4 replies to this topic

[Jesper O. Hansen]

About to write a piece about Le Mans 1970 and 50 years of Corvette at Le Mans I stumpled upon the 1970 results saying that the sixth placed car, the Henri Greder-Corvette, on the road was not classified. Time and Two Seats give the reason as not enough laps completed for it's class which variously is given as GT over 2500 cc or 5000 cc depending on which site you consult on the net! Another 8 cars that finished the race was also not classified, but can anyone provide the reason why?

Result:
1. #23 S5.0 Porsche 917K, 343 laps
2. #3 S5.0 Porsche 917L, 338 laps
3. #27 SP3.0 Porsche 908/2LH, 335 laps
4. #11 S5.0 Ferrari 512S, 313 laps
5. #12 S5.0 Ferrari 512S, 305 laps
NC #2 GT+5.0 Chevrolet Corvette, 286 laps
6. #40 GT2.0 Porsche 914/6 GT, 285 laps
7. #47 GT2.5 Porsche 911S, 282 laps
NC #29 SP3.0 Porsche 908/2, 282 laps
NC #57 SP3.0 Ferrari 312P Coupé, 281 laps
NC #62 GT2.5 Porsche 911S, 275 laps
NC #42 GT2.0 Porsche 911TH, 271 laps
NC #67 GT2.0 Porsche 911S, 271 laps
DNF #34 SP3.0 Healey-Repco XR37, 264 laps
NC #45 GT2.5 Porsche 911S, 262 laps
NC #64 GT2.0 Porsche 911S, 254 laps
NC #66 GT2.0 Porsche 911S, 231 laps
...
DNF #50 SP2.0 Ligier-Ford, 65 or 54 laps?

How many laps did the first Ligier complete? TaTS says 65 as does most other sources, but
http://www.formula2.net/1970.htm has the car completing 54 laps.

Jesper

[David McKinney]

All nine non-classifications were for the same reason

[Jesper O. Hansen]

Thank you for the answer, David. That would mean that the sixth and seventh placed cars were marginally inside classification too, as there is not a lot of laps between these two cars and the rest of the non-classified 911s.

Jesper

[D-Type]

The usually reliable Martin Krejci lists the Corvettes as GT over 5000cc. he has a solitary Ferrari as GT up to 5000cc in the not accepted list. So I think there was a class for GT cars up to 5000cc but with no starters, leading some website compilers to believe the class was over 2500cc

[Jesper O. Hansen]

I suspect that GT classes for 3.0, 4.0 and 5.0 litres were up for graps but with no takers. What was the lower limit by 1970? Pro-WW2 the index-chasing DB-Panhards were forced to up the engine displacement from 500 cc to 750 cc and above 1 litre by the early 1960's.

Jesper