Le Mans Mini Marcos found again
12/17/2016
It took 15th place at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1966, racing against a field of prototypes and sports cars such as the Ford GT40 (winner, 1st, 2nd and 3rd place), Porsche 906, Ferrari 275 GTB/C and Alpine A210. The Mini Marcos with a 1.3-liter engine completed 258 laps, driven by Claude Ballot-Léna and Jean-Louis Marnat. It was a year of retirements, with only 15 of the 55 cars that started finishing.
Traces of the "blue flea", as the Mini Marcos competing in the 1.3-liter prototype class was affectionately called by the public, disappeared in 1975. But now I was able to track down the car in Portugal after receiving a mysterious tip.
Unfortunately, most of the mechanical parts are missing, but the plastic body still has the blue and yellow paint, albeit under a few layers of other colors. You can also see the holes that were necessary for attaching the additional headlights and the fender extensions. It is clearly the Le Mans car.
I now plan to completely restore the car and bring it back to the Le Mans specifications of the time.
P.S. Note from the Zwischengas editorial team: We will of course be happy to follow the restoration project and would also like to draw your attention to the three Maximum Mini books , which prove Jeroen to be an expert on the subject.
