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Recommended Reading – Americans at Le Mans
As the subtitle says: “An illustrated history of the 24 Hour Race from 1923 to 1975 with emphasis on American drivers and cars.” And that’s what makes this book by Albert R. Bochroch so interesting...
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Dan Gurney’s All-American Racers tapped to preserve Le Mans-winning Ford Mk IV
Photos courtesy Ford Media, The Henry Ford. They won’t have Phil Remington to help them, but the crew at Dan Gurney’s All-American Racers has nevertheless signed on to preserve a rather significant...
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Porsche microsite celebrates the brand’s Le Mans legacy
1982: the Porsche 956 takes its first win at Le Mans. Images courtesy of Porsche Cars North America. No manufacturer has won the storied 24 Hours of Le Mans as many times as Porsche. Even after...
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Racing Heroes – Dan Gurney
Dan Gurney logs some flight time at the 1966 German Grand Prix. All images courtesy of All American Racers. When it comes to American racing drivers, perhaps none has accomplished more in the span of...
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Austin-Healey Le Mans prototype heads to auction
Photos courtesy Coys. The Austin-Healey Sprite has a well-deserved reputation as a successful club and vintage racer, but for several years they campaigned among the world’s elite on no less a stage...
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Porsche’s “Rolling Museum” to attend Mille Miglia, Le Mans, and more
The 1970 Le Mans-winning Porsche 917 KH of Hans Herrmann and Richard Attwood. All photos courtesy Porsche. As part of the 50th anniversary celebration of the iconic Porsche 911, the automaker’s...
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“We tried to keep the film as honest as possible”: the making of “Le Mans”
While researching the story on the special screening of Steve McQueen’s Le Mans recently, we came across this 14-minute behind-the-scenes mini-doc on the making of the film, detailing what went into...
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Sister car to “world’s most valuable Austin-Healey” heads to auction
Austin-Healey NOJ 392 heads to auction at Goodwood. All photos courtesy Bonhams. At this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed auction, Bonhams will sell an Austin-Healey factory racer with a competition...
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Ex-Carrera Panamericana works Ferrari 340/375 MM sells for $12.8 million
1953 Ferrari 340/375 MM Berlinetta “Competizione.” Photo by Hardy Mutschler, courtesy RM Auctions. Though RM Auctions made much ado – rightfully so – about the 24 Hours of Le Mans provenance for the...
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Racing Heroes – Bruce McLaren
Image courtesy of the Bruce McLaren Trust. The name McLaren is forever etched into the annals of racing history, thanks in part to the company’s success in series like Can-Am (where its cars...
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Ford’s GT40 voted top Le Mans car of the 1960s ahead of 90th running of the...
1966 Le Mans-winning Ford GT40. Photo courtesy Ford Motor Company. With the 24 Hours of Le Mans celebrating its 90th anniversary this next weekend, the sanctioning body Automobile Clue de l’Ouest...
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Automotive film festival added to Monterey schedule
Lance Miller with the 1960 Le Mans class-winning Corvette in a still from The Quest. As if the days leading up to the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance weren’t already chock full of events and...
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Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 GS Figoni Coupe takes Best in Show at Kirkland Concours
David and Adele Cohen’s Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 GS Figoni Coupe. Photos by Bob Gassen. David Cohen fell in love with a Figoni-bodied 1933 Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 GS coupe as a schoolboy in Johannesburg, South...
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Hemmings Find of the Day – 1982 Chevrolet Camaro
While Chevrolet Camaros have proven their versatility in motorsports time and again, the last place one would expect to see a Camaro in competition is at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but as we see from...
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Unrestored 1957 Ferrari Testa Rossa reportedly sells for $39.8 million
Ralph Lauren’s 1958 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa (not the car sold). Photo by SFoskett. One of two factory prototypes of the Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa, chassis 0704, saw race action at the hands of legendary...
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Prelude to a sweep: Ford’s effort at the 1965 24 Hours of Le Mans
With Carroll Shelby heading up Ford’s efforts for the 1965 24 Hours of Le Mans, an entire fleet of Ford-powered cars descended on the French countryside that year. Of the 51 total entrants, 11 were...
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Le Mans-winning Ford GT40 takes the field at the 2014 Hampton Court Concours...
Bruce McLaren at the wheel of the 1966 Le Mans-winning GT40 Mk II. Photos courtesy From Motor Company Archives. Wrecked, designated for transmission testing, and modified for street use, the 1966 Ford...
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The “most famous Lagonda of all,” a 1936 LG45R Rapide, sells for...
1936 Lagonda LG45R Rapide. Photos by Chip Reigel, courtesy of Bonhams, unless otherwise noted. Built for the factory-backed racing efforts of the Fox & Nichol team, the 1936 Lagonda LG45R Rapide...
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The sun sets on the Dodge Viper endurance racing program
The Dodge Viper GTS-R at the 2014 Petit Le Mans. Photo courtesy Chrysler Corporation LLC. Here’s a juxtaposition of circumstances for the ages: This past weekend, the Dodge Viper GTS-R team clinched...
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Next-to-last-built Ferrari 275 GTB Competizione, with Le Mans class win,...
1966 Ferrari 275 GTB Competizione, chassis 09079. Photos by Pawel Litwinski, courtesy Bonhams. Following the success of three 275 GTB Competizione Speciales built by Ferrari for the 1965 season (which...
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The Henry Ford on conserving the 1967 Le Mans-winning Ford GT 40 Mk IV
The 1967 Le Mans-winning GT 40 Mk IV on display at The Henry Ford in 2011. Photos courtesy Ford Motor Company. Ask most race fans to name the first time an American team won Le Mans with an American...
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The Ford GT40 Mk II that shouldn’t have won Le Mans in 1966 heads for...
The 1966 Le Mans-winning Ford GT40 Mk II in 2006. Photos courtesy Ford Motor Company. Victory in the 1966 24 hours of Le Mans should have gone to Ken Miles and Denny Hulme, driving the Ford GT40 Mk II...
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Circuit de la Sarthe, France, 1959
While we often like to point out how our carspotting series shows the everyday, the mundane, as it actually appeared on the streets in days gone by – how it presents a more accurate snapshot of how we...
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Four-Links – Duncan Hamilton at Le Mans, Pennington’s cons, Kaiser-Frazer’s...
* Was Duncan Hamilton drunk as a skunk during the running of the 1953 24 Hours of Le Mans, as the tale goes? While we’d like to believe that racing was indeed a more lassez faire endeavor in the...
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Six decades on, a look back at the tragedy of the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans
Pierre Levegh in his 300 SLR at Le Mans in 1955. Photo courtesy of The Revs Institute for Automotive Research, Inc. The 23rd running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans began like many other races on the...
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Ford returns to Le Mans in 2016 with an all-new GT
2016 Ford GT. Photos courtesy Ford Motor Company. In 1966, Ford GT40s swept the podium at Le Mans, signaling to Ferrari that its era of dominance in endurance racing was officially over. GT40s...
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Hemmings Sunday Cinema – Le Mans in 1961, Mustang in 1969, The Man With the...
This Le Mans weekend, let’s take a look at the 1961 running of the endurance race thanks to JustBritish raiding the Standard-Triumph video archives. * We’ve always believed that the best car ads –...
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Dispute over ownership of Cunningham Le Mans Corvette resolved with three-way...
Photos courtesy Lance Miller. When police descended on a private showing of a long-missing Corvette three years ago, it touched off an intense court battle over who really owned the car, one of three...
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Speed, beauty and style – the “Eyston’s Dancing Daughters” MG PA Le Mans racer
1934 MG PA chassis 1711. Photos by Tim Scott, courtesy RM Sotheby’s. Seeking to put the brand into the media spotlight, MG announced a bold move for the 1935 running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Under...
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1938’s racing car of the future – the Adler Trumpf Rennlimousine
1938 Adler Trumpf Rennlimousine. Photos by Darin Schnabel, courtesy RM Sotheby’s. In the latter half of the 1930s, most racing cars remained open-cockpit in design, sent power to the rear wheels...
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One of three built, works 1953 Jaguar C-type Lightweight heads to auction
1953 Jaguar C-type Lightweight. Photos by Patrick Ernzen, courtesy RM Sotheby’s. Introduced in 1951, the Jaguar C-type was developed for the singular purpose of delivering a victory at Le Mans. It did...
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The Revs Institute bringing three one-off Cunninghams to Pebble Beach
Publicity photo of the sole Cunningham C-1, taken in Palm Beach in 1950. Photos courtesy The Revs Institute. Briggs Cunningham wanted nothing more than a victory at Le Mans in an American-built car of...
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Guy Ligier, 1930-2015
Guy Ligier at the British Grand Prix in 1967. Still image from video below. The phrase “Renaissance Man” is oft-overused these days, but in the case of Guy Ligier, it’s utterly appropriate. Over the...
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Le Mans-driven Corvette Pace Car, Safety Car to cross the stage in Hilton Head
2003 Chevrolet Corvette Le Mans pace car. Photos courtesy Auctions America. For the Corvette’s 50th anniversary in 2003, Chevrolet received a bit of marketing gold from the Automobile Club de l’Ouest,...
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The “Eddie Hall Bentley” to appear at Lake Mirror Classic
As if mountaineering and bobsledding weren’t dangerous enough hobbies, Eddie Hall also had a passion for automobile racing. In 1950, Hall entered the 24 Hours of Le Mans with his 1933 Bentley 4...
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A Cobra Daytona Coupe with a British accent: the Sunbeam Tiger Le Mans Coupe
Photos courtesy Bonhams.com. In 1964, a sleek Kamm-tailed fastback coupe, based upon a British roadster infused with American V-8 power by Carroll Shelby, made its debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans....
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Motorsport Classic calendar is a plus-size look at vintage competition
Cover: Patrick Depailler’s Tyrell P34 at the 1976 Dutch Grand Prix. Photos courtesy of McKlein Publishing. Do you have a passion for racing in the 1950s through the 1970s? An interest in Formula One,...
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Vintage race trophies to appear with cars that won them at Amelia Island
The Borg-Warner Trophy and Al Unser in the Johnny Lightning Special. Photos by Sarah Stierch and courtesy Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum. Of course, race cars get all the attention: They’re fast,...
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Limited-production Ford GT40 Mk II continuations honor Shelby’s success at Le...
The Bruce McLaren/Chris Amon Shelby American continuation GT40 Mk II. Photos courtesy Superformance. Ford wasn’t taking any chances in its quest to beat Ferrari at Le Mans in 1966. Thirteen GT40s were...
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Lee Holman, of Holman & Moody fame, to headline 2016 Hemmings Motor News...
Lee Holman at Le Mans in 2006, for the 40th anniversary of the Ford GT’s 1-2-3 finish. Photo courtesy Lee Holman. The storied Charlotte-based racing operation, Holman & Moody, grew out of the Ford...
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“It’s The Going Thing”- 1969 Ford Performance Buyer’s Digest brochure
Images are from the brochure collection of Hemmings Motor News As fans of American performance cars will tell you, the late 1960s might just represent the apogee of Ford’s Total Performance era, as...
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The vilification of Leo Beebe: Ford’s mission to win Le Mans in 1966
Leo Beebe at Le Mans in 1966. All photos courtesy of Ford Motorsport. Editor’s note: This piece comes to us from Hemmings reader and contributor Frank Comstock, a friend of the late Leo Beebe. “Coming...
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“The only Ford GT40 Mk IV caught in a snowstorm” to appear at the 20th...
Jim Glickenhaus’s 1967 Ford GT40 Mk IV, chassis J6. Photo courtesy Greenwich Concours d’Elegance. Jim Glickenhaus is passionate about driving the cars in his collection, so much so that his Ford GT40...
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Fresh from a full restoration, the 1966 Le Mans-winning Ford GT40 Mk IIA...
GT40 Mk IIA, chassis P1046, on its way to victory at Le Mans in 1966. Historic photos courtesy Ford Motor Company; restoration photos courtesy RK Motors. Ford’s 1-2-3 finish at the 1966 24 Hours of Le...
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Anglia to Humvee, Roy Lunn’s lifetime of engineering earns him a place in...
Photo via Roy Lunn Archives, Car Guy Chronicles. To different groups of car enthusiasts, Roy Lunn represents vastly different accomplishments. There are Ford’s GT40 wins at Le Mans, for which he’s...
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One of three Peugeot-powered CD Le Mans racers receives FIVA Preservation Award
Photo by Eli Solomon, courtesy FIVA. In neither of its two entries in the 24 Hours of Le Mans did the severely aerodynamic CD SP66 No. 52 actually finish the race, but that hasn’t stopped the current...
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Remembering Chris Amon, 1943-2016
Chris Amon (R) with Jim Clark at Indianapolis in 1967. Photo courtesy Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Best remembered for his win in the Ford GT40 Mk IIA with co-driver Bruce McLaren in the 1966 24 Hours...
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After two-year restoration, Mazda’s 767B returns to the track at Laguna Seca
Mazda 767B. Photo courtesy of Mazda North American Operations. For Mazda, the path to a rotary-powered prototype-class victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans was a long one, stretching from 1983 (and the...
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Raced by Paul Newman (and a host of others), a familiar Porsche 935 sells for...
The Hawaiian Tropic 1979 Porsche 935 hammers at $4.4 million at Pebble Beach. Photo by Mike Maez, courtesy Gooding & Company. It’s delivered class wins in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, plus overall...
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GM Heritage Center adds Le Mans Cadillac, NASCAR Chevrolet re-creations
Photos courtesy GM Heritage Center. We always get amped when collections display historic race cars, even if they’re necessarily re-creations. That’s frequently the case because too many early race...
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