"This year, the Lion (Peugeot) is very fast, you know. But sometimes, when you go to the circus, you see the Lion jumping through the ring. Jumping through one ring is easy. Through two rings is not so difficult. But jumping through four rings, probably get a little more difficult. And sometimes he fall down, the lion."
— Dindo Capello
A 2008 Documentary film narrated by Jason Statham about the Audi racing team's attempt to win the 2008 24 Hours of Le Mans in the Audi R10 TDI against a car that had been faster all year, the Peugeot 908 HDi FAP. Shortly after its initial airing on ESPN, it was made available for free download on iTunes
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In 2012, a sequel was made documenting the 2011 race called Truth in 24 II: Every Second Counts.
Tropes
- Badass Driver: Many — notably including Peugeot's Jacques Villeneuve, one of an elite few who have won both the Formula One World Championship AND the Indianapolis 500 — but for Le Mans specifically there is Tom Kristensen, who had won a record seven times at Le Mans in only nine appearances. He makes it eight out of ten by the end of the film.
- Chekhov's Gun: The first line of the film is "It always rains at Le Mans."
- Cool Old Guy: Justified, as a lot of former or ex-Formula One drivers move to sportscar racing. But it applies best to the #1 Audi, whose three drivers had a combined age of 132!
- Dramatization: While all the footage is of true events, at several places facts are elided to give a more dramatic impression — for example, it is nowhere mentioned that the same model Peugeot had raced against Audi in the 2007 series.
- Epic Race: Le Mans is probably the most famous Real Life example of one, and the properties of the race that make it fit this trope are heavily emphasized in the film.
- Foregone Conclusion: It shouldn't be a surprise that an Audi wins, but out of the three cars they enter it's the #2 that is victorious.
- Fridge Horror: In-Universe; one of the clips from races earlier in the season shows that, during the 1000km of Monza, a car lost control and flew through the air inches from Allan McNish's Audi — a fact he was unaware of until watching the replay the next day.
- Mission Control: Each car has an engineer assigned to this job for the race — Car #2's Howden "H" Haynes gets the most screentime.
- My Greatest Second Chance: The race is treated in this way by the #3 Audi's Mike Rockenfeller, who had crashed his car at the previous year's Le Mans.
- Stealth Pun: The quote at the top of the page. The "four rings" Capello refers to make up Audi's logo.
- Title Drop: In the introduction, Statham describes the race as Audi's "moment of truth — 24 hours of truth."
- The Big Race: Le Mans, of course.
