Ferrari's impossible Le Mans.
Luigi Chinetti’s Ferrari 250 LM came to the 1965 24 Hours of Le Mans stinking of also-ran. The 250 LM was pretty, but Ferrari had moved on to beasts like the 275 GTB Competizione Speciale and 330 P2. When the FIA wouldn’t classify the mid-engine 250 LM as a GT, Ferrari gave up on the tiny Berlinetta and sold off examples to customers—privateers who were background fillers in international sports-car racing. Chinetti’s 250 LM, running as a prototype, was there to lose.
NART had also entered a 365 P2 Spyder for Pedro Rodríguez and Nino Vaccarella. It qualified sixth, making it the NART machine likely to finish best.Jo Siffert’s Maserati Tipo 65 blasted to an early lead but was reeled in by the Fords and Ferraris. By the end of the first lap, Bruce McLaren was leading in one of the two Ford GT Mk IIs. Behind him was Amon in the other Mk II, then Surtees in the factory 330 P2. But the NART 250 LM had nothing to lose, and Rindt was so fast.
Mid-engine successor to the front-engine 250 GTO, the 250 LM prototype was shown in 1963, powered by the same 3.0-liter V-12 used in that car. After that, they got 3.3-liter versions of the engine making about 320 hp.But if one person could resist Enzo, it was Luigi Chinetti. A three-time Le Mans winner as a driver, including taking Ferrari’s 166 MM to the team’s first victory in 1949, he left Italy for America when World War II broke out.
Enzo felt the pressure. Not that he shared anything with anyone. Il Commendatore saw the future in 1965 and knew change was inevitable. He couldn’t simply impose his will any longer. Jochen Rindt and on the right fender, that’s Ed Hugus, who drove a shift but wasn’t originally scheduled to do so.The 250 LM was a proven package in 1965. At its core, it was a closed Berlinetta version of the open 250 P that had won the 1963 Le Mans. Coyly described as a mid-engine version of the legendary 250 GTO, it was among Ferrari’s first mid-engine cars and built of robust, familiar components. The 320-hp 3.
With the yellow French 250 LM on Dunlops and the American entry on Goodyears, tires became a contentious issue. Rumors were that the Ferrari team tried to convince both 250 LMs to slow down so the limping 330 P2 could win. It wanted the winner on Dunlops, as Ferrari was under contract with that brand of rubber. Thus, Chinetti was under pressure to slow his car down and let the Dumay/Gosselin car win.
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