Tag Archives: LM

Ferrari Friday – Hillsborough Concours d’Elegance

Welcome to another Ferrari Friday this week brought to you courtesy of Geoffrey Horton who took today’s photographs at the recent Hillsborough Concours d’Elegance.

Ferrari 166 MM, Hillsborough Concours d'Elegance

Regular GALPOT readers might remember the 1949 Ferrari 166 MM chassis #0022 M as a Hillsborough regular having appeared there in 2012.

Ferrari 340 Vignale Mexico Berlinetta, Hillsborough Concours d'Elegance

In 1952 Vignale built 3 Berlinetta bodied and one Barchetta bodied Ferrari 340 Mexicos for the Carrera Pan America, above is the first Berlinetta bodied chassis #0222AT which started the 1952 and 1953 events and retired from both.

Ferrari 342 America, Hillsborough Concours d'Elegance

This gorgeous, even in black, Ferrari 342 America with bodywork by Pinin Farina was delivered to King Leopold III. of Belgium in May 1953, he appears to have kept it for only a year or so.

Ferrari 750 Monza, Hillsborough Concours d'Elegance

From 1954 this Ferrari 750 Monza chassis #0462MB above was the first to be delivered into private hands and it allegedly ended up being covertly inspected at the Jaguar factory before being sold to Jack Brabham in 1955.

Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa, Hillsborough Concours d'Elegance

Geoffrey first sent me a photo of this 1958 Testa Rossa chassis #0754 TR in 2009, but I have never heard anyone complain of looking at a Testa Tossa too often.

Ferrari 250 GT SWB Nembo Spyder, Hillsborough Concours d'Elegance

A completely new to me builder of bodies for Ferrari’s is “Nembo” otherwise known as Neri and Bonacini of Modena who built this Spyder body, styled by Californian Tom Meade, on a 1962 Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta chassis #3771 GT between 1966 and 1968, only two other Ferrari’s received a Nembo body.

Ferrari 250 LM, Hillsborough Concours d'Elegance

Carrying the #8 it wore at Reims in 1964 for the 12 hour race above is the 1964 Ferrari 250 LM chassis #5909 which was driven to, it’s greatest success on it’s third outing, a 2nd place finish by works drivers John Surtees and Lorenzo Bandini.

Ferrari 500 Superfast, Hillsborough Concours d'Elegance

After being taken to the 1966 Brussels Motor Show in Belgium this Ferrari 500 Superfast chassis #8019 was purchased by Judge Samuel Simon Leibowitz, Glen Cove, NY, USA from US dealer Chinetti later the same year, since then I believe it may have had only three other owners.

My thanks to Geoffrey for supplying so many photo’s for future Ferrari Friday blogs.

Thanks for joining me on this “Ferrari Friday” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be visiting Hillsborough for a third time to look at another selection of European Cars at the event. Don’t forget to come back now !

Five Classic Racing Ferraris – Silverstone Classic

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The Silverstone Classic meeting usually offers the Ferrari fanatic a bonanza of Maranello’s finest road and racing cars and I am sure this year’s Silver Jubilee edition of the event will be no different.

Ferrari 500 TRC, David and James Cottingham, Silverstone Classic

Among the myriad of Ferrari racers seen in recent years have been the Cottinghams Ferrari 500 TRC which finished 7th both at the 1957 Le Mans 24 hours and on the 1958 Targa Florio.

Ferrari 246 Dino, Tony Smith, Silverstone Classic,

Another regular competitor is Tony Smith’s 1958 Ferrari 246 Dino which counts among it’s former occupants Wolfgang von Trips, Oliver Gendebien, Dan Gurney and Phil Hill the latter drove the car to the last win for a front engined Grand Prix at Monza in 1960.

Ferrari 166/206, Harry Leventis, Gregor Fisken, Silverstone Classic,

Ing. Forghieri, responsible for the design of Harry Leventis’s Ferrari 166/206, above, was never the cars biggest fan, once likening the design, in conversation with desginer Gordon Murray, as to sticky brown smelly stuff, however that did not prevent Ludovico Scarfiotti driving the car in an earlier form to claim the 1965 European Hillclimb Championship.

Ferrari 512M, Nathan Kinch, Silverstone Classic

Ferrari 512’s are not an uncommon sight at Silverstone Classic weekends, #1030 seen above with Scotsman Nathan Kinch at the wheel, was raced in S form in 1970 and M form in 1971 under the Ecurie Francorchamps banner but found it’s greatest success under JC Bamford’s ownership for whom Peter Brown, Willie Green and Neil Corner all drove it on various occasions to seven straight wins in it’s last seven races during 1972 six victories were claimed in the Motoring News GT Championship and the other in the Interserie race held at Silverstone.

Ferrari F40 LM, Stefano Sebastiani, Silverstone Classic,

Finally the Silver Jubilee edition of the Silverstone Classic will see the first race for GT cars from the 1990’s, above Stefano Sebastiani is seen about to put his 1989 F40 LM, a converted road car, through it’s paces during last years popular GT demonstration run.

Tickets for this years advance ticket only Silver Jubilee Silverstone Classic are available from this linked website.

Thanks for joining me on this “Five Classic Racing Ferraris” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at the first of a series of Formula Junior open wheelers. Don’t for get to come back now !

Le Pole Again – Peugeot 905 EVO1 Bis LM #EV11

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In 1990 Peugeot Talbot Sport launched it’s 905 sports car programme to compete in the new 3.5 litre / 216 cui sports car class that was to commence in 1991.

The 905 was powered by a V10 motor with the two banks of cylinders inclinded at 80º and featured a carbon fibre monocoque engineered by the Dassault aerospace manufacturer.

Keke Rosberg and Jean-Pierre Jabouille shared a 905 for the last two races of the 1990 World Sports Prototype Championship with their only finish coming at Mexico where they finished 13th from 11th on the grid.

Peugeot 905 Evo 1 Bis LM, Goodwood, Festival of Speed,

Mauro Baldi and Philippe Alliot won the opening round of the 1991 Sportscar World Championship at Suzuka from 4th on the grid driving a 905, but there after the 905’s reliability nose dived as they tried to keep up with the much faster Jaguar XJ14.

After both 905’s retired before the four hour mark from the 1991 Le Mans 24 hours the cars were heavily revised with a more powerful engine supported by a more sophisticated aero package that include two rear wings and the option for a front wing.

Magny Cours and Mexico saw the heavily revised cars score 1-2 victories with Keke Rosberg and Yannick Dalmas leading Phillipe Alliot and Mauro Baldi home on both occasions, but too late to prevent Jaguar and Teo Fabi from winning the Manufacturers and Drivers Championships.

Peugeot 905 Evo 1 Bis LM, Goodwood, Festival of Speed,

Jaguar withdrew from the sport at the end of 1991 leaving Peugeot, Yannick Dalmas and Jaguar refugee Derek Warwick to claim the 1992 World Sportscar Manufacturers and share the Drivers titles, the teams only opposition in the six race series came from Toyota who only won the opening round.

With little manufacturer support the 1993 World Sportscar series was cancelled and the 905’s only two appearances were at the Le Mans Test weekend where, Philippe Alliot and Mauro Baldi were quickest and at the Le Mans 24 Hours.

The paintwork on today’s featured car suggests that this might be the chassis, #EV11, which was used as a spare car in the last two races of the 1990 season and was then not seen again until the 1993 Le Mans 24 hours where it appeared in EVO 1 Bis LM spec for Philippe Alliot, Mauro Baldi and Jean-Pierre Jabouille who qualified on pole, as the same trio had done a year earlier driving chassis #EV16.

Peugeot 905 Evo 1 Bis LM, Goodwood, Festival of Speed,

The 1993 Le Mans 24 Hour race proved to be a walkover for the Peugeot team who finished 1st, 2nd and 3rd with Philippe, Mauro and Jean-Pierre in third place exactly as they had been in 1992.

Thanks for joining me on this “Le Pole Again” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be running through all the podium finishers from this years thrilling Le Mans 24 Hours race. Don’t forget to come back now !

PRIMO, ATS, help! – Orion LM #001

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Orion is a French manufacturer of racing cars, which appears to have been founded or at least run by Pierre Devaux, Daniel Legrand and Daniel Lentaigne.

Between 1981 an 1992 Orion are known to have built cars to compete in Formula Renault and Formula Renault Turbo series, in 1983 Christian Braconner is known to have won a Formula Renault Turbo race at Nogaro driving an Orion.

By 1989 sportscar racing was enjoying one of it’s periodic heyday’s with works supported teams from Aston Martin, Jaguar, Mazda, Mercedes Benz, Nissan and Toyota all competing in Group C class for the World Sports Car Championship and arguably, for most manufacturers, the more important Le Mans 24 Hour race.

For some reason a complete imbecile in the corridors of motorsports administration decided that the future of top line sports car racing ought be with all vehicles powered by motors to meet the recently introduced normally aspirated 3.5 litre Formula One engine regulations, instead of the variety of normally aspirated and turbocharged Group C motors that were being run in a variety of sizes with V6, flat 6, V8 and V12 configurations all offering competitive solutions.

The idea of using 3 litre Formula One motors had been tried, without success in terms of large numbers of entries, in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, but the idea, then, provided Matra with a platform on which to shine as it would provide it’s spiritual successor Peugeot the opportunity to shine in the early 1990’s.

In 1990 Peugeot announced their 3.5 litre V10 powered 905 Le Mans challenger for the 1991 season, Jaguar using a Formula One Ford Motor, Mazda, Mercedes Benz and Toyota would follow, but their efforts apart from Jaguars were by no means convincing.

To run alongside it’s 905 Sports Prototype programme Peugeot announced the Peugeot 905 Spider Cup in 1991, the cars would all feature 2 litre / 122 cui 16 valve 4 cylinder Peugeot crate motors and gearboxes while the chassis was free except that it had to carry a standard body supplied by Peugeot.

The 60th edition of the Le Mans 24 Hours could have been full of interesting Group C Cars, but instead only Peugeot appeared committed to wining the race with a three car entry against running against the 3 car 3.5 litre V10 powered Toyota team and 2 car proprietary Judd V10 powered Mazda team.

Orion LM, Le Mans

The rest of the field was made up of regulated overweight Group C cars, chronically underfunded vehicles from Lola and BRM with 3.5 litre motors that had no chance of winning at a competitive speed and at the back of the field two vehicles designed to compete in the National Peugeot 905 Spider series, the Welter Racing WR LM92 and today’s featured car the #66 Orion LM chassis #001.

The Orion was entered by former Formula Renault and Formula 3 driver Eric Bellefroid who had attempted to make it in Formula 3000 in 1988, but failed to qualify his Lola Cosworth for the 3 races he entered.

Sponsorship for the Orion came from PRIMO, ATS and help! and it was driven by Marc Alexandre a former Formula Ford Driver who’s motor racing career highlight was taking part in 10 Formula Renault races in 1992. It is believed Marc was also a French judo champion.

Marc shared the driving with Frank de Vita of whom I could find not trace outside his single participation at Le Mans and Welter Breuer who is similarly conspicuous by his absence, on Google, beyond this event in 1992.

With this overwhelming lack of cockpit experience it is probably no surprise to learn that the #66 qualified 28th, 18 seconds slower than the similarly 905 bodied WR 92LM driven by Patrick Gonin, Didier Artzet and Pierre Petit which qualified 27th, but surprisingly 2 seconds faster than the 3 litre 183 cui V6 Alfa Romeo powered Debora SP92 driven by Didier Bonnet, Gérard Tremblay and Jacques Heuclin that qualified 29th and last.

During the race Mark, Frank and Welter chalked up 78 laps, being just under a minute and a half slower per lap, than the fastest car in the race the 905 Coupé driven by Yannick Dalmas, Derek Warwick and Mark Blundell that secured the win after completing 352 laps.

The Peugeot 905 Spider Cup ran from 1992 to 1995 it’s most noted exponents were Christophe Bouchut and Eric Hélary, both Concessionaire Peugeot sponsored driving Martini chassis, both also made lasting careers in sports car racing, starting with a Le Mans win at their first attempt in 1993 when they shared the winning Peugeot 905 Coupé with Geoff Brabham.

Martini is the only one of the three 905 Spider manufacturers never to have been represented in the Le Mans 24 Hours despite building the most, twenty, chassis to accept the 905 905 Spider chassis and the only one of the three manufacturers I have seen credited with winning any of the Spider Cup races.

Orion is said to have built as many as six 905 Spider chassis one Orion SC2 was entered for William David who finished a season best 4th at Pau in 1992, while Eric Bellefroid finished 7th in the same race driving a car also said to be an Orion SC2 in his only known 905 Spider Cup start.

WR went on to develop their own LM Prototype with new chassis, bodies and turbo charged motors to win the LMP class at Le Mans in 1993 and lock out the front row of the Le Mans grid in 1995.

My thanks to Frank “Duc-man” Christmann, fausto, Tim Murray and Arjan de Roos at The Nostalgia Forum for giving me a few clues about today’s featured Le Mans participants.

Thanks for joining me on this “PRIMO, ATS, help!” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Lower Cleaner – Lola Chevrolet T330 #HU4

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The 1973 Formula 5000 season which played out in three championships across three continents saw winning cars produced by four different manufacturers namely Chevron, McRae, Trojan and Lola. It was the last named that won most of the races in all three series with their T330 model, a lower and cleaner version of the 1972 T300, like chassis #HU4 featured today which took part in all three series.

Lola T330, Michigan International Speedway

(Photo Copyright Mark Windecker 1973)

According to Old Racing Cars.com chassis #HU4 was first raced at Surfers Paradise in the fourth round of the Tasman Series by Gary Campbell where he retired with an overheating motor. Gary crashed during practice for the next race at Warwick Farm and the car was then bought by Australian Bobby Muir who repaired it and took it to Riverside, where Chuck Jones and Jerry Eisert became co entrants with Bobby for the first round of the US L&M Formula 5000 championship.

Bobby’s best result was a 10th at Riverside after which followed a string of five retirements until Road Atlanta where Bobby crashed in practice and failed to take the start. The photo’s by Mark Windecker show #HU4 and Bobby sitting in it at Michigan International Speedway.

Bob Muir, Lola T330, Michigan International Speedway

(Photo Copyright Mark Windecker 1973)

After missing Pocono #HU4 was entered into the final US race of the season at Seattle by Chuck and Jerry for Clay Regazzoni who was about to transition from BRM to back to the Ferrari formula one Team. As this linked picture show’s the #74 had a new nose with a single full width wing mounted above it, an idea Ferrari had first used at the 1973 Italian Grand Prix three weeks earlier. #HU4 was also fitted with larger radiators requiring deeper ducts at the request of engine builder Ron Armstrong.

Clay Regazzoni, Lola T330, Brands Hatch

(Photo Chuck Jones Collection)

Clay retired in Seattle, but that did not prevent the Jones Eisert team from sending the #HU4 to Brands Hatch for the final race of the Rothmans European Formula 5000 championship where these two photograph’s from Chuck Jones Collection show Clay, who finished 12th, at the wheel.

Clay Regazzoni, Lola T330, Brands Hatch

(Photo Chuck Jones Collection)

In December 1973 AW Brown acquired #HU4 and ran if four Damien Magee in the 1974 European Formula 5000 Championship until the engine blew at Zandvoort and the team was disbanded. Damien scored #HU4’s all time best result a 4th place finish in the series second visit to Brands Hatch. Damien finished the season driving a 1973 Trojan #T101 chassis #T101-105.

#HU4 does not appear to have raced again until it started appearing in Historic Events in 2001. When I finally get around to looking for cars for the GALPOT Museum high on my list of cars to purchase will be #HU4 in it’s funky #74 orange Jones, Eisert and Regazzoni livery which hit the spot when this 14 year old first laid eyes on it in a magazine.

Chuck Jones and Clay Regazzoni would team up again in 1977 when Chuck was involved with the Ensign Formula One team and Clay was chosen as the driver.

My thanks to Jerry Entin for kindly securing permission for me to use Mark Windecker’s photos from Michigan International Speedway and the photo’s from Chuck Jones Collection taken at Brands Hatch.

Thanks for joining me on this “Lower Cleaner” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”. I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at another stylish ISO Rivolta. Don’t forget to come back now !

Serviceability – Aston Martin Vantage V8 GTE

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In 2012 Aston Martin returned to racing a GT programme with up to three Gulf sponsored works cars, split between the Pro and Am subdivisions, appearing in last seasons Le Mans Series races.