1966 24 Hours of Le Mans

The year 1966 saw the advent of a completely new set of regulations from the CSI (Commission Sportive Internationale – the FIA's regulations body) – the FIA Appendix J, redefining the categories of motorsport in a numerical list. GT cars were now Group 3 and Prototypes were now Group 6, Sports Cars were still Group 4 and Special Touring Cars was a new category defined by Group 5. (Group 1 and 2 covered other Touring Cars, Group 7 led to the Can-Am series, with Group 8 and 9 for single-seaters). As Group 7 were ineligible for FIA championship events, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) opened its entry list to Group 3, 4 and 6. The FIA mandated minimum annual production runs of 500 cars for Group 3 (up from 100 previously) and 50 for Group 4, which also had a maximum engine capacity of 5000cc. There were no engine limits on the GTs or Prototypes. As before, the Groups were split up in classes based on engine size, there was a sliding scale of a minimum weight based on the increasing engine size (from 450 to 1000 kg for 500 to 7000cc) as was fuel-tank capacity (60 to 160 litres). Along with the new Appendix J, after four years of focus on GT racing the FIA announced the International Manufacturer's Championship, for Group 6 Prototypes (2L / >2L), and the International Sports Car Championship for Group 4 (1.3L / 2L / 5L). == Entries ==

Mark II Carrera With the new regulations this year the ACO received a huge 103 entry requests. Such was the interest in Group 6 there were 43 prototypes on the starting grid and only 3 GT cars: After 2 years of its 3-year program, Ford had very little to show for its immense investment. From the 1966 season onwards, the GT40 could race in two categories. The standard 4.7-litre Mk.I had been homologated in the new Group 4 Sportscars 5.0 class, to let customers teams compete mainly with older 3.3 litre Ferrari 250 LM. For the big prototype class, and overall wins, the factory Mk.II was developed. Extensive work was done in the wind tunnel, and improving the brakes, handling and engine – not least improving the fuel economy. The 7-litre Ford NASCAR race engine now put out ca. 550 bhp but was registered as "485 hp" as a result of Ford's lowered rev-limit setting for the 24h race. The third car was the all-Kiwi pairing of Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon. Holman & Moody, the successful Ford NASCAR race team also brought another trio of GT40s as backups, – for Mark Donohue/Paul Hawkins, Ronnie Bucknum/Dick Hutcherson, and Lucien Bianchi/Mario Andretti. One of the big improvements Holman & Moody brought with them was a quick-change brake pad system to save time in the pits. The British team Alan Mann Racing had two Mk.II cars prepared by Ford Advanced Vehicles, for Graham Hill/Dick Thompson and John Whitmore/Frank Gardner. Each of the eight cars was painted in a colour from the Mustang road-car range. Ferrari's response to the Mk II was the new Ferrari 330 P3. Shorter and wider than the P2, it kept the same 4-litre engine but with fuel-injection now put out 420 bhp. NART also entered a long-tailed P2, rebodied by Piero Drogo and driven by last year's winner Masten Gregory with Bob Bondurant. There were also P2/P3 hybrids for the Ecurie Francorchamps (Dumay/"Beurlys") and Scuderia Filipinetti (Mairesse/Müller). Finally there was a P2 Spyder for Maranello Concessionaires (Attwood/Piper). Fighting on two fronts, the company also took on the new Porsche 906 in the 2-litre prototype class with its Dino 206 S with a pair from NART, and another for Maranello. Nino Vaccarella, race winner in 1964, was furious when he found out he was ‘demoted’ to drive the Dino rather than the P3 and threatened to walk out, but did, in the end run the car. Chevrolet as engine supplier was the other player in the over 2-litre class. Ex-Ferrari engineer Giotto Bizzarrini had fallen out with Renzo Rivolta and with his own company brought his new design, the P538, but still using the 5.3L Chevrolet engine. The other Chevy was in Texan Jim Hall's Chaparral 2D. The 5.3L small block put out 420 bhp and had a semi-automatic transmission. Porsche came with a new model – the Porsche 906 Carrera 6 designed by the team led by Ferdinand Piëch. With the 2.0L flat-6 engine from the 911 replacing the F4 of the Porsche 904 Carrera GTS, and carrying over some parts of the two-year-old design, it was intended mainly for sale to customers racing for Sportcars class wins. By May 1966 it was homologated for Group 4 as the requisite 50 cars were made. The standard model was race-proven too, after winning the 1966 Targa Florio the month before after the prototype version were crashed by infighting pilots. Three cars were entered in the S 2.0 class where no opposition showed up as the Ferrari Dino 206 S never was homologated, and older models from Alfa, Lotus etc. were inferior. In the P 2.0 prototype class, modifications were permitted, but the fuel-injected 906E was absent. Three regular carburettor engine prototypes fitted with "langheck" (long-tail) bodies were entered by the works team, driven by Hans Herrmann/Herbert Linge, Jo Siffert/Colin Davis and Udo Schütz/Peter de Klerk. Alfa Romeo, and its works team Autodelta, had withdrawn from racing for a year to prepare a new car for 1967. Remarkably, given British dominance of the race barely a decade earlier, there were only three British cars in this year's race. Defending class-champions Austin-Healey had two works entries. The other was a Marcos Engineering kit-car based on a Mini Cooper 'S' chassis. Entered by Frenchman Hubert Giraud and driven by Jean-Louis Marnat and Claude Ballot-Léna, the team was able to get a works engine and gearbox from BMC. The spectators laughed at the small car and its apparent resemblance to a flea. But the Mini Marcos would become the 'darling of the crowds' later on in the race. Alpine, after its poor showing in the previous year, returned with 6 cars. The new A210 had a 1.3L Gordini-Renault engine with a Porsche gearbox making it more durable if only a little faster at 245 kp/h (150 mph). This year a new customer team, the Ecurie Savin-Calberson was supported by Alpine, with former Index winner Roger Delageneste. Charles Deutsch (CD) brought his new aerodynamic SP66. The car was powered by a 1130cc Peugeot engine, marking the return of the French company last seen in the 1938 race. Another competitor in the small prototypes was ASA. Originally a Ferrari design by Carlo Chiti and Giotto Bizzarrini before their famous walk-out from Ferrari, it was sold to the new Italian company and uprated with a 1290cc engine giving 125 bhp. Two cars were entered, one by ASA and one by NART. The new Group 4 Sportscar category started attracting interest as the earlier prototypes were meeting the homologation and production requirements. There were six Ford GT40 Mk.I entered by customer teams, with the 4.7L engine. Jochen Rindt, the previous year's winner in a then-prototype Ferrari 250 LM that was now eligible as Gr.4 S 5.0, had moved across from Ferrari to Ford, in the new Canadian Comstock Racing Team. They joined Ford France, Scuderia Filipinetti and new privateers Scuderia Bear and Essex Wire. Joining Skip Scott, team owner of the Essex Wire team, was a 21-year old Jacky Ickx in his Le Mans debut. Up against them was Ed Hugus’ modified Ferrari 275 GTB and the Equipe Nationale Belge ran its 250 LM. Porsche also ran three regular Porsche 906 unopposed in the Sports 2.0 category, two works entries as well as one for their Paris importer Sonauto of Toto Veuillet. With Shelby now fully concentrated on the Ford GT40 Mk. II program, the Cobra GTs were abandoned. There were only three GT entries: the Ferrari customer teams Écurie Francorchamps and Maranello Concessionaires both entered a Ferrari 275 GTB. The third was a quiet though significant entry: Jacques Dewes, ever the pioneering privateer, brought the first Porsche 911 to Le Mans. Production of what would become the ubiquitous Le Mans car had started in late 1964, and along with the development of similar engine in the Porsche 906, the new 1967 911 S model had its 2.0 litre ‘boxer’ flat-6-cylinder tuned to 160 bhp. Finally, in a sub competition of its own, there was the tire race between Firestone, Dunlop, and Goodyear. == Test weekend ==

Once again there was rain at the April testing weekend. And once again there was tragedy with a fatal accident. American Walt Hansgen's Ford hit water on the pit straight and aquaplaned. He aimed for the escape road at the end of the straight, not realising it was blocked by a sandbank, which he hit at about 190 km/h (120 mph). Taken with critical injuries to the American military hospital at Orléans, he died five days later. A notable absentee at the test weekend was the Ferrari works team. Chris Amon was fastest at the test weekend in the experimental Ford J-car with a 3:34.4 lap. == Practice ==

Come race-week it was Gurney who put in the fastest qualifying lap of 3:30.6, a second faster than his stablemates Miles, Gardner and McLaren. Ginther was 5th in the fastest Ferrari with a 3:33.0, with Parkes and Bandini in 7th and 8th respectively. Phil Hill, in the Chaparral, broke up the Ford-Ferrari procession in 10th. In the 2.0 litre classes, Jo Siffert put the quickest Porsche 22nd on the grid with 3:51.0, with Nino Vaccarella's Ferrari Dino in 24th (3:53.5) and Jo Schlesser's Matra just behind it (3:53.5). Over the test weekend, Mauro Bianchi had surprised many in the 1-litre Alpine, going as fast as the 1959 Ferrari Testa Rossas. The quickest Alpine in practice was Toivonen/Jansson (4:20.1), well ahead of the best CD (Ogier/Laurent 4:27.5) and the Austin-Healey's (4:45.1) and ASAs (4:49.8). There were also two significant dramas in practice. The biggest news was the walkout of Ferrari's lead driver John Surtees. He and team manager Eugenio Dragoni had decided that he, as the fastest Ferrari driver and driving with Mike Parkes, would act as the hare to bait and break the Fords. He was also still recovering from a big accident the previous year and would hand over to Scarfiotti if he got overly tired. Yet during raceweek, with news that new FIAT chairman Gianni Agnelli would be at the race, Dragoni changed the plan, putting Agnelli's nephew Scarfiotti in first, a case of nepotism. Surtees was furious and stormed off to Maranello to argue his case with Enzo Ferrari. Not listened to, Surtees, Ferrari's 1964 F1 World Champion, quit the team. The second incident was more serious – Dick Thompson in the Alan Mann Ford Mk II collided with Dick Holqvist who was going far slower in the Scuderia Bear Ford GT40 Mk.I and pulled right in front of him at Maison Blanche. Holqvist spun off with heavy damage, while Thompson was able to get back to the pits. While repairing the damage, officials told the team that they were disqualified for Thompson leaving the scene of a major accident. Thompson was adamant he had advised pit officials, and in the hearing Ford's director of racing Leo Beebe threatened to withdraw all Fords. He was supported by Huschke von Hanstein who was prepared to withdraw the Porsche team as well. In the end, the car was reinstated though Thompson was banned. This still posed a problem for Ford as they were lacking spare drivers for their fleet of entries, with injuries to A. J. Foyt (fire crash at June 1966 Milwaukee Mile), Jackie Stewart (crashed at the 1966 Belgian Grand Prix) and Lloyd Ruby (spinal injuries in a plane crash). In the end Australian Brian Muir, who was in England, was flown over to France. He did his two laps, his first ever at Le Mans, on raceday morning to qualify. == Race ==

Start On a cool and cloudy afternoon, it was Henry Ford II this year who was the honorary starter. On the third lap Gurney took the lead, which he held onto until the first pit-stops. McLaren was being delayed by his tyres going off, so the team quietly changed from Firestones to Goodyears. At dusk it started to drizzle, reducing the power advantage of the big Fords, and allowing the Ferraris to keep in touch. The Fords were further delayed as a number chose to change brake pads early. Night After 6 hours, heavy rain was pouring down. Ginther's NART Ferrari was leading from Parkes, chased by the Fords of Miles and Gurney on the same lap, McLaren a lap behind, then Bandini and Andretti two laps back. But Andretti was soon sidelined with a blown headgasket, as was the Hill/Muir Ford which had broken its front suspension coming out of Arnage corner. As the rain eased, the Fords of Miles and Gurney retook the lead. Just before midnight Robert Buchet aquaplaned coming over the crest at the Dunlop Bridge and crashed the French Porsche. The notion was supported by Carrol Shelby as a means to totally "beat" Ferrari. At the 3 hour mark during the last driver change (Amon to McLaren) and (Hulme to Miles), Miles was directly instructed to slow down and allow McLaren to catch up to allow for a "dead heat finish". Miles and his crew team were upset but agreed. Accordingly, on the final lap the next car from Ford driven by Bruce McLaren/Chris Amon and the third-place car from Ford drew up, and they cruised to the line together. Miles's #1 car and McLaren's #2 car crossed the finish line almost at the same time, with photos and official track data showing McLaren's #2 as 6 metres ahead when crossing the line. Additionally, McLaren's #2 started just over 14 metres behind Miles's car and had therefore covered more distance during the race; the official rules regarding cars finishing together indicate that starting position should be taken into account, so McLaren was declared the winner. Beebe also later admitted he had been annoyed with Miles racing Gurney, disregarding team orders by potentially risking the cars' endurance. In a race of attrition it was fortunate the big teams brought such quantity – only 3 of the 13 Fords finished, and only the two GTs finished from the 14 Ferraris entered. By contrast, 5 of the 7 Porsches finished (including their 911 in the GT class), as did four of the six Alpines, showing much better reliability. It was the first time that the 3000 miles/125 mph mark had been exceeded. With the bitter failure of Ferrari's 330 P3 mirroring the failure of the Ford prototypes the previous year (and with salt rubbed into the wound with Ford's formation finish), the "Ford-Ferrari War" moved into its climactic phase. The Le Mans results boosted Ford over Ferrari for the 1966 Manufacturers' Championship. Ford's answer to Ferrari's next weapon, the 330 P4, was delayed by development problems, handing Ferrari a rematch with the Mk IIs that so dominated them at Le Mans, at the 1967 Daytona 24 Hours. After a defective batch of transaxle shafts sank Ford's effort, Ferrari took a 1-2-3 finish with their new P4s and returned the favor of Ford's victory formation. Ford's Mark IV was ready in time for the 12 Hours of Sebring, where it won on its maiden outing. Three more examples were produced and prepared for the Le Mans 24 Hours, while Ford's championship hopes rested on the older Ford GT40 and the new GT40-derived Mirage M1 to gain points in the intervening races. After a disappointing showing at Monza and a controversial denial of championship points from a Mirage win at the Spa event, Ford saw limited opportunity for taking the Manufacturers' title again in 1967 and instead concentrated on a last hurrah at Le Mans, where the leading Mark IV, driven by Dan Gurney and A. J. Foyt, won handily. Ferrari took the Manufacturers' title for 1967, edging up-and-coming Porsche by two points. The Ford-Ferrari War was ended by new rules for 1968 that eliminated large capacity engines as in the P4s and Mark IVs from eligibility for the Sports Prototype class with a 3-litre engine capacity limit, as in Formula One. The GT40 Mk.I already in 1966 had met the production requirement for homologation in the new Group 4 class, and fitted under the 5 litre limit for 1968. Ferrari found the production requirement for homologating the P4 under Group 4 daunting and withdrew from competition in the sport-racer classes. Neither Ford nor Ferrari fielded a factory team for the Manufacturers' Championship that year; however, the John Wyer team running the Group 4 Ford GT40 Mk.I with permitted updates brought home the title for Ford and in 1969 achieved wins with the GT40 at Sebring and a fourth time at Le Mans. When Ferrari was able to enter the homologated 512S car for 1970, the class they competed in was already dominated by the Porsche 917. Several cars of the original 24-hours race have survived and have been restored to their former glory. The crowd-pleasing Mini Marcos was club raced, rallied and hill climbed, road registered twice and repainted five times only to be stolen in the night of 30 October 1975 from beneath a flat in Paris. Three days earlier Marcos-boss Harold Dermott had made a deal to buy the car with the intention to restore it and put on museum display. Several people searched for the car ever since, but it was only found back in December 2016 in Portugal by Dutchman Jeroen Booij. == Legacy in popular culture ==

Go Like Hell The race became the subject of a 2009 book, detailing the race and the famous background rivalry between Enzo Ferrari and Henry Ford II, by A. J. Baime titled Go Like Hell—the words shouted by Bruce McLaren to Chris Amon as they drove to their famous victory. Rumors of a movie adaptation of the book, an Amazon best seller, circulated from 2013 to 2015. The book attained a "4.5 star" rating by book review website GoodReads.com. The 24 Hour War A 2016 documentary film, produced and directed by Americans Nate Adams and comedian Adam Carolla, features the Le Mans rivalry between Ferrari and Ford. The production was well received critically, attaining a "86%" rating on review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes. Ford v Ferrari Ford v Ferrari (known as ''Le Mans '66'' in the UK and other territories) is a sports drama film distributed by 20th Century Fox, based on the rivalry between Ford and Ferrari for dominance at Le Mans. Directed by James Mangold, starring Matt Damon and Christian Bale in the roles of Carroll Shelby and Ken Miles, respectively. The film was released on 15 November 2019. At the 92nd Academy Awards, the film received four nominations, including Best Picture and Best Sound Mixing, and won for Best Sound Editing and Best Film Editing. == Official results ==

Finishers Results taken from Quentin Spurring's book, officially licensed by the ACO Class Winners are in Bold text. Did not finish Did not start Class winners Note: setting a new Distance Record. Index of thermal efficiency • Note: Only the top ten positions are included in this set of standings. Index of performance Taken from Moity's book. • Note: Only the top ten positions are included in this set of standings. A score of 1.00 means meeting the minimum distance for the car, and a higher score is exceeding the nominal target distance. Statistics Taken from Quentin Spurring's book, officially licensed by the ACO • Fastest Lap in practice – D.Gurney, #3 Ford GT40 Mk II – 3:30.6secs; • Fastest Lap – D.Gurney, #3 Ford GT40 Mk II – 3:30.6secs; • Distance – • Winner's Average Speed – • Attendance – 350 000 Challenge Mondial de Vitesse et Endurance standings As calculated after Le Mans, Round 4 of 4 ;Citations ==References==