With two wins apiece for Ford and Ferrari in the 1966 International Manufacturers Championship, everything came down to the Le Mans 24 Hours which took place over the weekend of June 18th and 19th.

The Scuderia Ferrari contingent comprised a trio of P3s: the existing Berlinetta (0844) for Guichet / Bandini, a brand new Berlinetta (0848) for Parkes / Surtees) and the Spyder (0846) for Rodriguez / Ginther which ran under a Luigi Chinetti / North American Racing Team entry (NART).

The P3s were supported by four P2/3s from Maranello Concessionaires, Ecurie Francorchamps, Scuderia Filipinetti and NART.

There was also a solitary Chaparral on hand, but the big threat came from Ford which had no less than eight Mk2 GT40s in attendance plus a mass of privateer Mk1s in support.

Having beaten the Alan Mann-entered 7-litre GT40 at Spa, Ferrari may have been optimistic about securing victory at Le Mans. However, things quickly turned sour when John Surtees walked out following a disagreement with divisive team manager, Eugenio Dragoni. Surtees spot alongside Parkes was taken by reserve driver Ludovico Scarfiotti.

Ford dominated qualifying to take the first four grid slots. Pole went to Dan Gurney / Jerry Grant followed by Ken Miles / Denny Hulme, John Whitmore / Frank Gardner and Bruce McLaren / Chris Amon.

Best of the Ferraris was the fifth placed P3 Spyder of Pedro Rodriguez / Richie Ginther, after which came Graham Hill / Brian Muir (Mk2 GT40), Mike Parkes / Ludovico Scarfiotti (P3 Berlinetta), Jean Guichet / Lorenzo Bandini (P3 Berlinetta), Ronnie Bucknum / Dick Hutcherson (Mk2 GT40) and Jo Bonnier / Phil Hill (Chaparral 2D).

The P2/3s lined up in 15th (Willy Mairesse / Herbert Muller – Scuderia Filipinetti), 16th (Bob Bondurant / Masten Gregory – NART long tail), 18th (Pierre Dumay / Jean Blaton – Ecurie Francorchamps) and 21st (Richard Attwood / David Piper – Maranello Concessionaires).

The race got underway at 4pm on Saturday. While Rodriguez was nearly the last away in the NART P3, Graham Hill stormed into early lead with his Alan Mann Mk2 GT40.

By the end of lap two the positions had settled down somewhat with the Mk2 GT40s of Gurney, Hill and Bucknum leading the P3s of Parkes and Guichet in fourth and fifth respectively.

Meanwhile, Rodriguez came storming back into the picture and by lap five the Mexican was lying fourth ahead of his Ferrari team-mates.

At the one hour mark, some of the slow-starting Fords had worked their way through the field. At this stage the top ten was as follows: Gurney, Hill, Bucknum (all Mk2 GT40), Rodriguez (P3), Miles (Mk2 GT40), Parkes (P3), Bonnier (Chaparral), McLaren (Mk2 GT40), Amon (Mk2 GT40), Guichet (P3) and Bianchi (Mk2 GT40).

Soon afterwards, the fast recovering Miles who had been setting multiple lap records passed Rodriguez to give the Fords first through fourth.

The race was being run at a tremendous pace and, with four hours gone, the top ten comprised: Miles / Hulme (GT40 Mk2), Gurney / Grant (Mk2 GT40), Rodriguez / Ginther (P3), McLaren / Amon (Mk2 GT40), Bandini / Guichet (P3), Hill / Muir (Mk2 GT40), Bucknum / Hutcherson (Mk2 GT40), Parkes / Scarfiotti (P3), Bianchi / Andretti (Mk2 GT40) and Scott / Revson (Mk1 GT40).

Around 11pm rain began to fall and an hour later things began to go wrong for the Ferraris when both the Guichet / Bandini and Rodriguz / Ginther P3s started to overheat.

At 12:30am the Ferrari challenge was dealt a further blow when Scarfiotti smashed into the back of Jo Schlesser’s near stationary Matra which had been reversing back onto the track at Tertre Rouge having been forced to avoid Georges Heligoin’s CD SP66 accident. 0848’s front end was severely pummelled in the crash and Scarfiotti was taken to hospital with minor bruising.

Two-and-a-half hours later the fourth-placed Rodriguez / Ginther P3 was also out owing to a broken gearbox.

At mid-distance, Ford held the top six positions and the best-placed Ferrari was the P3 of Bandini / Guichet which was limping around in twelfth. It soldiered on for just over four more hours at which time the persistent overheating issues resulted in a blown head gasket.

By this time, all the P2/3s were also out of the race.

Meanwhile, the Mk2 GT40s of McLaren / Amon, Miles / Hulme and Bucknum / Hutcherson came home in first, second and third to take Ford’s first win at Le Mans.

With it, Ford won the 1966 International Manufacturers Championship by 38 points to Ferrari’s 36.

Close Season

During the winter of 1966-1967 all three P3s were rebuilt.

Chassis 0844 was converted into a 412 P and sold to NART.

Chassis 0846 was converted into a 330 P3/4 and retained by Scuderia Ferrari.

Chassis 0848 was converted into a 412 P and sold to Scuderia Filipinetti.

Text copyright: Supercar Nostalgia
Photo copyright: Ferrari – https://www.ferrari.com & The Henry Ford Museum – https://www.thehenryford.org/