Reply to "1969 24 Heures du Mans Revisited... with John Horsman..."

This is an experiment, I believe you can follow along, reading the separate captions, and looking at the pictures in a separate tab......

Again, I got the words from John Horsman. I hope you find it interesting.

Slideshow of more pictures, with captions from the Man, himself....


Picture No. 1 is of two 917’s but not ours, probably Porsche Austria. I see they have copied out 1970 Spa set-up with a flap all the way across the tail, more rear downforce but no rear vision, hence mirrors on roof. I cannot i.d. location.

(At Spa 1970 our drivers had no rear vision (due to this aero mod) but we felt they would be so far ahead they did not need any rear view! And that was the case, another 1-2 for Gulf).

No. 2. Nice shot of the revised tail.

No. 3. Mike Hailwood’s car after sliding off the road on slicks during a sudden shower at LM 1970… Another potential winner gone.

No. 4. Over-sharpened in photoshop! Don’t know where or when.

No. 5. GT40 looks nice but black striping between the blue and the orange missing, see 917 above. Also we never painted our wheels orange. Obviously not a Team car.

No. 6. Interesting shot of our Hotel at Le Mans, the Hotel de France at La Chartre-sur-le-Loir, which JW found and was used by “us” from 1952 to 1982, 27 miles from circuit! Photo must be about 1948 judging by cars outside and lack of ivy on the front of hotel.

No. 7. Taken by Janet (John's Wife), Amelia Island Judging.

No. 8. Taken in our house in 2015, used in Tucson Newspaper, 11/22/15.

No. 9. JW and his wife Tottie - timekeeping circa 1950.

No. 10. A Gulf-Mirage M1 being raced in private owner’s hands at Silverstone some time about 1968-75.

No. 11. JW with Porsche Team Manager and ex-Race Driver, Rico Steinemann at a cold Press Release late 1969 or early 1970 when Porsche-JWAE deal was announced.

No. 12. JW obviously but where, Daytona? and with whom? Fellow on left could be Laurie Bray, ex Aston Martin, ex FAV, with Eric Broadly of Lola Cars thereafter.

No. 13. A copy, or could be actual one, of our third car at Le Mans 1971 for Attwood and Mueller, finished second, should have won but delayed by transmission fault and subsequent rebuild. (sychro cones came unscrewed, as they had done at Daytona and Porsche swore problem was fixed…).

Porsche produced a modified short-tail which we used only at Monza and LM in 1971. Slightly less downforce and slightly less drag.

No. 14. A well used and worn photo taken at the Hotel de France in 1965 of the FAV entered GT40 with the new Len Bailey designed front body panel, which became standard on all cars as it truly balanced the car well for front and rear down force. This was first time this front panel was raced. Not taken up by Shelby etc, as NIH, not until their own attempts were found lacking…

With JW are our two drivers, Innes Ireland and (Sir) John Whitmore, plus son of Hotel owners, Francis or Tierry.

No. 15. An Aston Martin gathering of the ’50’s. L to R. Peter Collins, Reg Parnell, Tony Brooks and JW, maybe at Aintree, England. Collins and Brooks were outstanding drivers. Sadly Collins was killed at the ‘Ring in 1958 but Brooks is still going strong.

No. 16. No idea of when or where or who the girl is.

No. 17. End of Daytona 24 Hours, 1970, or is it 1971 ! Same driver same dirty mechanics! Is the co-driver Kinnunen (1970) or Oliver (1971)? My bet is 1971 when syncro cone(s) came un-screwed…

No. 18. See No 17!

No. 19. Nearing the end of the 1968 Le Mans, with Roy Lunn on Wyer’s left, dark glasses, white shirt. Roy pushed for the 427 engine cars in place of the small blocks, 289, 302 or 351. I was in the original photo but have been cropped out as being of no interest!

No. 20. Pit stop for the Siffert/Redman 917 at Spa 1970. JHH with lap chart just below the Martini sign, Nigel Bennett and Clive Miller check rear tires, David Yorke walks around front of car, Siffert strides past R.F. of car as Redman is ready to jump in when Peter Davies finishes fueling.

No. 21. A staged photo for Ford publicity in the FAV Shop at Slough of self, Ermanno Cuoghi and John Collins.

No. 22. The great conductor, Herbert Von Karajan, takes delivery of his street GT40 Mark 3 at Slough, as JW and JH tell him what not to do!

No. 23. Siffert and Redman in one of our 917’s win again, but where? Buenos Aires 1971 I think (Note, the picture's caption says Targa Florio - but I won't argue with John!).

I added three more pix, two John Wyer's and a Pedro Rodriguez.

Enjoy!