Gulf GR8
The Gulf GR8 was a prototype sports car and the winning car in the 1975 Le Mans 24-hour race .
Development history
The GR8 was the last Mirage racing car to be developed under the sponsorship of Gulf Oil . At the Gulf Research Racing Company , the successor to John Wyer Automotive , there were already some profound changes at the end of 1974. Grady Davis , Gulf Motorsport Director and longtime partner of the team, had resigned. John Wyer himself had already retired a year earlier, but stood by the team as a consultant and kept his shares in the company. Wyer was able to get the funds from Gulf to build two new racing cars. However, the Gulf directors' motto was: "Only Le Mans!"
After Len Bailey left , the two chassis were developed by Brian Holland. The GR8 got an aerodynamic body into which the rear wing was integrated. For the long Le Mans straights it was important to be able to drive at a high speed. As in the Mirage M6 and the Gulf GR7 , the DFV V8 engine from Cosworth served as the drive . Extensive test drives in Goodwood and Silverstone were able to correct a large number of initial defects.
Racing history
After Matra withdrew and the Willi Kauhsen Racing Team , which fielded the Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 , did not start, the main competition in the 24-hour race consisted of the works Ligier and privately entered Porsche 908s . The two GR8s were driven by Jacky Ickx and Derek Bell as well as Vern Schuppan and Jean-Pierre Jaussaud . Right from the start, the two Gulfs set the racing pace and after six hours of racing the lead over the third-placed Porsche 908 driven by Reinhold Joest , Mario Casoni and Jürgen Barth was a full lap. After a few technical problems, the Schuppan / Jaussaud car lost six laps in the night, but at the end of the race, Gulf was able to celebrate its third overall victory at Le Mans. Ickx / Bell won after 336 laps in front of the Ligier JS2 by Jean-Louis Lafosse and Guy Chasseuil and the second GR8 by Schuppan and Jaussaud. After the success with the Ford GT40 , this was the first success with the self-build. It was also the first success of the Cosworth engine at Le Mans.
From 1967, Gulf Oil had invested £ 4 million in the sports car program, and the renewed victory at Le Mans was the deserved reward for this effort. At the end of the year the John Wyer team was dissolved, the GR8 were sold to a racing team from the USA and returned to Le Mans in 1976 as the Mirage GR8 .
literature
- John Horsman: Racing in the Rain . Bull Publishing Ltd., Phoenix 2006, ISBN 1-893618-71-4 .
