[Sticky] Le Mans, The Post-WW2 Years.

More on Le Mans 1964.

Continuing on with Harv's fine presentation, here are some additional models of cars that participated in this historic race. Only 25 cars finished the 24 hours, one disqualified for not reaching a minimum distance. Most cars entered in the race did not finish being designated DNF.

First Place:  by Art Model, not as nice as Harv's Looksmart but still a nice model.

 FERRARI 275 P - 24 Hours Le Mans 1964 - Guichet / Vaccarella - WINNER 349 laps

2nd Place: by ART MODEL 1/43 FERRARI 330 P No.14 LE MANS 1964 Hill and Bonnier, 2nd, 344 laps

6th Place: by Tecnomodel 1964 Ferrari 250 GTO 64 Le Mans 24h 1964 Maranello Concessionaires Car # 25 6th Place Drivers: I. Ireland - T. Maggs - J. Stewart. 328 laps

7th Place: by SPARK, Porsche 904 GTS Le Mans 1964
No34 Bucher/ Ligier 323 laps

8th Place: by SPARK, Porsche 904/4 GTS Franc and Kerguen 319 laps

A couple of Jaguar DNFs: As you likely know, I collect Jaguars.

DNF Jaguar E-Type Lightweight, by SPARK Jaguar Type E Light weight Le Mans 1964
No17, Drivers Lumsden/ Sargent. gearbox failure in 8th hour.

DNF Jaguar E-Type Lightweight, by Jaguar E-Type Low Drag Coupe 1964 Le Mans Silver

No16, Drivers Peter Lindner / Peter Nocker, Head gasket failure at lap 149.

More to follow.

@david-green 

Excellent addition!

@david-green Nice additions. I have that E-Type Lightweight #16, not sure how I forgot to post it. That car has a beautiful shape.

Another finisher for 1964, this time 15th overall

BEST MODEL, ALFA ROMEO TZ1 - Le Mans 1964 - Driven by Biscaldi and Sala which completed. 305 laps

Another DNF for 1964.

SPARK  S5231 - Sunbeam Tiger Le Mans 1964 #9 DNF at 118laps with Engine failure. Driven by Proctor and Blumer.

.

All cool!

Le Mans 1965

1965 saw a renewed interest in factory works entries, with 42 team cars among the 51 entries. Ford returned with improved GT40s and there were a few private entries among the 11 Ford-engined cars. Ferrari returned to do battle with Ford, hoping for a win with their 365 P2 prototypes, but in the end it was the old 250 LMs that came through for the prancing horse marque. There were 12 Ferraris at the start. Porsche and Alpine-Renault made up the bulk of the smaller-displacement classes. Ferrari’s win was their sixth in a row, but they would not win again overall until 2023. Only 14 cars were classified as finishers.

After combing through my collection, I found I have 14 cars from the 1965 race, including eight of the finishers.

LookSmart LSLM017 represents the North American Racing Team (NART) entry driven by Masten Gregory and Jochen Rindt to victory, a 1964 250 LM. Though the 1:1 was in the Indy 500 museum collection for many years, it was sold at auction in early 2025 for over $36M. I feel fortunate to have seen it at the Chattanooga Motorcar Festival in 2023 – it still wears its stone chips as a badge of honor. The 250 LM casting is excellent, up to the usual LS standards, and perhaps better than the various 1:43s that came before, including the AMR version.

LookSmart LSLM016 is the second place 250 LM, entered by Pierre Dumay and driven by Dumay and Gosselin.

Kess 43056331 is a replica of the 3^rd place Ferrari, a 275 GTB/C entered by Ecurie Francorchamps and driven by Mairesse and Blaton (“Beurlys”). The real car was also 1^st in the GT 4-liter class. This model was released earlier this year, and cost me a bit dearly due to tariffs.

Fourth place went to the 6-cylinder 904 entered by Porsche System Engineering. It was driven by Linge and Nöcker and was also 1^st in the 2-liter prototype class. Car No. 32 was also 1^st in the Index of Performance.  The model is Spark S3942.

I don’t have the 5^th place Porsche 904, but the 6^th place car is again well modeled as LookSmart LSLM019. This is another 250 LM and the real car was entered by Scuderia Filipinetti of Switzerland.

Seventh place went to another NART entry, this time a 365 P2 piloted by Vaccarella and the great Pedro Rodriguez. My replica is the older Box Model 8449 in diecast.

Rover tried to get a turbine car on the podium but the Rover-BRM could do no better than 10^th. The Owen Racing Organization, involved with BRM F1 cars, provided the entry with none other than Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart at the wheel. Bizarre BZ047 was introduced in 2010 or thereabouts.

BMC entered an MGB for Paddy Hopkirk and Andrew Hedges and it placed 11^th (2^nd in the 2-liter GT class). My model is Spark S5079.

So much for the finishers, now to the also-rans.  So what happened to the Ford GTs, none of which finished? All were out before lap 90 due to an accident, clutch issues, and blown head gaskets. I have Spark S4533 (No. 2), S4534 (No. 14), S4535 (No. 6), and S4536 (No. 7). Also included is Bizarre BZ275 (car No. 1).

The Cobra Daytona coupes did as well as the Ford GTs, meaning DNF. I have TSM134319 (No. 9) and TSM154352 (No. 10) in resin. In diecast, I have the Scuderia Filipinetti entry, car No. 59, the joint Corgi Vanguards/Kyosho  VG003051F.

My final DNF is another Ferrari 365 P2, Box Model 8459 (No. 17), entered by Maranello Concessionaires.

@mg-harv 

Wow Harv, you are certainly ending 2025 with two wonderful additional posts to this series. Really comprehensive ones too for 1965.

This is one of my favourite topics so I will try to add a few things in the New Year.

I love your efforts. Happy New Year!

@david-green Thanks David. These year-by-year posts take a lot of time to create - I usually do a Word file first since I can avoid a computer freeze or other issue while posting.

@mg-harv 

Agreed. These posts are far too complicated to attempt on this website. In the early days I lost several due to glitches. I still use the website to compose replies and shorter posts.

All winners!

Le Mans 1966.

This was a big year at Le Mans, with the Ford team dominating the race with eight 7-liter factory GT40 Mark IIs. In addition there were several Mark Is driven by private teams. Enzo only sent three 330 P3s, all of which failed to reach the finish line, a big miscalculation on his part. We’ve all seen ‘Ford vs. Ferrari’, right? While I enjoyed the film, there were the usual Hollywood blunders (the race ended in rain, not sun, for example). Also Ken Miles’s co-driver (Denny Hulme) was hardly mentioned. This website gives more input into the real story: https://www.autoweek.com/racing/more-racing/a44109706/the-real-story-of-the-twisted-ford-v-ferrari-finish-at-le-mans-in-1966/

Perhaps as important as the Ford victory was the continuing advancements by Porsche. Their 4^th-place 906/6 longtail was only 9 laps down at the end, not bad for a 2-liter car. And places 5th through 7th were also Porsche 906s. The highest place Ferrari could get was 8^th, and that was with a 275 GTB. Four Alpine A210s made the finish line, and the final finisher (in 15^th place) was a Mini Marcos.

I have 16 cars from the 1966 race, including eight of those all-conquering Fords. Ixo produced all eight of those (LMC series):

No. 2 (McLaren/Amon) was determined to be first, then No. 1 (Miles/Hulme) second, and No. 5 (Bucknum/Hutcherson) was third. I have since upgraded to Minichamps for #2 and #3 since they are slightly more accurate and have engine detail as a bonus. However, the #3 car has a small plastic part for the roof bulge and it does detract a little. Here’s the eight individually:

Minichamps 400 666630 is the 4^th-place Porsche 906/6 LH. The car placed 1^st in the 2-liter prototype class.

Best Model made the 10^th-place 275 GTB entered by Ecurie Francorchamps (No. 9083). They may have made the 8^th-place 275 GTB, but I do not have one.

A Porsche 911S was 14^th and 1^st in the 2-liter GT class. Spark S9735 was issued in 2022.

Now to three Ferrari DNFs. Art made the Dino 206 S entered by NART (No. 082). It lasted all of 9 laps before an engine failure.

LookSmart LSLM104 represents the North American Racing Team (NART) entry driven by Richie Ginther and Pedro Rdriguez. This was a spyder version of the 330 P3, and I was lucky to find one as the 330 P3s by LookSmart came and disappeared so fast that I completely missed the other two (now considered ‘holy grails’ for me).

Tecnomodel TM43-07B is the NART 365 P2 “White Elephant” (Gregory/Bondurant). Its transmission gave out in the 9^th hour.

Minichamps 436 661409 is the Chaparral 2D (Phil Hill/Jo Bonnier). It succumbed to electrical failure in the 8^th hour. Nice model in a flip-top box with engine detail.

Finally, one last Ford, a bit of an oddball as far as this list is concerned. Spark S8084 replicates the Ford J-car that was tested in April 1966 at Le Mans. The intent was for this to be the car Ford would race in 1967, but the test crash later that year, in which Ken Miles died, put an end to J-car development. Instead, Ford built the GT Mark IV, but that’s a story for next time.

@mg-harv 
Harv, you have done a master class post here. Excellent coverage of the race, a valid comment on the movie and a wonderful assortment of the participating cars. The addition of the Ford J car is, I think relevant.
I have been negligent in adding to this important to me post. My apologies. Thank you for continuing in such an outstanding manner.

@david-green Thank you for those kind words David!