Mirage M6
The Mirage M6 was a sports car prototype that was used in the 1972 and 1973 sports car world championships .
designation
The Mirage M6 is referred to differently in different sources. In some start and result lists, the racing car appears as a Gulf-Mirage M6 , in rare cases also as a Gulf M6 . This is due to the sponsorship activities of Gulf Oil and its motorsport director Grady Davies , who financially supported the racing team of John Wyer and John Horsman for years. Therefore, in 1972 the official team name of John Wyer Automotive became Gulf Research Racing Company Ltd. changed. The team itself always referred to its prototype as the Mirage M6.
1972
The John Wyer Automotive team fielded the Porsche 917 in the World Sports Car Championship in 1970 and 1971 . After the end of the 5 liter formula, the team returned to building their own prototypes. The M6 was built in the winter of 71/72. Designer Len Bailey developed an open prototype, the monocoque of which was made from aluminum plates. The transmission came from Hewland and the V8 engine was a DFV from Cosworth .
Derek Bell drove the first tests on March 14, 1972 at Silverstone . After the 1000 km Buenos Aires and the 6-hour race in Daytona had already driven, the M6 made its debut at the 12-hour race of Sebring in 1972 with Derek Bell and Gijs van Lennep at the wheel. After an early problem with the clutch and a three-hour repair, the M6 had to be parked after only 48 laps with a damaged differential.
The first season was marked by technical defects and many failures. It was not until the last race of the year at the 6-hour race at Watkins Glen that Derek Bell and Carlos Pace achieved their first podium with third place.
1973 and the Weslake variant
After the end of the 5-liter formula in the early 1970s, Le Mans victory seemed only possible with a vehicle with a 12-cylinder engine, as these units had a far higher torque than the V8 engines. The most important competitors of Gulf, Ferrari with the Ferrari 312PB , Matra with the MS670 and Alfa Romeo with the Tipo 33 trusted in this engine concept.
The John Wyer team had already gained experience with a 12-cylinder engine. In Mirage M2 from the year 1969 came BRM V12 engine used. For a long-distance race, however, this engine was extremely unsuitable because it was too heavy with too little power and also consumed too much fuel. For lack of alternatives, the choice fell on a 3-liter Weslake - engine , which in its original form in the 1960s, back in the Eagle - Formula 1 race car of Dan Gurney was over. Len Bailey built a new chassis, this time a closed coupe, which was given chassis number M6 / 603.
The first test drives with John Watson at the wheel were not very satisfactory. The V12 was consistently slower than the V8 from the previous year and fuel consumption was similar to that of the BRM engine. Nevertheless, John Horsman decided to bring the Weslake car to the start at the Daytona 24-hour race. However, problems with the starter prevented a start. So two V8-M6 were used, both of which failed with technical defects.
The Welsake car would then make its debut at the 6-hour race in Vallelunga . But a four-day test two weeks earlier found the car to be too slow and the concept was abandoned. The Weslake car never raced.
Now the team was fully focused on the Cosworth car and after some setbacks, the big day for the Mirage team came at the 1000 km race in Spa . Derek Bell and Mike Hailwood won ahead of Vern Schuppan and Howden Ganley , with Hailwood driving stints in both cars in the race, finishing first and second. It was the first victory for a Cosworth V8 engine in a world championship run. In 1974 the M6 was completely revised and used as the Gulf GR7 in the world championship.
literature
- John Horsman: Racing in the Rain . Bull Publishing Ltd., Phoenix 2006, ISBN 1-893618-71-4 .
