Salon Privé Le Mans Cars Display

962 004 was last of the three new Rothmans factory 962s built in 1985, to debut at the Le Mans 24 hrs. Driven by 1983 winners Al Holbert and Vern Schuppan, with ex F1 star John Watson completing the roster, the car was the lead works car, running strongly behind the winning Joest 956, but retired with 3 hours reaming with an engine issue. A return in 1986 saw Jochen Mass place 004 on the pole at Le Mans, teamed up with Bob Wollek and joined by Vern Schuppan and again ran in second place for more than 10 hours, until hitting fresh oil around 3am at the Porsche curves, resulting in retirement. A return in 1988 saw a fifth place finish, ahead of the second works Shell Dunlop 962. A record eight Group C Le Mans winning drivers: Bell, Holbert, Ickx, Ludwig, Mass, Schuppan, Stuck and Winter remarkably all raced this chassis in period, across four consecutive seasons.

The last Jaguar to “win” at Le Mans. In 1993 three XJ220 competition models were built by Tom Walkinshaw racing to FIA/IMSA Le Mans specifications in order to contest in the GT class at the Le Mans 24 hours. TWR pulled together a star driver line-up of David Coulthard, David Brabham and John Nielson. The # 50 car looked very strong after qualifying second in class, behind the Works Porsche of Hans Stuck, Walter Rohrl and Hurley Haywood. During the race, two XJ220s were running first and second 3 hours in and all was looking bright for the British team.  The two Jaguars maintained consistent race pace out front until the sister car experienced a high speed blow out and then overheating engine as it tried to limp back to the pits. This left one XJ220 in the race, this car, which crossed the line 1^st in class and two laps ahead of their nearest class rival. However, a technicality regarding the lack of fitment of catalytic converters had been raised pre-race – not required for the IMSA class in which the car was entered – however, although the FIA upheld the appeal by TWR, the appeal was ruled to be “out of time” by the ACO and the car controversially disqualified.

This wonderfully original 458 GTE sits alongside the Le Mans winner as one of the most successful Ferrari GT2 Works cars in existence. Works drivers Giancarlo Fisichella and Gianmaria Bruni scored six wins in this 2011 debut year of the fully works-backed new 458 GTE, including 1,000 KM of Spa, 6hrs of Silverstone and the challenging 12 hours of Petit Le Mans,  achieving 9 podiums from a total of 11 races entered, helping to secure a double Championship win in both the Le Mans Series and the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup in the 2011 season, with this car really at the top of its class. Included was the 2^nd in-class finish at Le Mans 24 hours, joined by Toni Vilander and finishing on the same lap as the winning Corvette, after a race-long battle and wearing the now iconic # 51 race number. 2012 saw a second full season, wearing the # 61 for GTE Am, recording a 6th-in-class finish at Le Mans and the second-highest-placed Ferrari.

Image credit: https://www.ultimatecarpage.com/