1963 Le Mans

1963 — The revolt that rocked Ferrari in 1962 had, by June ‘63, finally taken shape. Scuderia Ferrari and its cars looked remarkably different. John Surtees replaced departed World Champion and three-time Le Mans winner Phil Hill as Ferrari’s point man. The A.C.O. tired of word games, and the Experimental GTs were prototypes again.

A rejuvenated Ferrari bought the pot: 11 entries, including a trio of new 3.0-liter 250P mid-engine prototypes and four traditional 330LM prototypes. Maserati had just one car. With displacement limits annulled, the Maserati France T151 for Andre Simon and Lucky Casner packed a noisy 5.0-liter dohc V8.

Stirling Moss returned to Le Mans as an entrant. His career-ending accident at Goodwood came less than two years after his giant crash at Spa. He brought his secretary to help on the pit counter and one new Anglo-American hybrid, an AC Cobra. The uncrowned World Champion survived a season that took Le Mans regular Ricardo Rodriguez. The younger brother perished at home, practicing for the non-championship Grand Prix of Mexico in Rob Walker’s Lotus. For Le Mans, his quiet, less demonstrative older brother Pedro shared a NART 330LM with Roger Penske.

Lola’s Eric Broadley, who just four years earlier began making little 1100cc Lotus 11 beaters, entered a stunning and thoroughly modern mid-engine coupe, the Lola GT Mark VI bearing a 4.7-liter Ford V8 that he bought from Carroll Shelby’s California house of Cobras. Royal Leamington Spa’s David Hobbs shared the stylish coupe with Richard Attwood. Aston had a 4.0-liter coupe labeled "215", actually the lovely year-old Project 212 Aston with a magnesium body. Graham Hill and Richie Ginther were paired again in a BRM F1 car, this one sporting full bodywork and a Rover gas turbine engine. They were competing for a special cash prize rather than racing, though that’s exactly what they seemed to be doing in the quiet green car nicknamed "Whistling Sid".

All lovely cars but no one expected the winner to be anything but red. Especially after practice. The A.C.O. decided to align the field according to qualifying times rather than engine displacement.

First man in line was Pedro Rodriguez, a juicy seven seconds faster than Phil Hill’s fast lap of ’62. Three cars down the line was the man himself, now in the Aston, five seconds under his year-old record. Hill was the '63 Champion of Mulsanne with a pass near 178mph in the Aston. The T151 and the Ferraris of Surtees, star of the April Test Weekend (works 250P) and Dan Gurney (NART 330 LM Berlinetta) were the only others under four-minutes.

Phil Hill got the Aston away first and teammate Bruce McLaren wasn’t far behind. But Simon pulled the pin on the big Maserati and blasted by everybody, revving up the crowd – a French driver is as good as a French car, apparently. It took Simon only five laps to get into the tail of the field, and when he went by the Masson/Monnert Rene Bonnet just past the Dunlop Bridge the little blue coupe whacked the bank, flipped and began to roll sideways down the hill toward the esses. Phil Hill arrived just as the biggest pieces were returning to earth. Somehow he got the mighty Aston slowed but ran over one of the major pieces.

The booming Maserati held sway until Simon handed off to Casner, who managed the disintegrating rear end as well as he could, But before nightfall the lone Maser was gone, and saying "red car" meant Ferrari. The 250Ps of Mike Parkes and Umbertto Maglioli (No. 22) and the John Surtees/Willy Mairesse No. 23 were taking turns at the front.

Just before total dark, the McLaren/Innes Ireland Aston’s motor exploded near the hump before Mulsanne and put down all its oil. Moss’ No. 3 Cobra arrived and spun harmlessly, but the No. 19 DB4 Aston ended up in the swale. Roy Salvadori E-Type got on its roof so hard it began to burn. A Rene Bonnet rolled over and spit out its driver, who had to scramble to avoid the frantic arrival of the first truck. Salvadori had been rescued by this time, only to have Bino Heins’ No. 46 Alpine hit a pole, ignite and kill its driver before the firemen could intervene.

Later Roger Penske’s Ferrari had an oily end that produced massive clouds of smelly smoke so thick that poor Jo Bonnier lost all reference and drove his Porsche into the trees. Neither man was injured, and both walked to the pits. Jim Hall refused to quit when the 330 Berlinetta he shared with Dan Gurney quit. Hall pushed all the way from White House only to be told at the pits that a half shaft was gone after 126 laps.

By the end of the 12th hour, Ferraris were six deep at the front, with the new mid engine 250Ps leading by nine laps. Surtees and Mairesse led overall and in the lucrative Index of Performance and were a lap up on Lorenzo Bandini and Ludivicio Scarfiotti. Then came the privateers: David Piper and Masten Gregory in David GTO. And so on throughout the night. A thin dawn found Piper’s generator light glowing.

With the sun over the horizon David Hobbs got a handful of neutrals as he descended into Tertre Rouge looking for third gear in the lovely Lola Mark VI. The result was a smashed car and a DNF after a never-say-die gallant last-minute dash over public roads by Broadley himself, and a special Thursday morning courtesy scrutineering to accommodate the tardy Lola. After 151 laps, it was over. Years later when asked how the Lola’s windshield had come out in one unbroken piece Hobbs said, "I knew Willy Mairesse was coming!"

Wild Willy had a reputation that was done no good by his giant fiery accident in the ’62 Belgian GP. Fire now cost Mairesse and Surtees the '63 Le Mans. Mairesse had just relieved Surtees, only this time the pit work was accomplished with either too much enthusiasm or not enough. Some fuel got where it shouldn’t, and a fire erupted just as Mairesse descended into the esses on full tanks. Burned, cut and bleeding, Willy was out of Le Mans and the next few F1 races as well.

Bandini and Scarfiotti moved into the lead and became not only the first Italian co-drivers but Ferrari’s first rear-engined winners. It was Ferrari’s seventh victory on the Sarthe, and the red cars were six deep at the front. Moss’ Cobra was seventh overall and the winner in the over 4.0-liter GT class. Briggs Cunningham was a superb and safe ninth, this time sharing with poor Bob Grossman who had buried their E-Type in the straw at Mulsanne late Saturday afternoon. Whistling Sid, the Rover-BRM turbine would have been seventh, if it were actually racing. But Hill and Ginther got their prize with 310 turbine-smooth laps – enough to win overall in ’58, the first limited displacement year.

The rear engine revolution finally arrived at Le Mans. It was three years late. There is light irony that the first car so configured to win the 24 Hours should come from the house that resisted the trend to rear engines with the greatest vigor and volume.

Eric Broadley’s hard work on the Mark VI paid off: Ford Motor Company bought two and shipped one to Dearborn. The other stayed in England for testing. Bruce McLaren was consulted.