, on one of the three most famous circuits in the world alongside Indianapolis and Monaco. We have organised virtually every form of motorsport here, we conceived the first modern motor race in 1906, 120 years ago, so Le Mans was truly the ideal place to do it.”
Following the 2025 editions of the Le Mans 24 Hours and Le Mans Classic, the museum temporarily closed for renovations. Yet despite the ambitious scale of the overhaul, the team managed to complete the project in time for the 2026 event — a turnaround many considered nearly impossible.
“We have one major flaw here: we can’t stand not being open during the Le Mans 24 Hours!” smiled Fabrice Bourrigaud. “In eleven months, we had to complete a project that could easily have taken two years. It’s a small feat, a bit like a racing team preparing to contest the Le Mans 24 Hours.”
Twice the space, 130 reasons to visit
The museum has undergone a dramatic expansion, doubling in size from 5,000m² to 10,000m². With the redesigned layout, every part of the visitor experience has been modernised to create a more dynamic and engaging journey through motorsport history.
Guests are guided through the atmosphere of an entire Le Mans race week — from the intensity of the starting grid to the unforgettable spectacle of racing through the night. Alongside endurance racing, the museum also spotlights other major categories including Formula 1, IndyCar, rallying, and motorcycle racing.
“Previously, we barely had 100 cars, whereas now we are at around 130 in total, because the aim was to showcase them better and tell stories,” explained Fabrice Bourrigaud. “A museum has to tell stories, so we’ve become far more immersive. The idea was to make people feel emotions and sensations.
“We worked enormously with Raphael Daguet, our scenographer, whether on the sets or the way everything is presented. But the first element of scenography is light. Once again, what we exhibit here are mechanical works of art, paintings on four wheels. They are not hanging on walls, they are placed on the tarmac where they all achieved their exploits.”
Schumacher and Pescarolo under the same roof
Attention to detail can be seen throughout the venue, right down to the flooring, which mirrors the asphalt used at the Circuit des 24 Heures. The vast collection — impressive both in scale and historical significance — helps visitors connect more deeply with the heritage and emotion of motorsport. Full-scale displays featuring race cars, transport trucks, and life-sized silicone figures further enhance the realism of the experience.
Backed by Richard Mille’s support and the ACO’s immense archive of one million photographs, the museum places strong emphasis on authenticity. Among its standout attractions is the Alley of Heroes, where legends Michael Schumacher and Henri Pescarolo are honoured at opposite ends of the exhibit.
“This Ferrari F2002 of Michael Schumacher is a car with which he utterly dominated, and we are proud to have it in the museum,” said Fabrice Bourrigaud, though entirely incapable of selecting just one car that makes him especially proud: “To choose is to give something up! It’s difficult... The winning Bentley from 1924, which is an extraordinarily rare piece, is something truly exceptional.
“As I love human stories, and because this is all about adventure, there is the Rondeau, with the story of this child of Le Mans who built his own car to race in the Le Mans 24 Hours and managed to win the race by beating Porsche and Jacky Ickx: it’s the ultimate fantasy. On the Formula 1 side, Jacky Ickx’s Ferrari from 1970 gives me goosebumps, and then there’s Sebastien Loeb in rallying...
“The collection we are presenting illustrates this partnership between the ACO and Richard Mille. We have the potential for 400 cars, so there is a great deal still in reserve! Because this museum has to stay alive, the permanent collections must rotate. And there is also a space dedicated to temporary exhibitions, with major themes beginning in 2027.”
Now officially reopened ahead of the 2026 Le Mans 24 Hours, the M24 Motorsport Museum is poised to become an essential destination for racing fans of every generation.
