Le Mans Trials

display_0957d51541

Some three months before Les Vingt-Quatre Heures du Mans in midsummer, entrants are traditionally invited to test their cars on the 13.64-km. circuit. This year few prototypes were running, but Gulf Research Racing took the opportunity to run a new streamlined version of the M6 powered by the new, as yet unraced, Ford-Weslake V12 engine. Ford designer Len Bailey has styled the low-drag body (above), intended to give the car a maximum speed ot 220 m.p.h. along the Mulsanne Straight. A batch of faulty petrol pumps ruined the test run, but towards the end of the session the car was made to run properly and Derek Bell recorded 3 min. 56.5 sec., while Beltoise in a Matra MS670 was 20 seconds faster. A 4-hour race on Sunday was won by van Lennep/Müller in a works Porsche 911 Carrera (right), which proved considerably faster than the Ferrari Daytonas in the Grand Touring category. A British entry from JCB was the Ferrari (below) which finished sixth in the hands of Green and Corner; in June Graham Hill is expected to drive this car.