The 100th anniversary of Le Mans is one of the best celebrations of 2023. The most iconic race in France is honoured by many museums and events, and one of the earliest was the homage exhibition of last year’s Chantilly Concours.
We also used this occasion to recap the race and sportscar categories of the Concours. So be advised to expect some serious car spotting. Thus spoiler alert is due in every sense of the word.
As most concours, Chantilly dedicated special thematic categories to significant anniversaries, and to honour the 100th anniversary, five post-war cars were enlisted that participated in the 24 Hours race at Le Mans.
The first one is a blue Monopole X86 with Gullwing doors and race nr 23, which did not finish the race in 1956, but finished 18th in 1957 and 17th in 1958. This car also won the Prize in the category dedicated to “The Legend of the 24 Hours of Le Mans: The race for the performance index”.
The green goblin is Bristol 450 Le Mans, and its British green racing colour hints that it arrived from the UK. British aircraft manufacturer Bristol was looking for ways to diversify after the war and established a car division. To make them better known, Bristol entered cars at Le Mans.
They bet on their past experience like Saab, so their cars were light and streamlined combined with a 2-litre inline 2.2 engine. The 450s finished 7th overall at Le Mans.
Next up was a blue 1964 CD-Panhard LM64 that raced at the 1964 Le Mans. The wing does the car justice: its drag coefficient of only Cd 0.12, nearing the values of modern fighter jets. Remember the famous saying of Enzo about aerodynamics and engines? This car certainly proves the opposite. The two-cylinder 848cc Panhard reached 225 km/h in the Mulsanne.
No racing category is complete without a Ferrari; this one has two. The blue 1971 512 M was entered by Roger Penske. The car did not see the finish line, but still impressed at the qualification.
The white/ green car is a 1981 Lola T600, a major aerodynamic milestone introducing ground effect in their package. In 1980, the T600 won the American IMSA endurance championship.
The second Ferrari is a red 512 BBLM from 1981, in proper Italian racing red. It was a project of Luigi Chinetti, three times winner at Le Mans and founder of the legendary NART team.
The last car is a 1992 Peugeot-905 EVO, one of the best-looking Group C cars ever. In 1992, the Peugeot 905 won both the Le Mans race and the World Championship. This proved to be Peugeot’s first of three victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The 905 is now an appreciated member of the classic race car community, and its graceful presence is a true highlight at every Peter Auto event.
The race car segments encompass several epochs, and the oldest race cars were enlisted in the category dedicated to racing cars from 1905 to 1925 with a substantial contribution from Italy’s national car museum MAuto, which impressed us many years ago.
The yellow one is a 1913 Aquila Italiana 12/15 HP. Victories at Mont Ventoux and on the Targa Florio and the Tour de France Automobile established the reputation of the 12/15 HP model, attracting over 150 customers.
The black Isotta Braschini – Tipo FENC is from 1908, a Stradale version of the FE racing prototype. NC stands for “Non-Competizione” and includes features like fenders. If you know what FE stands for, leave your wisdom in the comments. On the other hand, the blue 1920 Ballot 3/8 LC Grand Prix is a thoroughbred race car.
The silver 1925 Gräf & Stift SR4 SP was designed for racing at the Simmering hill climb in Austria, but the 1925 edition was simply cancelled. For 55 years, the bare aluminium machine with its thundering 7.8-litre six-cylinder engine remained at a standstill at the company, and it was rebuilt and restored only recently.
The red 1907 FIAT-130 HP is a favourite of MAuto, featured as one of the earliest cars on their impressive race car stage.
Its enormous 16 litres engine produced a whopping 130 HP, and its low weight brought it to a speed of 160 km/h.
The last one in the lineup is a 1925 Italia Tipo 11, a streamlined monoposto with a supercharged VI2 1-litre (!!!) engine.
Although not specific to Le Mans, the show featured an Alpine segment with half a dozen Alpine race cars.
The category dedicated to Barchettas from the US was the more exotic selection. The first white car is a 1962 Chaparral – Мk. 1, built by Jim Hall, a pilot and a racing driver. He named the car Chaparral after the roadrunner bird, the Texan equivalent of McLaren’s kiwi… This Mk 1 with its Chevrolet V8 was already a winner but would spawn a long and creative lineage.
The red one is a Kurtis-Buick 500 X from 1955 was equipped with a 6-litre Buick V8, and Buick dealer Bill Murphy scored nine overall wins in the Californian championship.
The white-on-blue-metallic is a 1953 Mameco-Ardun – Glasspar G2, a hand-built roadster credited with being the first to feature plastic bodywork.
The light blue car is a 1953 Kurtis-Kraft – 500 S, right next to a black Allard – J2X from 1952.
The last car is a Nash-Healey- Le Mans prototype from 1951. That finished on the podium at the 1952 Le Mans behind the two Mercedes 300SLs.
The European side is represented in the category dedicated to European barchettas of the ‘50s. The Barchetta design received its name from the small Italian speedboats, and similarly, they had no roof, no windscreen, and sometimes not even any doors.
The light-weight two-seaters sacrificed everything (often even the second seat) for the sake of sheer speed. These cars dominated post-war endurance races in Europe, spawning some of the most beautiful cars in the world. The curators brought together some of the most iconic post-war vehicles, like the Maserati Birdcage and a Veritas.
The yellow race car from 1948 was built by the West-German Veritas race team. After World War II, German manufacturers were no longer in a position to build race cars, but private teams entered with restored pre-war vehicles. Under the name Veritas, Ernst Loof salvaged a few BMW 328s, and improved them with post-war innovations like a streamlined body. The car proved very effective, and Veritas soon made a name for itself among amateur racing drivers in France and Belgium.
The French racing colours are represented by the 1950 Talbot-Lago T26 GS Barchetta Motto. While the Italian racing red was worn by a 1960 Maserati Tipo 60 Birdcage.
The chassis of the Maserati Tipo 60 was made of such fine tubes that it earned the car the nickname Birdcage. It was very light and streamlined and dominated the 1960 24 Hours of Le Mans, despite competition from more with larger and more powerful engines, until the car fell out due to technical problems.
The red corner was further reinforced with a 1955 Maserati 300S and a Ferrari 625 TF from 1953.
The silver car is from Germany (of course): the 1959 Porsche 718 RSK was courtesy of Régis Mathieu. His collectables had also been recruited by the Cité de l’Automobile to honour Porsche’s 70th anniversary.
One last topic we had to squeeze into this article was the special exhibition dedicated to the British Racing Motors (also known as BRM), located just after the main entrance.
BRM was a British (who would have thought?) Formula One racing team. It was founded in 1945 with the aim of pooling the UK’s best efforts to reach the top of open wheel racing.
The team participated from 1951 to 1977, competing in 197 grand prix and winning seventeen of them. BRM won the constructors’ title in 1962 when its driver Graham Hill became world champion. In 1963, 1964, 1965 and 1971, BRM came second in the constructors’ competition.
