Le Mans 1965

I'm reading "The Certain Sound" by John Wyer, and he says that when Ford weren't allowed as many entries at Le Mans in 1965 as they wanted, they persuaded Rob Walker and Fillipinetti, who had entries already accepted, to enter works-supported GT40s instead of whatever they were planning to run.

Presumably Fillipinetti would have entered a Ferrari; but his 365P had been destroyed in Spychiger's fatal crash at Monza. So what car did he replace with the GT40? A 250LM?

And what was Rob Walker planning to run? For some reason a Serenissima floats into my mind, perhaps a memory of a photo from years ago; did he run one at the Test Day? Or was he going to run a Ferrari of some sort?


Paul Mackness

In the entry list published in March Walker had two Serenissimas, but they didn't appear at the test day.

DSJ in Motor Sport says that Ford "loaned cars to people who had entries but no car, such as Rob Walker, whose Serenissima V8 Prototypes did not turn up".

Filipinetti ran a 275LM for Boller and Spoerry (finishing 6th), a GT40 for Bucknum and Muller and a Cobra coupe for Harper and Sutcliffe.

Originally posted by Tim Murray
.... and a Cobra coupe for Harper and Sutcliffe.

I think the Daytona Cora driven by Harper and Sutcliffe was another case of one of the Ford/Shelby works cars being run under a flag of convenience. The Brock/Friedmann/Stauffer Daytona Cobra Coupes book describes this as a Ford works car which ran under an entry purchased from Georges Filipinetti.

Before Ford and Shelby, Porsche loaned on several occasions factory cars to Filipinetti, the
greatest success came in 1966 with the win at the Targa Florio.