David Piper

This article is about the racer. There is also David Piper (art historian) .

David Piper

Nation:	United Kingdom
Automobile world championship
First start:	1959 British Grand Prix
Last start:	Great Britain Grand Prix 1960
Constructors
1959  Dorchester Service Station  1960  Robert Bodie Ltd.
statistics
World Cup balance:	no World Cup placement
Starts Victories Poles SR 2 - - -
World Cup points :	-
Podiums :	-
Leadership laps :	-

David Ruff Piper (born December 2, 1930 in Edgware ) is a retired British automobile racing driver .

Career

The Piper / Gardner Porsche 917 in 1969 at the Nürburgring

David Piper in a Ferrari 330P4 replica, at a historic 2007 sports car race in South Africa

David Piper drove a number of sports car races for Ferrari as a privateer in the 1960s . He took part in historic races well into old age, mainly driving his Ferrari 250LM and a Ferrari 330P4 .

Piper began his career in 1954 with a 750cc MG that was previously owned by Dennis Poore . He made his first appearances at hill climbs . The first success followed in 1955. Piper won the Leinster Tropy in Ireland , this time with a Lotus Mk4 . As co-pilot of Dan Margulies, it was ninth overall in 1956 at the Targa Florio . A Jaguar D-Type served as the vehicle . Between 1956 and 1958, Piper toured Europe in a Lotus Eleven and stopped wherever there was a race.

At the end of the 1950s, he tried his hand at the monoposto racing car with only moderate success . He drove some Formula 2 races and gave a Lotus 16 in Aintree in 1959 at the Grand Prix of Great Britain his debut in the Formula 1 . In 1960 he started again at the British Grand Prix, this time at Silverstone . After a failure in 1959, Piper achieved his only placement in a world championship run with twelfth place.

From the 1960s onwards, Piper drove almost exclusively sports car races. His privately used racing vehicles always had a light green paint, Piper's favorite color. In 1962 he bought his first Ferrari 250 GTO . With this top GT car, the car had the chassis number 3767, Piper won many races in the GT class. In 1964 the GTO was replaced by an LM. At the end of the year Piper had a serious accident in Snetterton , which he survived completely uninjured.

From 1965 Piper was a works driver for the British Ferrari importer Maranello Concessionaires and drove his Ferrari in all major sports car races in the world. Again and again it was awarded to the Scuderia when there was a shortage of drivers. For example, he drove the works 312P in Spa in 1969 and at the 24 Hours of Le Mans .

Piper was rarely unfaithful to the Italian brand. When the Porsche works drivers refused to drive the new, dangerous Porsche 917 at the 1000 km race on the Nürburgring in 1969 , Piper stepped in together with Frank Gardner . The two drove the 4.5-liter car to seventh place overall. In 1971, Piper bought a Porsche 917 himself and, with Richard Attwood as the second driver, won the Kyalami 9-hour race for the fifth time .

Piper's career ended due to carelessness. He was one of the pilots, the race cars in the movie Le Mans of Steve McQueen piloted for the racing scenes. Due to a brief lack of concentration, Piper had a nasty accident. At the Le Mans hospital, the broken leg was accompanied by an infection that forced the doctors to amputate the right leg above the knee.

Piper is one of the great Ferrari enthusiasts today. He still owns a Ferrari 250LM (chassis number 8165) and three Ferrari 330P4 replicas have been completely rebuilt in his small workshop in Surrey .

statistics

Statistics in Formula 1

general overview

season	team	chassis	engine	run	Victories	Second	Third	Poles	nice Race laps	Points	WM-Pos.
1959	Dorchester Service Station	Lotus 16	Climax 1.5 L4	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
1960	Robert Bodle Ltd.	Cooper T51	Climax 2.5 L4	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
total				2	-	-	-	-	-	-

Single results

season	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10
1959
					DNF
1960
						DNS	12

Legend
colour	abbreviation	meaning
gold	-	victory
silver	-	2nd place
bronze	-	3rd place
green	-	Placement in the points
blue	-	Classified outside the point ranks
violet	DNF	Race not finished (did not finish)
	NC	not classified
red	DNQ	did not qualify
	DNPQ	failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify)
black	DSQ	disqualified
White	DNS	not at the start (did not start)
	WD	withdrawn
Light Blue	PO	only participated in the training (practiced only)
	TD	Friday test driver
without	DNP	did not participate in the training (did not practice)
	INJ	injured or sick
	EX	excluded
	DNA	did not arrive
	C.	Race canceled
		no participation in the World Cup
other	P / bold	Pole position
	SR / italic	Fastest race lap
	*	not at the finish, but counted due to the distance covered
	()	Streak results
	underlined	Leader in the overall standings

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1963	North American Racing Team	Ferrari 250 GTO LM	Masts Gregory	Rank 6
1964	North American Racing Team	Ferrari 250LM	Jochen Rindt	failure	Oil pump
1965	Maranello Concessionaires Ltd.	Ferrari 365P2	Joakim Bonnier	failure	Ignition damage
1966	Maranello Concessionaires	Ferrari 365P2	Richard Attwood	failure	water pump
1967	John Wyer Automotive Engineering	Mirage M1	Dick Thompson	failure	Engine failure
1968	David Piper Racing	Ferrari 250LM	Richard Attwood	Rank 7
1969	Ferrari SEFAC Spa	Ferrari 312P	Pedro Rodríguez	failure	Gearbox damage
1970	AAW Racing with David Piper	Porsche 917K	Gijs van Lennep	failure	accident

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1963	David Piper	Ferrari 250 GTO	Ed Cantrell		Rank 14
1964	NART	Ferrari 250 GTO / 64	Pedro Rodríguez	Mike Gammino	Rank 7 and class win
1965	David Piper Auto Racing Ltd.	Ferrari 250LM	Anthony Maggs		3rd place and class win
1967	David Piper Racing	Ferrari 365P2 / 3	Richard Attwood		failure	Gearbox damage
1968	Edward Nelson Racing	Ford GT40	Edward Nelson		16th place and class win

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th	18th	19th	20th	21st	22nd
1957	David Piper	Lotus Eleven	BUA	SEB	MIM	ONLY	LEM	KRI	CAR
						19th
1958	David Piper	Lotus Eleven	BUA	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM	RTT
						15th
1959	David Piper Dorchester Service Station	Lotus 15	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM	RTT
					29		DNF
1962	David Piper	Ferrari 250 GTO	DAY	SEB	SEB	MAY	TAR	BER	ONLY	LEM	TAV	CCA	RTT	ONLY	BRI	BRI	PAR
													5
1963	David Piper North American Racing Team Fordwall Garage	Ferrari 250 GTO	DAY	SEB	SEB	TAR	SPA	MAY	ONLY	CON	ROS	LEM	MON	WIS	TAV	FRE	CCE	RTT	OVI	ONLY	MON	MON	TDF	BRI
			21st		14th		DNF		6th			6th			9			5				4th
1964	David Piper North American Racing Team Maranello Concessionaires	Ferrari 250 GTO Ferrari 250LM	DAY	SEB	TAR	MON	SPA	CON	ONLY	ROS	LEM	REI	FRE	CCE	RTT	SIM	ONLY	MON	TDF	BRI	BRI	PAR
			2	7th			4th		7th		DNF	4th			2				DNF			4th
1965	North American Racing Team David Piper Maranello Concessionaires Don Moore	Ferrari 330P Ferrari 250LM Porsche 904 Ferrari 365P2	DAY	SEB	BOL	MON	MON	RTT	TAR	SPA	ONLY	MUG	ROS	LEM	REI	BOZ	FRE	CCE	OVI	ONLY	BRI	BRI
			DNF	3			DNF	3		2	16	DNF		DNF	4th			2
1966	David Piper Maranello Concessionaires	Ferrari 250LM Ferrari Dino 206S Ferrari 365P2	DAY	SEB	MON	TAR	SPA	ONLY	LEM	MUG	CCE	HOK	SIM	ONLY	ZEL
			15th		13		DNF	DNF	DNF						DNF
1967	David Piper J. W. Automotive Engineering Maranello Concessionaires	Ferrari 365P2 Mirage M1 Porsche 906 Ferrari 412P Ferrari 250LM	DAY	SEB	MON	SPA	TAR	ONLY	LEM	HOK	MUG	BRH	CCE	ZEL	OVI	ONLY
			DNF	DNF	9	DNF			DNF		DNF	7th		4th
1968	North American Racing Team Edward Nelson Racing Strathaven Paul Vestey John Woolfe Racing David Piper	Ferrari 250LM Ford GT40 Chevron B12	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	TAR	ONLY	SPA	WAT	ZEL	LEM
			DNF	16	11	DNF	DNF	17th	DNF	DNF		7th
1969	David Piper Scuderia Ferrari Porsche	Lola T70 Ferrari 312P Porsche 917	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	TAR	SPA	ONLY	LEM	WAT	ZEL
					17th	DNF		2	8th	DNF		DNF
1970	North American Racing Team David Piper AAW Racing	Ferrari 312P Porsche 917	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	TAR	SPA	ONLY	LEM	WAT	ZEL
			5			DNF				DNF

Web links

Commons : David Piper  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Image: David Piper in a Porsche 917
• Image: The wreck of David Piper's Porsche 917 after its accident while filming the film Le Mans (Steve McQueen in the background)
• David Piper at Racing Sports Cars