| Group 9 - fifty years
of post war Le Mans The last time I saw these Briggs Cunningham cars was in 1984 when they were all together with many others at his museum in Costa Mesa, Los Angeles. I remember it well because it was the week that someone paid a record breaking $6.5 million for a Bugatti Royale - convincing me that I was unable to ever own one, although I haven't ruled it out entirely yet. Since then of course we have lost the Briggs Cunningham museum and the collection was auctioned off. Fortunately these cars have been kept together and it says a lot for Goodwood that we were able to see them together in the U.K. I wonder how many people realised how lucky they were to see them all together for a few days without having to travel 6,000 miles for the experience. |
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1950 Cadillac Series 61 - 5.4 litre This 1950 Le Mans competitor was developed for Briggs Cunningham by Fred Frick and Bill Tappett. Miles and Sam Collier finished after 24 hours in tenth place. |
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| 1950 'Le Monstre' For the 1950 Le Mans race Briggs Cunningham took a 1950 Series 61 Cadillac saloon and rebodied it as an aerodynamic sports car using the Grumman wind tunnel for development. It is based on chassis 506112964, was co-driven with B.C. by Phil Walters and placed 11th after 24 hours. |
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1950 'Le Monstre' This is the engine compartment of the above car - five carburettors feeding the 5.4 litre V8. Although the engine is obviously big, it seems to disappear into the vast structure of the car and you are left wondering why the car has to be so big for such a small engine compartment. |
| 1950 'Le Monstre' The answer is obvious - it is big because that was it's size when it came off the end of the production line. They just fitted a body to go on around the structure. As Ford found later, Le Mans is about lasting the distance and this was one way to do it. Not surprising that the French christened it Le Monstre. By the way, there is a video called 'A Fast Drive in the Country' on which the ultra cool James Coburn was the narrator. If you see it buy it. It has some excellent footage of this car racing at Le Mans. |
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