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Jun202011

Monday, June 20, 2011 at 07:01PM

June 22, 2011

The time is now for an all-American onslaught at Le Mans.

By Peter M. De Lorenzo

Detroit. With yet another triumphant performance by the Corvette Racing team at the 24 Hours of Le Mans fresh in everyone's mind, the time is now right for serious consideration to be given to mounting an all-American effort to go for the overall victory at the world's most prestigious sports car race. One of the four pillars of international racing (along with the Indianapolis 500, the Grand Prix of Monaco, and the Daytona 500), the 24 Hours of Le Mans has not seen a victory by an all-American team since 1966 when the Ford Motor Company scored its first win on the Circuit de la Sarthe 45 years ago. Ford followed-up that victory, of course, with an even more magnificent and definitive win when two of America's all-time great drivers - Dan Gurney and A.J. Foyt - won the 1967 race by over four laps, humilating the vaunted Ferrari factory team.

That was then and this is now and incredibly enough no American manufacturer has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans since. Think about that for a moment and think about the list of manufacturers who have won at Le Mans since: Porsche, Renault, Jaguar, Mercedes-Benz, Mazda, Peugeot, McLaren, BMW, Bentley (even though it was largely an Audi effort underneath), and of course, the recent incredible string of victories by Audi itself.

I'm sure in the post-race euphoria after Ford's dominant win in 1967 little did anyone realize that here we would sit over four-and-one-half decades later and there still hasn't been an overall victory by an American manufacturer since. I find that to be unbelievable and completely unacceptable, and I think the time has come for an American manufacturer to mount a proper effort to return to Le Mans and go for the overall win.

Who are we talking about here? Obviously only two. Ford because of its glorious competition legacy and historical imperative to go back to Le Mans along with its contemporary global marketing push to solidify itself as one of the leading mobility companies in the world, and the reinvigorated General Motors, which, in staking claim to its own global marketing aspirations, desperately needs to burnish its Chevrolet brand around the globe. (A convincing case could be made for Cadillac to be the brand to carry the GM colors at Le Mans, too, even though GM's most recent go-around with Cadillac at the French endurance classic was a total failure, suffering from inadequate commitment and funding.)

Note I talked about both manufacturers' global marketing aspirations. This isn't 45 years ago when Henry Ford II turned his intense personal disgust with Enzo Ferrari's eleventh-hour summary dismissal of Ford's effort to buy the Italian automotive and racing concern into a "I don't care what it costs" grudge match designed to humiliate Ferrari at Le Mans - a goal that was achieved and then some. No, this is the contemporary reality we live in today where an auto manufacturer's global reach is paramount, especialliy with the vast markets in China, India and Russia defining the future of the automobile business. And hand-in-hand with this whole idea of having global marketing reach is the equally weighty aspect of delivering a measurable and meaningful return on investment, something that is essential in this day and age.

You only have to look as far as what Audi has achieved over the last twelve years to see what a consistently focused racing effort can do for a brand to understand what I'm talking about. Twelve years ago Audi was a perennial second-tier player in the luxury-performance market behind BMW and Mercedes-Benz when the company decided that it had enough. Audi leadership then set about to change the consumer perception of Audi by showcasing its technical prowess and engineering capabilities on one of the grand stages of the automotive world - the 24 Hours of Le Mans. And they have succeeded masterfully. Not only by winning Le Mans ten times over the last twelve years, but by re-focusing their product efforts to deliver best-in-class luxury and performance. And doing it consistently over time and with a visionary swagger that has completely redefined the brand to the consumer, to the point that Audi is now a first-tier player and the brand in the performance-luxury market.

What Audi did took guts, vision, focus and a level of unwavering consistency that has been awesome to behold. And that has to be intimidating to other car companies who are contemplating going up against Audi at Le Mans, but it's exactly the qualities that car companies like GM and Ford would have to bring to the table if they decided to play in this arena, and win.

But there is hope...

Right now a new all-American racing effort - the Project 56 Group - is in search of an engine manufacturer to partner up with in order go to Le Mans next year. With Duncan Dayton's ultra-capable Highcroft Racing organization fielding the car, Dr. Don Panoz advising and Dan Gurney himself building the actual prototypes for on-track testing, the DeltaWing Le Mans project - in conjunction with an official "56th Garage" entry pre-approved by the ACO - is just the kind of high-visibility opportunity that both GM and Ford racing and marketing operatives should give serious consideration to. It's a high-quality effort with high-quality players with the visionary brilliance of Dan Gurney to boot.

To me this project deserves the full effort and resources of an American automobile manufacturer, the time is now for America to take on the world's best for the overall win at the most prestigious endurance race in the world.

(Highcroft Racing/Project 56 Group)
The DeltaWing Le Mans prototype.

Publisher's Note: As part of our continuing series celebrating the "Glory Days" of racing, we're proud to present another noteworthy image from the Ford Racing Archives. - PMD

(Courtesy of the Ford Racing Archives)
Le Mans, France, June 11th, 1967: A Beautiful Day. Dan Gurney and A.J. Foyt acknowledge the crowd after their huge win in the 24 Hours of Le Mans driving their 427 cu. in. V8-powered Ford Mk IV. It remains the only "all-American victory" at Le Mans by a car designed, engineered and built in America, prepared and entered by an American team (Shelby American) and driven by American drivers. Let's hope that it's not the last. - PMD

Publisher's Note: Like these Ford racing photos? Check out www.fordimages.com. Be forewarned, however, because you won't be able to go there and not order something. - PMD

See another live episode of "Autoline After Hours" with hosts John McElroy, from Autoline Detroit, and Peter De Lorenzo, The Autoextremist, and guests this Thursday evening, at 7:00PM EDT at www.autolinedetroit.tv.