A South African-built racing car will be driven by Sir Stirling Moss and Tony Dron at the upcoming Le Mans 24 Hour weekend - a re-creation of an iconic supercar.
It's a CAV GT, a recreation of the GT40 that was king of Le Mans 40 years ago. An iconic supercar of low-slung proportion and muscular disposition that still turns heads four decades after its prime.
The CAV GT, assembled in Westlake, Cape Town, was chosen as the pace car for the "historic" races that support the main event.
This is a special tribute to the 2006 centenary celebrations of the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO), longstanding organiser of the Le Mans 24-Hour.
Both ACO Centenary Races will take place during the morning of Saturday, June 17 and are exclusively for cars that raced at Le Mans in their day or genuine sister cars of the same specification.
The 40-minute events are scheduled to take place before the start of the 24-Hour feature and will begin with the "ear of corn" formation, the tradition of drivers running across the track to their car. With the advent of stricter safety regulations, this practice is now a novelty reserved for special occasions.
In keeping with nostalgia, a GT40 re-creation is a fitting choice as it evokes memories of the heyday of motor racing. One need only peer through the motor racing record books from the early 1960's to recognise its allure.
The GT40 - so named because it is only 40 inches high - first flashed to victory at Le Mans in 1966 in a spectacular finish: Ford took first, second and third places. The French circuit had become the battleground for supremacy between the big names of racing, with Ferrari's lead uncontested since the start of the decade.
The GT40 came about when Henry Ford II, then head of the Ford Motor Corporation, was snubbed by Ferrari when he bid to buy the Italian sports car firm. With the bitter taste of rejection still fresh, he set out to create a Ford-badged car that would beat the Italians.
Ford Advanced Vehicles was set up for just this purpose. Under Eric Broadley, based at Slough in Britain, the GT40 project was born. A team of American designers and engineers was also part of the venture to create a supercar for both track and road.
A prototype was complete in 1964 and by April of that year the Ford GT was unveiled to the news media. It took another two years for aerodynamic instabilities and transaxle problems to be fine-tuned for its first victory at Le Mans.
Its June, 1966 win was nothing short of dramatic, earning the Ford GT40 the "triple crown" of endurance racing.
Yet another win
Testing of the GT40 Mark IV began a few months later and in June, 1967 it won again at Le Mans - beating Ferrari by four laps. Dan Gurney and AJ Foyt were the drivers.
The Mark I GT40 returned to Le Mans for the 1968 racing season and won yet again in the Gulf Oil livery that has ever since been associated with the car.
The consecutive victories culminated in one of the most talked-about events in endurance racing history - Le Mans 1969. Jacky Ickx and Jackie Oliver won the race by only two seconds.
Bragging rights to the original GT40 racing cars are the privilege of a select few private and very rich collectors. They are worth millions in rand terms. Recognising a gap in the market for quality recreations, two South African entrepreneurs set out to build their version of the supercar, to be known as the CAV GT.
Jean Fourie and John Spence launched the business on a vision to retain the spirit of the original car with the pedigree features of its 1960's (now retro) styling - the brass grommets in the seats, the original style of Lucas switches and Smiths gauges - and to refine other parts, such as the suspension and brakes.
Limited edition
There are, however, a few concessions to luxury: additional head and legroom, quality interior carpets and air-conditioning.
The research and development to align the car with 21st-century technology for its customers, has been a winning formula. Their factory produces up to 30 cars a year for export to the UK, US, Europe, Dubai, Canada and Australia.
A limited edition of the CAV GT built to the same specifications and with the same Gulf Oil livery as the Le Mans pace car is on the production schedule.
It will have unique chassis numbers and a 373kW, 5.7-litre Ford V8 with Weber downdraft IDA carburettors and a ZF transaxle.