24h Le Mans
Have you always dreamed of owning a car that competed at the 24 Hours of Le Mans? Does it seem impossible? Perhaps not...Modern day or vintage cars are both for sale, at auction or otherwise. Short summer summary...
Photo : D.R. - Archives ACO
This weekend a pageant will take place at Pebble Beach, California and will include an auction that will offer up many collection cars, such as a Porsche that figured in the film "Le Mans" and the Ferrari 365 GTB/4 that finished in fifth place at the 1971 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The Ferrari 365 GTB/4 was not destined for competition, but Luigi Chinetti - American distributor and team principal for the NART (North American Racing Team) - transformed the 12467 chassis, reducing the weight namely thanks to the use of aluminium, to enter into endurance racing. With a 4.4L V12 engine, the Ferrari could have debuted its career at the 1969 24 Hours of Le Mans, but an incident at the free practice forced Bob Grossman and Sam Posey to throw in the towel before the start of the race.
They had to wait until 1971 to return to the track again, but that time finished in fifth place thanks to Bob Grossman and Luigi Chinetti, Jr. Convinced of the competitiveness of the car, Ferrari finally produced 15 models of the 365 GTB/4 "Daytona" in three batches (the 12467 chassis was not involved since it was for a car prepared outside of the factory).
After the adventure in La Sarthe, the 12467 chassis competed at the 1972 6 Hours of Daytona (the race having been shortened due to the petrol crisis), the 12 Hours of Sebring and Watkins Glen, but no victory was to mark its career.
Its successors had more luck since the Ferrari 365 GTB/4 won the GTS class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans three times between 1972 and 1974. It even finished in second place at the 24 Hours of Daytona in...1979!
The car for sale, which can participate in historic races such as the Le Mans Classic, is estimated between 5.5 and 7 million dollars. The 1973 16363 chassis put up at auction in 2009 was estimated at around 4 million dollars, but found a buyer for only 2,887,500 dollars...despite its sixth place at the 1973 24 Hours of Le Mans in the hands of Claude Ballot-Léna and Vic Elford...
Cécile Bonardel / ACO - Translation by Nikki Ehrhardt / ACO
