Photo : Archives ACO - D.R

The barrier of the 300kph would be broken soon by the racing cars of the 1960s, starring Maseratis, Jaguars, Ferraris, and Aston Martins. Austin Healeys, Porsches, Coopers, AC Bristols, Triumphs and Alfa Romeos also emerged at that time. Regarding low displacement cars, the French cars battled against Oscas, Abarths, Lotuses, with the regular coming of exotic ones like the Morgan, Peerless, Saab and Tojeiro. The “little French cars” were challenged by Lotus, which created legendary models like the Elite and the 11 and 15, which won the Performance Index classification.

After Jaguar in the fifties, Ferrari scored an impressive series of victories, with the noticeable exception of the Aston Martin win in 1959. The Grand Touring class saw the appearance of legendary models like the Ferrari 250 GT, Aston Martin DB4GT, while the Chevrolet Corvette made its Le Mans debut thanks to Briggs Cunningham. This also was the period of Porsche’s first coming, with cars derived from street models achieving good results.

Grid 3 is an era of transition, with Jaguar’s difficulties, Porsche’s emergence, and cars performing on circuits and roads like the Ferrari 250 GT and the Austin Healey 3000. Other manufacturers tried to maintain their presence despite a lack of financial support like Maserati, Lancia, Alfa Romeo, Triumph… But the sixties opened to the “race of the century”, with Ford’s aggressive marketing policy to sell Anglias in the UK and Taunuses in Germany. But Enzo Ferrari’s pride made him refuse Henry Ford’s takeover. The great battle is only beginning…