entered by NART. The two drivers, Therier and Chevallier, had been chosen from 200 applicants in a speed-trial by team-owner Luigi Chinetti. After bring the Mini-Marcos to Le Mans in 1966, this year Frank Costin came up with an unusual aerodynamic design for privateer racer Roger Nathan. With a plywood frame, fibreglass bodywork, it had a 1-litre Hillman Imp engine mounted at a 54° angle, putting out 97 bhp. And making up the class were the returning entries from CD-Peugeot, Marcos and Austin-Healey. There were only six cars in the Group 4 Sports Cars category, as many of the prototypes could not be produced in sufficient numbers. Ford had entered three GT40s in for Ford France, Scuderia Filipinetti and John Wyer’s J.W. Automotive. Porsche entered a standard 906 for Ben Pon and Vic Elford, making his Le Mans debut, as well as French privateer Christian Poirot. Abarth was back at Le Mans for the first time since 1962, with the French Ecurie du Maine running one of the new 1300 GT. It had Abarth’s own 1.3-litre DOHC engine, that developed 147 bhp. In a similarly small field, there were only the seven entrants in the Group 3 GT category. The Scuderia Filipinetti and Equipe Nationale Belge teams supplemented their Prototype entries with Ferrari 275 GTBs. They were up against Belgian privateer Claude Dubois, running a burly Shelby-modified Ford Mustang GT350, and an American-entered second generation Corvette Stingray. Finally, there were four Porsche 911 S, as the car started becoming the privateer’s car of choice. This year also saw the increasing significance of the “war” between the tyre-companies, as they partnered with major manufacturers: Goodyear with Ford, Firestone with Ferrari, Dunlop with Porsche and Michelin with Alpine. Practice At the April Test Weekend, Bandini was fastest in the Ferrari P4 spyder with a sensational lap record of 3:25.4, ahead of Parkes in the other P4, then Surtees in the Lola (3:31.9). Although Donohue could reach in the Ford MkIV. he could only get 4th fastest time (3:32.6). The weekend also had tragedy when Roby Weber in the new Matra lost control at full speed on Mulsanne Straight. The car skidded and somersaulted off the track. Trapped in the burning car Weber died before marshals could reach the accident in time. By race week, Ford had made further aerodynamic improvements and the MkIVs were going even faster. However the cars were very