+53 Le Mans winners stun at Villa d’Este
What a stunning display of Le Mans cars that was, over the course of the Concorso d’Eleganza weekend in and around the Villa d’Este. Here is an overview of what you’ve missed.
The most impressive was easily the Gulf-liveried Ford GT40, or #1075 as it is affectionately known by its chassis number. This is of course the car that won Le Mans in both 1968 with Pedro Rodríguez and Lucien Bianchi. More famously, it also won in 1969 with Jacky Ickx and Jackie Oliver.
Protest
That year, Ickx singlehandedly protested the typical Le Mans start where racing divers ran across the straight to their cars and took off, most of them without securing their safety belts because that meant time loss. Ickx walked across the track and started dead last, making sure he was belted in properly. He drove his point home when, on the opening lap, John Woolfe crashed his Porsche 917 with fatal consequences, his belts being unfastened. In the final hours, Ickx was involved in a close battle with Hans Herrmann in the Porsche 908 for victory. He would take the closest win ever at Le Mans in this car.
250 Testa Rossa
Seeing this car, casually parked on the court in front of the Villa d’Este, was simply breathtaking. The originality, the cracks it shows, the untouched dashboard… #1075 is simply one of the most significant race cars in existence. It was in the company of the Ferrari 250 TR that won Le Mans in 1960 with Olivier Gendebien and Paul Frère; chassis #0774TR. Also flown in from the US was the 1952 Le Mans winner, driven in period by Hermann Lang and Fritz Riess. And finally, another Ickx winner showed. The freshly restored Porsche 936 that Jacky Ickx, Hurley Haywood and Jürgen Barth took to a dramatic finish in 1977. Barth nursed the car across the finish with the engine dying on him.
Class winners
And these were just the Le Mans winners that participated in the official Concorso. With the class-winning (1950 and 1951) Aston Martin DB2 Coupé, the 1937 class-winning Peugeot 302 Darl’Mat Sport and the 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO that took fourth overall in 1963, the Le Mans lover was spoiled for choice.
Off-Concorso
And it wasn’t just on the grounds of Villa d’Este that Le Mans ruled. Concorso organiser BMW put a fine Le Mans display up at Villa Erba as well. BMW showed a 1997 McLaren F1 GTR longtail and Mercedes brought a 1989 Sauber Mercedes C9 that came second that year. Ferrari invited both a Ferrari 512 BB LM and a Ferrari 330 P4. The public interest for the Concorso at Villa Erba on Sunday – the display at Villa d’Este on Saturday is a much more exclusive affair – was overwhelming, by the way.
Finally, in the off-Concorso program Fuoriconcorso, Porsche brought the 1998 Le Mans winning GT1 along, the Fondazione Macaluso displayed their Martini Racing Lancia LC2 and Erik Comas showed the Nissan R390 GT1, of which you can read the full story soon in issue 8.
In the end, the Ford GT40 won the President’s Award in the Concorso, and the Design Award. The Martini & Rossi Porsche 917K won the award for best-sounding engine and the Aston Martin DB2 was the winner in the Preservation Post-war category. Best of show went to the 1935 Duesenberg SJ.
