the last time ferrari won le mans was 1964.
when was the last time ferrari won le mans?
1964
mairesse secured third place in the grand prix of monza in june 1959. driving a ferrari, he placed behind alfonso thiele and carlo mario abate, both also in ferraris. mairesse and mike parkes of england finished second to phil hill and olivier gendebien at the 1961 24 hours of le mans. driving a ferrari, mairesse and parkes also eclipsed the previous le mans record, covering 2,758.66 miles. in the 1963 12 hours of sebring mairesse and nino vacarella placed second after ludovico scarfiotti and john surtees. both teams drove ferraris. surtees and mairesse won the 1000 km of the nurburgring driving a ferrari 250p. thereafter, surtees and mairesse led for the 15 hours of the first 18 hours of the 1963 24 hours of le mans before the car caught fire while mairesse was driving. mairesse escaped injury. scarfiotti and lorenzo bandini won on the french circuit where christian heins had a fatal accident. mairesse and surtees retired after a motor fire. a young german red cross worker was killed in august 1963 when the wheel of a ferrari driven by mairesse came off as his car overturned. guenther schneider, 19, was hit by a flying wheel during the running of the german grand prix at the nürburgring and died. mairesse was triumphant in the 1964 grand prix of angola, run at luanda. his average speed was 80.78 miles per hour. mairesse piloted a ferrari 250 lm to first place in the 500 km sportscar race of spa in may 1965. he completed the race in 2 hours, 29 minutes, and 45.7 seconds. he achieved an average speed of 126.29. mairesse and jean beurlys of france finished third at the 1965 24 hours of le mans in a ferrari 275 gtb winning the gt category in its debut at le mans, while masten gregory and jochen rindt won the race. in april 1966 surtees and parkes won the 1,000 kilometer monza auto race. mairesse and herbert mueller of switzerland came in third in a ford sports car, two laps behind. in may mairesse and mueller drove to victory in the targa florio, driving a porsche carrera 6. rain caused considerable attrition as only thirteen of seventy starters finished the race. mairesse and beurlys again drove a ferrari to third place in the 1967 24 hours of le mans. this event was won by the american team
willy mairesse
a 2016 documentary film, produced and directed by americans nate adams and adam carolla, features the le mans rivalry between ferrari and ford. the production was well received critically, attaining a "100%" rating on review aggregate website rotten tomatoes, and a "five-star" rating on electronic commerce company amazon.com."in 1966, ford won the 24 hours of le mans for the first time. the following year, they won again. the year after that, they won a third time. and in 1969, a fourth. that achievement was arguably the greatest in the company's history. it came after years of struggle, more than a few public failures, and enough burnt cash to refloat the "titanic. "ford's sixties le mans program was famously the result of a dispute between henry ford ii and enzo ferrari–ford had tried to purchase ferrari (the company), only to have enzo shut down the sale at the last minute. ford the man vowed to get even, aiming his considerable resources at ferrari's le mans record. the resulting warpath employed everyone from bruce mclaren to carroll shelby and indy 500 legend a.j. foyt, putting the stops to ferrari's unbroken, five-year winning streak at la sarthe.collectively, ford's wins were one of countless bright moments in a golden decade for both motorsport and culture in general. that first win made it onto the front pages of european newspapers, and it actually helped sell new cars. ferrari never won le mans again, but ford wouldn't go back until 2016. when dearborn won last year, the world went less than nuts. but that makes sense: both le mans and international motorsport are different now, tamer and less raw. so is the automobile itself. racing is no longer a brutally dangerous pastime or the kind of thing that puts whole countries on the edge of their seats. and most of all, in 2016, there is no henry the deuce, no world-altering grudge match, no enzo, no carroll. the ford-ferrari war pivoted on how these men operated and thought, and they made that story what it was." sam smith, "adam carolla's 'the 24 hour war' is a car movie by car people that isn't just for car people", road and track, jan. 18, 2017.
1966 24 hours of le mans