In May of 1973 the teams contesting the Manufactures Championship gathered in Belgium at the Circuit National de Francorchamps for the fifth round of the series. The teams would complete 71 laps of the 14.1 km (8.76 miles) track made up of public roads closed for the 1000km race.
Ford’s Le Mans winning 427ci engine was developed from the final version of a series of NASCAR engines that began as a 352ci engine introduced in 1963. A.J. (Gus) Scussel was the section head of Ford’s Engine and Foundry Division and prior to becoming involved with the NASCAR program had never seen an automobile race.
Shelby American’s racing priority for the 1963 season was to win the United States Road Racing Championship (USRRC). The USRRC were held on the relatively tight circuits used by the SCCA where high-speeds were only hit for brief seconds per lap. Ford and Shelby were planning to race the Cobra in the GT category of the International Championship for Manufacture for the 1964 season. Peter Brock understood that the Cobra would need a new body for increased top-speed to be competitive. The GT Championship was held primarily in Europe where races were held on public roads with long straights for substained high-speeds. Brock’s design, which became know as the Daytona coupe, was successful and in 1964 the Cobra coupe won the GT class at Sebring, Le Mans, and the Tourist Trophy but lost the GT Championship to Ferrari. Ford’s GT 40 program was unsuccessful and unfortunately for Ford the national press emphasis was on the GT 40 program and overall race wins and not the Cobra’s success in the GT class.
In 1972 Dr. Ferry Porsche decided that all members of the extended Porsche family would no longer take an active role in the management of the Porsche company. Dr. Porsche assumed the position of Honorary Chairman of the Supervisory Board, his son, Ferry “Buzzi” Porsche, resigned as head of the design department and his nephew, Ferdinand Piëch, left as head of research and development. Dr. Ernst Fuhrman returned as the president and Helmut Bott took over the research and development department.
Ferry Porsche and Fuhrman were concerned with the expensive prototype and Can-Am racing programs and wanted to cut the cost and complexity of the racing programs. Fuhrman’s wanted a project to highlight the abilities of the 911 as a marketing tool. According to Fuhrman, “Racing is good advertising for every car” so Porsche would concentrate on developing the 911 for racing.
At the 2004 Monterey Historic Races I was talking with the owner of one of the Gulf Mirage M6 from the early 1970s. Jeff was interesting in photographs that I might have of the car when it was racing in World Championship events. The problem we had was tracking down the specific events that his car had participated in. During the conversation, Jeff mentioned that John Horsman, the Managing Director of Gulf Research Racing at the time, was now living in the states.
I learned of the great European races on public roads from Robert Daley’s book, Cars At Speed. By 1973, only two were still in use, the Targa Florio in Sicily and Spa Francorchamps in Belgium. From my station in Wiesbaden, Germany, I set out for Spa for the 1000km sports car race. I made a morning stop at the Nürburgring for a look around and a lap of the Nordschleife. I continued on toward Spa, not certain of the exact route, finally arriving late in the afternoon east of the Burnenville corner. My late arrival meant that the track had already been closed off for racing, so I had no choice but to wait and watch the end of the Coupes de Spa touring car race.
Porsche created the Type 956 in response to Group C regulations governing the World Endurance Championship for Makes. The Federation Internationale de Sport Automobile (FISA) rules, effective with the 1982 season, allowed one-off chassis. Fuel consumption was limited to tank capacity of 100 liters and maximum car length was set at 480cm, width at 200cm, and height at 100 to 110cm. Engine size and induction were unregulated. In addition, only five fuel stops were allowed for 1000km races, and 25 stops for twenty-four hour races.
Ferrari 512M s/n 1040
The Ferrari 512M was derived from the 512S Group 5 sports racing car. The 512S was originally created to compete against the Porsche 917. A minimum production run of 25 cars was required meet the homologation requirements for Group 5. The Ferrari 512S development car (s/n 1040) was introduced November 6, 1969, after an eight-month design and build period. The chassis was an evolution of the earlier 312P prototype and 612 Can-Am. The cars used a steel tube chassis reinforced with alloyed paneling for strength. The semi-stressed 5 liter engine, a 60 degree V12, was also derived from the Project 241 Can-Am. When the 512S was introduced, the engine was rated 550 bhp at 8500 RPM. The 512S raced in both coupe and spider versions. For the 1970 Le Mans, a long tail (coda lunga) was added to the 512S to increase top speed on the Mulsanne straight. Unlike the Porsche 917—with a fundamental aerodynamic problem—the Ferrari 512S was remarkably reliable when first introduced.
After the1973 Le Mans race, Matra displayed its winning MS670B (c/n MS670B-02) at the Chrysler-Simca showroom on the Champs-Elysées. The car was straight from the track covered in dirt, grime and showing body damage.
