25 replies to this topic

[HistoryFan]

We have a thread with GP cars that failed to drive in any GP as the project were withdraw before the start or the car never was completed.

 

So perhaps it's time for a similar thread with Le Mans cars...

[E1pix]

Pontiac Le Mans.

[BRG]

There was that hydrogen powered car meant to run in garage 56 in 2014 or 15 which never materialised.

[ensign14]

Well, there are a good load that tried to qualify but never made it, including:

 

Fulvio Ballabio's MiG

Paul Canary's Eagle (he also tried to get a McLaren M6GT into the race - in 1981)

Guy Negre's Norma-MGN W12 (never even fired up)

Martin Schanche's Strandell-Porsche (ran out of Porsches)

Hrubon-Renault

 

A Plymouth Hemicuda was entered in 1975 in the touring car class to no avail. 

 

I can only think of one marque that qualified but never started - the Italian Olmas C2 (ran out of Cosworths).  Harvey Cluxton's Mirage M12 was disqualified when it was on the actual starting grid, when the scrutineers who had passed it a month before, watched it qualify and checked it over and over again suddenly discovered it was against the rules.  But of course Mirage is an outright winner.

 

As for some others, where does one draw the line?  The GKW C2 car for instance never got as far as making a practice session anywhere, so is that a Le Mans miss, as it never entered au Mans?

[2F-001]

One car whose Le Mans performance I remember looking forward to with interest was the Brian Redman Cooke-Woods T600 converted to use a Porsche flat-6. 

[ensign14]

This thread has some more bumf.

[Dick Dastardly]

What about the Reliant Sabre Six, reg 876 HWD,  built by the works for the '64 Le Mans?

OK, not a front runner, would have been competing against the MGBs and Spitfires etc that were around then....intention was for Bobby Parkes and Arthur Senior [my Dad] to drive in that race but the entry got declined. Car was used in hillclimbs etc instead.

 

Website slightly wrong, said it was for 63 Le Mans, it wasn't, was 64....

 

http://www.sporting-...ort_history.htm

[E1pix]

One car whose Le Mans performance I remember looking forward to with interest was the Brian Redman Cooke-Woods T600 converted to use a Porsche flat-6.

Why didn't it run?

That was a cool car (with a cooler driver) when it ran in IMSA here, I believe with a 5.7L Chevy? (Self-correct: 6.0L)

Edited by E1pix, 18 June 2016 - 21:25.

[Allan Lupton]

Well there was this Lagonda which was prepared for the 1936 race and which now looks like this again:

[Jack-the-Lad]

At the 1975 race Luigi Chinetti's N.A.R.T.-entered Ferrari 308GT4 was withdrawn before the race (along with the rest of the team's cars) in a dispute with scrutineers over the car's classification. Again the aforementioned HARLEY Cluxton was to be one of the drivers. Chinetti moved Cluxton and his codriver out of the car and replaced them with two Frenchmen, hoping that the officials would recoil from disqualifying a car with two French drivers but the ploy was unsuccessful.

Edited by Jack-the-Lad, 19 June 2016 - 12:16.

[2F-001]

Why didn't it run?

That was a cool car (with a cooler driver) when it ran in IMSA here, I believe with a 5.7L Chevy? (Self-correct: 6.0L)

 

I think it was just a case of an ambitious project for which insufficient time was left for development.

I believe one of the T600 chief assets was its ‘ground effects’ tunnels - that possibly made a flat-6 installation difficult or ineffective.

 

There is a video called ‘Red Mist Stuff’ which covers a couple of IMSA rounds of the era, one focusing on Redman and Weitzes’ race in the T600-Chev with lots of onboard footage. 

 

Another T600 did very well in a WSC round with Edwards and Villota - was it Brands?

[E1pix]

That makes perfect sense, Tony, Thanks. 

 

Low CoG: Good

Wide CoG: Not

 

(in this case)

 

Edit: Speak of the Devils, some of that Mosport footage:

Edited by E1pix, 19 June 2016 - 01:19.

[TennisUK]

I think i've mentioned it on various threads before, but this was a real beaut that didn't make it in '91:

 

 

And an un-raced Merc from the following year:

 

 

There are so many from that era, actually. The Nissan P35 from 1993, Konrad Lamborghini, the Brun C91, Peugeot 905evo2, none ever made a Le Mans start. I'm sure there are many of other nearly-started from the same era.

 

 Another notable one from a little later was the never-raced Porsche LMP1 from 1999-2000.

Edited by TennisUK, 19 June 2016 - 14:54.

[Bjorn Kjer]

What about the Dubonnet at LM1957 , it got to the start line up , though.

[ensign14]

Another view of the SE048SP:

 

[Henri Greuter]

There was a BMW powered cr in the mid 70's, forgot the name etc but that was a weirdo because the in line 6 engine was located next to the driver within the cockpit!, Max Sardou was involved with the design of the car. It was at the track yet failed to qualify for the race.

 

The early '90s Allard J2X was a the track as well but never started the race.....

 

 

Henri

[TennisUK]

The early 90s really could have been a golden era for sportscar racing in a parallel universe, where concerns like budgets, poor TV coverage, Bernie's meddling and the FIA's intransigence didn't exist...

 

Alfa Romeo

BRM

Jaguar

Mazda

Mercedes Benz

Nissan

Peugeot

Porsche

Toyota

 

+ privateer teams running Lola, March, Allard, Brun, Konrad chassis with a variety of Cossworth V8, Judd V8s (and V10s), Lamborghini V12, Subaru B12, Norma W12...

 

Far too good to be true, sadly.

[Glengavel]

Jaguar XJ13?

[EDWARD FITZGERALD]

There was a BMW powered cr in the mid 70's, forgot the name etc but that was a weirdo because the in line 6 engine was located next to the driver within the cockpit!, Max Sardou was involved with the design of the car. It was at the track yet failed to qualify for the race.

The early '90s Allard J2X was a the track as well but never started the race.....


Henri

[EDWARD FITZGERALD]

The Ardex saw it and couldn't figure out why they built a car that was impossible to work on

[ensign14]

Stuff about the Ardex here.  I don't think I want to know what the sponsor Anoflex is.  Perhaps it answers Edward's repair dilemma.

[TennisUK]

Maserati MC12...

[racinggeek]

1982 (or was it '83) Mirage from Harley Cluxton's Grand Touring Cars, with Mario and Michael Andretti up. Qualified, but was removed, I believe after it already lined up pre-race, by some typically French scrutineering issue. IIRC, it was built for the 24 Hours and never raced anywhere.

[Ian Stewart]

Pegaso Z-102B

Referred to briefly in earlier thread.  Two of these were entered in the 1953 race, but one crashed badly in practice, and as far as I can remember the team withdrew the second car.  No doubt due to the driver of the crashed car being badly injured.

 

A shame they had such bad luck because much was expected of them.  Pegaso were highly regarded manufacturers of heavy vehicles, technically advanced, and a great credit to Spain.

[Alan Cox]

1982 (or was it '83) Mirage from Harley Cluxton's Grand Touring Cars, with Mario and Michael Andretti up. Qualified, but was removed, I believe after it already lined up pre-race, by some typically French scrutineering issue. IIRC, it was built for the 24 Hours and never raced anywhere.

As mentioned by Ensign in post #4

[D-Type]

Does the Lotus 23 in 1962 qualify?