One of the surprising things about The Rolling Road is that readers of the blog are coming forward with interesting feedback . Back in March I posted a 1968 picture of Graham Hill taking delivery of a new Lotus Elan and the current owner of the car who resides in the UK saw the blog and came forward with information on the car .How he found the blog I do not know .
As a result of my earlier post on the Toyotas at Le Mans a very well informed friend who wishes to remain anonymous has emailed me to tell me that
"the Toyotas look very familiar to me, because of course they were run by the late Richard Lloyd of Apex Motorsport, on behalf of TOMS. These cars were eventually to be redesigned (very slightly), and become the 1993 Le Mans-winning Bentley Speed 8."
So it could almost be said that the 1999 Toyotas did win Le Mans after all .
These was not the first instance of Le Mans cars being recycled and reappearing in another succesful guise in later years .
I missed the 2003 Le Mans but was at the Goodwood Festival of Speed a year later when I took these photos of the Le Mans winning Bentley .I did not get a long shot which would allow a direct comparison of the bodywork shape with the Toyota It did have different running gear--that's not a Toyota engine with a Bentley decal on it -- but it is an Audi engine with a Bentley decal on it .
So there you have it - an ex-Toyota with an Audi engine called a Bentley won Le Mans in 2003. Confusing,eh?
As a result of my earlier post on the Toyotas at Le Mans a very well informed friend who wishes to remain anonymous has emailed me to tell me that
"the Toyotas look very familiar to me, because of course they were run by the late Richard Lloyd of Apex Motorsport, on behalf of TOMS. These cars were eventually to be redesigned (very slightly), and become the 1993 Le Mans-winning Bentley Speed 8."
So it could almost be said that the 1999 Toyotas did win Le Mans after all .
These was not the first instance of Le Mans cars being recycled and reappearing in another succesful guise in later years .
I missed the 2003 Le Mans but was at the Goodwood Festival of Speed a year later when I took these photos of the Le Mans winning Bentley .I did not get a long shot which would allow a direct comparison of the bodywork shape with the Toyota It did have different running gear--that's not a Toyota engine with a Bentley decal on it -- but it is an Audi engine with a Bentley decal on it .
So there you have it - an ex-Toyota with an Audi engine called a Bentley won Le Mans in 2003. Confusing,eh?
TWR did the same with Jaguar, Mazda, Porsche didn't they?
ReplyDeleteVariations on the same chassis with different engines.