Ford GT40s dominate Le Mans Legend

18 June, 2015

The spectacle that is the 24 Hours of Le Mans has been stealing all the headlines this week, but just as exciting — if not even more so, dare we say it — was the biannual ‘support’ race that is the Le Mans Legend.

This amazing warm-up to the real deal 24 Hours of Le Mans recently had the rules changed, allowing entry of iconic racing vehicles from between 1949 and 1968 — with a line-up including such elegant machinery as the Ford GT40, Porsche’s 908 and 910 race cars, and Jaguar C-types, all alongside the characterful vehicles of the era that made Le Mans what it is, the racing would always be great.

Image: Jakob Ebrey Photography

And great it was, with a field of 61 entrants racing cars as diverse as an Alpine A220, Shelby Cobra, and Alfa Romeo TZ1. Ultimately, the podium would be taken over by the blue oval, with a pair of Ford GT40s taking pole and second — a fitting flashback to the cars’ dominance at Le Mans 50 years ago, especially considering both cars had competed at La Sarthe in the 1960s.

Bernard Thuner took pole behind the wheel of Claude Nahum’s GT40, with Andrew Smith and James Cottingham in hot pursuit, to claim second. Ludovic Caron took third in a Shelby Cobra, with David Hart finishing in fourth behind the wheel of the AC Cobra. The GT40s’ dominance didn’t end on the podium either, with Richard Meins’ GT40 coming across the line in fifth, and Philip Walker and Miles Griffiths’ GT40 right behind.

There’s a reason Le Mans is still considered the world’s premier motorsport event, and its rich history — still showcased in such an awesome manner — is why. What a race!

NZ Classic Car magazine, March/April 2025 issue 398, on sale now

An HQ to die for
Mention the acronym HQ and most people in the northern hemisphere will assume this is an abbreviation for Head Quarters. However, for those born before the mid-’80s in Australia and New Zealand, the same two letters only mean one thing – HQ Holden!
Christchurch enthusiast Ed Beattie has a beautiful collection of Holden and Chevrolet cars. He loves the bowtie and its Aussie cousin and has a stable of beautiful, powerful cars. His collection includes everything from a modern GTSR W507 HSV through the decades to a 1960s Camaro muscle car and much in between.
In the last two Holden Nationals (run biennially in 2021 and 2023), Ed won trophies for the Best Monaro and Best Decade with his amazing 1972 Holden Monaro GTS 350 with manual transmission.
Ed is a perfectionist and loves his cars to reflect precisely how they were on ‘Day 1,’ meaning when the dealer released them to the first customer, including any extras the dealer may have added or changed.

You’re the one that I want – 1973 Datsun 240K GT

In the early 1970s, Clark Caldow was a young sales rep travelling the North Island and doing big miles annually. He loved driving. In 1975 the firm he worked for asked Clark what he wanted for his new car, and Clark chose a brand-new Datsun 240K GT. The two-door car arrived, and Clark was smitten, or in his own words, he was “pole vaulting.”
Clark drove it all over the country, racking up thousands of miles. “It had quite a bit of pep with its SOHC 128 hp (96kW) of power mated to a four-speed manual gearbox,” he says. Weighing in at 1240kg meant the power to weight ratio was good for the time and its length at almost 4.5 metres meant it had good street presence.
Clark has been a car enthusiast all his life, and decided around nine years ago to look for one of these coupes. By sheer luck he very quickly found a mint example refurbished by an aircraft engineer, but it was in Perth.