In 1966 the GT40 Mk.11 had become highly reliable and Ford sent no less than eight Mk.11's to La Sarthe, entered by three teams, Shelby, Holman & Moody and Alan Mann Racing Ltd. Ferrari had sent only two works P3's to compete against the Ford GT40 armada.
Shelby-American entered 3 cars, Bruce McLaren & Chris Amon in car No 2, the British driver Ken Miles & Denis Hulme in car No 1 and Dan Gurney & Jerry Grant in car No 3. Ken Miles the Shelby test driver had already won at the 24 Hours of Daytona and at the 12 Hours of Sebring. Ken was expected to win Le Mans and the triple crown, Daytona-Sebring-Le Mans.
Holman Moody entered 3 cars Ronnie Bucknum & Dick Hutcherson in car No 5, Mario Andretti & Lucien Bianchi in car No 6 and Mark Donohue & Paul Hawkins in car No 4.
Finally the Alan Mann Racing Ltd entered Graham Hill & Brian Muir in car No 7 and Sir John Whitmore & Frank Gardner in car No 8.
The eventual winning line up was first, Car No 2, McLaren/Amon, second, Car No 1 Miles/Hulme, and third, Car No 5, Bucknum/Hutcherson. The finish remains, however, the closest in Le Mans history.
Our main black & white image is a photo outside the Ford France S.A garage, Car No 15 Ligier/ Grossman. Pictured are a number of the GT40 drivers and team members including, Bruce McLaren, Chris Amon, Innes Ireland, Carroll Shelby and Ken Miles and Guy Ligier.
At the time of the 1966 race Jim Rose was a mechanic with the Alan Mann Racing Team and through this friendship with fellow British driver Ken Miles he was personally given the 'Ken Miles Team Jacket' at the event, which he has kept for the past 44 years. AC Heritage have now purchased this unique and original race jacket and as a result it will become part of the growing and diverse AC Heritage Collection.
We are delighted he has done so and pleased to announce that it will go on display in the AC Heritage Collection at Brooklands Museum.
Thank you Jim for keeping the jacket all those years and now thank you for allowing it to be seen for the first time in 44 years!
'The Jacket'
To view more images of the jacket, click here>>
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