Gordini Type 24S
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The Gordini Type 24S was a sports car prototype that was developed by Gordini in 1953 .
Development history and technology
The development of the Type 24 was Amédée Gordini's most ambitious sports car project to date . The car had a 3-liter 8-cylinder in- line engine , which consisted of two 4-cylinder blocks. The unit was an in-house design, as Simca had ended the collaboration after the lack of success. There was also a new 5-speed high-speed transmission.
Gordini built two chassis, which were given the numbers 0036S and 0037S. The chassis was made of steel tubes and the body of aluminum. Both cars were driven by the works team in sports car races. The French writer Françoise Sagan was interested in chassis 0036S in 1956 , but did not buy the car. It was then bought by André Guelfi , who continued to race with it. After several changes of ownership, the fully restored racing car was offered at auction in 2014 with a minimum bid of 2.5 million euros.
Chassis 0037S was purchased in 1955 by the brothers Fritz and Hans Schlumpf and is now in the Musée National de l'Automobile .
Racing history
Originally the Type 24 should have made its racing debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1953 , but chassis 0036S was not finished in time and was only a reserve. The debut came at the Reims 12-hour race in 1953 , with Jean Behra and Jean Lucas behind the wheel . Starting the race from fifth in training, the car retired after an accident. The first finish came three weeks later at the Caen Grand Prix , where Jean Lucas finished sixth. However, he was four laps behind Pierre Chancel in the small Panhard X85 .
In 1954 both cars were driven in the sports car world championship without much success . There were victories apart from the big sports car races. Franco Bordoni-Bisleri won the Trullo d'Oro and the Grand Prix of Pergusa ; Jean Behra remained successful at the Coupe du Salon .
From 1955 the Type 24S was only driven by private drivers and after a failure at the Le Mans 24-hour race in 1957 it finally disappeared from the racing tracks.
