"Probably the most interesting car of the moment might be the Ford GT which is running this year against Ferrari, Porsche and Aston Martin. It is the kind of car I am familiar with, which you can drive both on the road and on the track. I also have my son-in-law driving in the team and I like the fact of having someone in my family involved in this project," explains Nick Mason. When it comes to sports cars, Mason knows what he's talking about. He is the owner of a magnificent collection of cars from all eras and disciplines (GT, Formula 1, sport-prototypes, Ford T, Ferrari GTO). It's a passion he has handed down to his children to the point that Holly, one of his two daughters, married an active racing driver named Marino Franchitti.

"It's nice talking about motorsport with him," says Franchitti. "It's nice talking about motorsport with him. He raced here five times, he won the Index Performance classification at his first start so he knows the track and the rhythm of the 24 Hours very well. Once he was at the wheel of a car which could compete for the overall win (in 1984, Ed.). It was very interesting talking with him about the 956 Porsche, especially the speed on the straights."

In their own ways, whether in music or motorsports, Nick Mason and Marino Franchitti are pioneers. With his Pink Floyd bandmates Roger Waters, David Gilmour and the late Rick Wright, Mason pushed the limits of sound on records and in concert (the album "The Dark Side Of The Moon" released in 1973 is still today a point of reference in this area), before becoming an eminently respected gentleman-driver. As for Franchitti, in 2012 he drove the Nissan DeltaWing, first tenant of Garage 56 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans reserved for unranked, innovative projects, sharing the wheel with Michael Krumm and Satoshi Motoyama. A longtime resident of Nashville, Tennessee - a mecca of American music - he has benefitted throughout his career from the support of Big Machine Records, one of the great independent record companies dedicated to country music.

And in this big happy family, humour is always part of the equation of course, as evidenced by Franchitti's concluding good-natured jab: "It is difficult to have a father-in-law who is an amateur and who has as many Le Mans starts as you do. But this year I will have one more than he does!"  

Photo: Thanks to his son-in-law Marino Franchitti, driver of the #67 Ford GT at the 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Nick Mason has access to all the info he needs to consider adding the road version to his prestigious collection!