[LM24] Your Le Mans dream teams

[GTRMagic]

Holden Monaro CV8 7.0L N-GT running on works Michelins.

Drivers: G.Murphy, M.Skaife, G.Tander, S.Richards

Would win the class by a mile

[Aysedasi]

Originally posted by vandijk
Dauer Porsche

No, no, no, no, no, no!

How could you even suggest it.......

[Aysedasi]

Originally posted by Hazza

Rothmans Porsche 956 # 2 with (Ge)Brabham, (D)Brabham and Herbert

You don't rate Gary then........

[cybersdorf]

Me, myself, and I.

[Aysedasi]

Careful.

You know what happened to the last driver who tried to run Le Mans solo.........

[Pilgrimage]

Originally posted by GTRMagic
Holden Monaro CV8 7.0L N-GT running on works Michelins.

Drivers: G.Murphy, M.Skaife, G.Tander, S.Richards

Would win the class by a mile

Saw the Bathurst 24hr last night on TV and the finish was very impressive, but to be fair the Holden's didn't really have that much competition. Up against a GT British Aston next year they'd have no hope!! Clive Woodward could team manage!!

[Try Hard]

hmm, just gonna jump in with both feet.

If your going for the ultimate....

Toyota GT-One with T.Kristensen, J.Icxx and D.Bell

and for current generation,
Toyota Gt-One (or Bentley Speed 8), Kristensen, Mags, and Lehto

[BillandLara]

Has to be the Speed 8 since that started my lifetime of going to Le Mans forever! Kristensen, Icxx and Bell... (this has to be the Winner's car)

[chunterer]

Can't get my head round the deceased part of this but i'll split it into two groups!

'Current' car combo:
Mclaren F1 GTR; Lehto, Herbert, Gounon. There'd be no let up with these three!

Car 2; McNish, Thackwell, Zanardi ditto as car one!

Legends car:
Jag XJR-9; Senna, Bellof, Pedro Rodriguez.

[Duffacus]

umm i'd quite like a rocket powered Lola B2K/10B

But ive thought of another line up i'd like to see,

A personal fave of mine would be

J. Winkelhock - A. Montermini - J. Lammers in a Lola MG B160

But for all out speed and victory,

Bernd Schneider - Klaus Ludwig - Tom Kristensen in a Bently speed 8

[krt917]

Originally posted by chunterer
Legends car:
Jag XJR-9; Senna, Bellof, Pedro Rodriguez.

Yes, now that really would be something! Not sure how many times they'd finish though!

Can't make a decision, so I'll cheat and split it into decades (trying not to mention the same driver twice)



1930s - Nuvolari/Sommer - 1938 Alfa 2900B Coupe
1950s - Moss/Hawthorn - Jaguar D-Type Long nose
(but if doing a whole season, Moss and Brooks in an Aston DBR1/300)
1960s - Clark/Amon/Siffert - Ferrari 330P4. If the big Fords have to win, make them work for it!
1970s - Ickx/Rodriguez/Elford - Porsche 917H
1980s - Brundle/Bell/Stuck - Jaguar XJR-9
1990s - Kristensen/Lehto/Enge - Jaguar XJR-14

Legends - Moss/Prost/Villeneuve(G) in anything, but preferably with a Gulf livery!

[BSchneiderFan]

Ahem (preparing to let cat among pigeons):

A Mercedes-Benz CLR worked over by Adrian Newey to prevent high-speed instability, driven by Bernd Schneider, Tom Kristensen and Michael Schumacher.

If I get a second car, then JJ Lehto, Allan McNish and Yannick Dalmas.

[Note: I only used drivers still currently active - anything else is a little to weird to comtemplate.]

[Hazza]

Originally posted by Aysedasi
You don't rate Gary then........

I just don't know enough about him realy, I mean i just went on the hard cold facts, Geoff is a multi IMSA Champion who got on pole at indy, while David "Brabs" Brabham is the only one left driving who was sighted by Lotus as a "Driver who shows promise without have competed in F3000 yet" in the late 80s, one wonders what would've happened if he hadd've done F3000 not gone straight to F1...

But yeah, i don't know enough about him, Was it him who raced Champ cars with a best finish of 2nd? I don't know, i'll go check it out sometime...

[XJR14/WSC95]

THE CAR (under 2003 ACO rules)
Andre de Cortanze combines his 03' Courage EVO with the 02' Dallara and Car is built by Dallara.

The Engine Fully Factory backed Peugeot 4.5L V10 (based on 905B engine)

The Team ORECA

The Drivers Jacky Ickx (with1977 Le Mans race for) Allan McNish (with 2000 Sears Point form) Tom Kristensen (because its only 2004 and if he was to never win another race he would still be rated as the best sportscar driver of this decade).

[chunterer]

Originally posted by Hazza
one wonders what would've happened if he hadd've done F3000 not gone straight to F1...

But yeah, i don't know enough about him, Was it him who raced Champ cars with a best finish of 2nd? I don't know, i'll go check it out sometime...

Re Gary Brabham

Quick in FF2000 against strong mid 80's opposition - prob golden years of that series.

Ran Lehto close in '88 Brit F3.

Won fledgling Brit F3000 series - but he only had two other cars and a race distance as opposition.

On pace in Euro F3000 series but form up and down. Was team mate to Hill in 1990 'sons of famous champs' Middlebridge Lola team. They used Tickford tuned DFV's which was engine to have when it was cool, but which didn't seem to like hot temperatures i remember?

Then did that poor Life thing in 1991 F1. nuff said.

He defo had the talent, but think David began to steal bit of his limelight. Gary may well have done some CART events, but i think it was eldest brother Geoff who did that second place finish?

[cybersdorf]

Originally posted by Aysedasi
Careful.

You know what happened to the last driver who tried to run Le Mans solo.........

I wasn't going to drive a Mercedes.

[cg7aa]

My second post and it seems someone has beaten me to the topic I was planning on raising! I was going to ask what people's ultimate LM entry lists would consist of. I got the idea after reading 'Ask Nigel' (Roebuck) on autosport.com awhile ago, where he talked about why his interest in LM waned so early. He pointed to the 1967 entry list to make his point, my plan was to reproduce this list here as i saved a copy of it but I couldn't find it anywhere which delayed my post.

Luckily, I checked the 'Ask Nigel' column again today and he had quoted the list again when answering to someone's question. I have pasted the question and answer below. (Am I allowed to that in this forum?)


Dear Nigel,
Some weeks ago you talked about Rodriguez's sportscar win at Brands Hatch in 1970 (thanks for that great memory!) and you mentioned Le Mans '67 as your particular sports car racing highlight. Could you let us know why?
Rafael Perez,
Mexico City, Mexico


Dear Rafael,
Believe it or not, I have been to the Le Mans 24 Hours only twice in my life, in 1965 and '67, right after I left school.

People often ask why my interest in the race is not what it was back then. In part, it is because back then Le Mans was still what Le Mans had always been. The drivers ran across the road to their cars at the start, for one thing; there were no chicanes anywhere, for another; for a third, only two drivers were allowed for each car. And perhaps some clue may be found in the winners of the races I attended. In '65, it was a North American Racing Team Ferrari 275LM, crewed by Jochen Rindt and Masten Gregory, and in '67 it was a 7-litre Ford Mk4, driven by Dan Gurney and A.J, Foyt.

There you have it, really. Until the mid-seventies, or thereabouts, I really loved sports car racing. The major factories were involved, most of the top F1 drivers took part, and I think I saw two classic races. In '65, when Rindt and Gregory won, what was remarkable was that they had had a major mechanical problem early on, and then drove absolutely flat out thereafter, figuring either to win or to blow up trying. When the chequered flag came down, that car was literally on its last legs - in fact, Gregory once told me that he doubted it could have done another lap.

As for the '67 race, all I can tell you is that my friend Jabby Crombac, who has seen virtually every Le Mans since the war, reckons that to have been the best ever. Virtually every world-class driver on earth was in that race, from F1, from Indy cars, even from NASCAR. It was essentially a fight between Ford and Ferrari, with such as Chaparral and Porsche also prominently involved. In the end, victory went to the Ford of Gurney and Foyt, at an average speed of over 135mph.

Consider the 'entry' that drew me to Le Mans in '67. Four factory-entered Ford Mk4s, driven by Gurney/Foyt, Bruce McLaren/Mark Donohue, Mario Andretti/Lucien Bianchi, Denny Hulme/Lloyd Ruby, plus three Mk2s, for Ronnie Bucknum/Paul Hawkins, Frank Gardner/Roger McCluskey, Jo Schlesser/Guy Ligier, and a GT40, for Brian Redman/Mike Salmon. There were two of the extraordinary Chaparral 2Fs, one of them driven by Phil Hill/MikeSpence, and a pair of Lola-Aston Martin T70s, one handled by by John Surtees/David Hobbs.

Deep breath... There were a couple of JW Automotive Mirages, for Jacky Ickx/Brian Muir and David Piper/Dick Thompson. Then we get on to the Ferraris, a trio of the gorgeous P4s, for Chris Amon/Nino Vaccarella, Mike Parkes/Lodovico Scarfiotti, Gunther Klass/Peter Sutcliffe, plus the Equipe Nationale Belge car of Willy Mairesse/'Beurlys', and the P3/4s of Richard Attwood/Piers Courage, Pedro Rodriguez/Giancarlo Baghetti, and Jean Guichet/Herbert Muller.

What next? Oh yes, the factory Porsches, crewed by Jo Siffert/Hans Hermann, Jochen Rindt/Gerhard Mitter, Rolf Stommelen/Jochen Neerpasch, and Vic Elford/Ben Pon. The works Matras were handled by Jean-Pierre Beltoise/Johnny Servoz-Gavin and Jean-Pierre Jaussaud/Henri Pescarolo, and the Alpine by Gerard Larrousse/Patrick Depailler.

Some line-up, right? I was just out of school, and money was tight. I allowed myself a single 'foreign' trip to a race each year, and thereafter preferred to spend my minimal cash on going to a Grand Prix somewhere. And when teams like Ferrari turned their back on sports car racing, together with the 'major' drivers, so, I am afraid did I.

All that said, I am well aware that Le Mans - like Indianapolis - is a 'happening', rather than merely a race, and I know, too, that thousands of people go to these races who would never contemplate going to any others. A few years ago, I happened to be in France at the time of the 'twinning' of the Brooklands and Le Mans museums, got an invitation to go, and accepted. I hadn't been to the place for 30 years or so, and was struck by the incredible changes to it - there were no chicanes when I had last attended a race there, remember, and not much in the way of guardrails, for that matter.

For all that, though, I was struck, too, by the ambience of Le Mans, and probably one day - when I've given up travelling to Grands Prix every fortnight - I'll go again.

Makes teh spine tingle, where is that Page and Moy brochure, time to fill it out again!

[Mags]

Team Bently

Senna, (S) Bourdais, Sascha Maassen.

[jj2728]

dream team?....
car: 1969 ferrari 312p spyder
drivers: mario andretti/chris amon

[Hazza]

Ahh! Thank you very much for the information, its sad that Gary seens to have been missrepresented.
And yes, Gary's CART career seems to have been limited to 2 Indy 300 stars.

Cheers!

[chunterer]

Originally posted by Hazza
Ahh! Thank you very much for the information, its sad that Gary seens to have been missrepresented.
And yes, Gary's CART career seems to have been limited to 2 Indy 300 stars.

Cheers!

No worries!

He was around at the time i was going to about 10 Brit race meetings a year, usually following formula on the single seater 'racing ladder' as well as touring car events.

I have to admit i lost track of his career after '91, but i think that horrid F1 deal did for him anyway. Only other things i think he did was occasional Bathursts and some IMSA GTP in late 80's early 90's.

I have little doubt he was quick enough as a driver, and i recall quite head strong too! He had a few rows with AG-S in that '88 Brit 3000 season

[chunterer]

Apologies, '89 Brit 3000 season!

[The Badger]

Lehto-Leitzinger-Lammers and Magnussan-Fellows-Sarrazin in a Riley & Scott Mk.3C Judd 4L or Elan power unit !!!

[Bob Riebe]

A.J. Foyt & Panelli Jones, teamed with John Greenwood & Dan Gurney in a pair of Greenwood Corvettes.
Bob

[simon c]

could happen this year - Jan / Andy / Jos the Boss - Dome Judd.

from days gone by: Stuck / Larruari / Wollek (Factory 962 ( Black Blaupunkt ))