When aesthetics are not a priority - Cadillac in racing
12/11/2017
Modern sports prototypes, such as those used at Le Mans and in the IMSA championship, don't have to be beautiful, they have to be fast. The Cadillac DPi-V.R., which won its class this year, demonstrates this impressively. Downforce and low drag have priority.
Almost 70 years ago, however, this was no different, at least at Cadillac: "Le Monstre" was the name given to the competition car built on a Cadillac Series 51 chassis, which the Cunningham team brought to Le Mans in 1950 to give the Europeans a run for their money. Well, despite the good conditions - after all, the almost indescribably ugly car ran at 210 km/h on the Hynaudières - only tenth place was achieved, driven by Briggs Cunningham and Phil Walters. The Talbot-Lago cars were victorious, as they managed 32 laps more.
After the race, the Cadillac with the Gunman Aviation bodywork was shipped back to the USA and incorporated into Cunningham's collection. The car was later passed on to the Collier Collection. The car has remained unrestored to this day and is being kept alive. The picture by Richard Prince(rprincephoto.com) is not a photomontage, but was taken "car to car", i.e. from a car in front. According to the photographer, these shots, in which 26-year-old Jordan Taylor was at the wheel, who incidentally had been doing test laps in an IMSA car shortly beforehand, were almost as exciting as the Le Mans race 67 years ago.
We would like to thank Richard Prince for his photo and his input.
