Carroll Shelby: There's a point, 7000 rpm, where everything fades. The machine becomes weightless. Just disappears. And all that's left is a body, moving through space and time. 7000 rpm, that's where you meet it. Asks you a question. The only question that matters. Who are you?
Henry Ford II: This isn't the first time Ford Motors' gone to war. We know how to do more than push papers. Go ahead, Carroll. Go to war.
Carroll Shelby: Thank you, sir.
Lee Iacocca: Carroll Shelby.
Carroll Shelby: Maybe?
Lee Iacocca: Lee Iacocca, Ford Motors. Suppose Henry Ford II wanted to build the greatest race car the world's ever seen, to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans. What's it take?
Carroll Shelby: Well, it takes somethin' money can't buy.
Lee Iacocca: Well, it can buy speed.
Carroll Shelby: It isn't about speed.
Lee Iacocca: James Bond does not drive a Ford, sir.
Henry Ford II: That's because he's a degenerate.
Carroll Shelby: We're lighter, we're faster, and if that don't work, we're nastier.
Answer: Technically, neither of these incidents would be considered cheating in the classic sense. Stealing the stopwatches would be just that, stealing. It's likely that some other members of a team like Ferrari had back up stopwatches. Dropping the lug nut in the Ferrari pit would just be a mind game to put doubt in the minds of the pit crew as to whether they got all the lug nuts on the wheels. Neither of these incidents would affect the performance of the race car. It was mischief, not cheating.
This doesn't answer the question at all (and seems like someone's trying to correct this thinking it's a mistake entry). I said "cheating like this" for the 2 examples I gave, because it's cheating (by definition) but not necessarily breaking La Mans rules. Plus I also asked about actual accusations of cheating.
Bishop73
It's called gamesmanship, how is dropping a lug nut to make the Italians think they had forgotten one cheating? Now if he had taken the lug nut so it delayed their pit stop or so it wasn't put on at all that's a different story. You seem like you never competed if you think those things are cheating.
And stealing a stopwatch is gamesmanship too? The question is was this based on anything. I've never competed in LeMans, but in a majority of sports there are rules against deceiving the other team (for example a balk). Seems like you've never played sports.
Bishop73