Tall gearing tales

Sir,

It was interesting to read Phil Hill’s account of the 1959 Le Mans. In Joel Finn’s book Testa Rossa V12, Ferrari’s failure to win was blamed on the cars being undergeared for the Mulsanne Straight, making it all too easy for the drivers to over-rev.

This had apparently been the case at the Test day in April, the drivers complaining and Tavoni doing his nut at the resulting 8000rpm rev-counter tell-tale readings.

However, the team arrived for the race with the same ratios. Phil and Olivier’s mechanical sympathy enabled them to last longest but not quite long enough. Over to you, Phil!

I am, Yours etc,

Doug Ellis, Horley