Legendary liveries at Le Mans 2019
06/01/2019
The Le Mans endurance classic not only offers international motorsport at the highest level, but also keeps fans spellbound with countless details. For example, the fan community puzzles over any special paintwork every year... In the past, modern vehicles with well-known liveries and design details from the long history of Le Mans have therefore always raced, which is actually no wonder when works teams from Aston Martin, Ferrari, Porsche, BMW, Ford and Chevrolet are still on site today.
This year, Ford will be making a splash in this respect, with four works cars on the grid. Each of the four vehicles comes in a different guise. But that's not all. A fifth vehicle, driven by the private team "Keating Motorsports", will also compete in an extraordinary retro livery.
The Ford liveries celebrate the remarkable moments and victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The specially celebrated quartet was shown for the first time just a few days ago, unveiled on the famous La Sarthe circuit. All four will be on track tomorrow, Sunday, June 2, for the official Le Mans test. Unfortunately, the fans' joy at these special liveries will be somewhat dampened as Ford has also announced that this will be the last outing for these legendary Ford GT cars.
"In 2016, Ford returned to Le Mans to celebrate the 50th anniversary of our incredible 1966 victory, and we celebrated in the best possible way by winning the race," said Bill Ford, Executive Chairman of Ford Motor Company. "Standing on that podium on behalf of the employees was a proud moment for me and I look forward to returning to Le Mans this year to support the team in our final race of this chapter."
The #66 Ford GT, which will be driven at Le Mans this year by Stefan Mücke, Olivier Pla and Billy Johnson, has a black livery similar to the Ford GT40 that Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon drove to Le Mans victory in 1966 - Ford's first overall win at Le Mans, which began its run of four consecutive victories in the famous endurance race.
The red and white GT40 in which Dan Gurney and AJ Foyt triumphed at Le Mans in 1967 will be celebrated in the livery of the #67 Ford GT driven by Andy Priaulx, Harry Tincknell and Jonathan Bomarito.
The #68 Ford GT has a red, blue and white livery based on Ford's most recent Le Mans winner from 2016 in the GTE Pro class. And the same three drivers, Dirk Müller, Joey Hand and Sébastien Bourdais, return to drive it.
The #69 Ford GT of Scott Dixon, Ryan Briscoe and Richard Westbrook takes its cue from the sky blue and red GT40 that finished second in Ford's 1966 Le Mans 1-2-3 finish.
This colorful factory quartet will be joined by a fifth specially developed Ford GT from the Keating Motorsports customer team, which will race in the amateur "GTE Am" class. The number #85, driven by Ben Keating, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Felipe Fraga, uses the same design as the four factory Fords, but uses the colors of its title sponsor Wynn's.
Now it remains to be seen how the five Fords will perform in the world's biggest and most important endurance race.
Porsche will also be competing in a special look, but not really with any reference to historic events. The familiar Porsche Motorsport design of the cars has been redesigned in view of their success in the highly competitive GTE Pro category: All red surfaces on the two Porsche 911 RSRs will glow gold at the season finale at Le Mans. The roof of the two 911 RSRs from the WEC will also be emblazoned with the world champion logo. We can only wish the teams luck that the logo on the roof will help when the 24 Hours begin on June 15!
