Gulf Mirage GR8 - 1975

The GR8 was the last attempt by the John Wyer team to win Le Mans with an ‘in-house’ car and the support of its sponsor Gulf. Aerodynamically derived from the GR7 and powered by a Ford engine, the car finished first and third in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1975, despite a few problems at the end of the race.

With the Porsche 917 out of the limelight as a result of the 3-litre limit on the engine capacity of Group 5 prototypes, John Wyer's team was left with no car capable of competing for victory at Le Mans. He then resumed his activity as a manufacturer, which he had started in 1967 with the Mirage brand, created to produce sports cars with Ford-based chassis and mechanics, but suspended in 1969 at the start of the collaboration with Porsche. With the Mirage M6, production resumed with the Prototype category (Group 6), retaining the Ford Cosworth 3-litre V8 DFV engine and benefiting from a new architecture designed by engineer Len Bailey. The car offered a coupé version (experimented with a Weslake V12 engine) that achieved some good results, including victory in the Spa 1000 km race in 1973.

In 1974, the M6 was replaced by the GR7, renamed in honour of sponsor Gulf Racing. A modified M6 was used in order to reduce weight and aerodynamics. Despite maximising their potential, the three official cars that were reconstructed from M6 models and the three built for private customers achieved only modest results. 1975 brought further success. Gulf, which sponsored Wyer, was thinking of giving up competition, but Wyer managed to persuade those in charge to support him for a final season by financing a new evolution of the car entrusted to engineers John Horsman and Bailey.

Modifications were limited to a longer wheelbase and a new, more fluid body, characteristics that were dictated in particular by the Le Mans 24 Hours. The two cars were powered by the familiar Ford Cosworth engine in a basic version producing less than 400bhp, with the emphasis on reliability. During qualifying, the cars in the blue/orange livery, with numbers 10 and 11, respectively driven by Vern Schuppan and Jean-Pierre Jaussaud and Derek Bell and Jacky Ickx, dominated the front row before the situation became complicated. Schuppan and Jaussaud took the lead from the start, but were forced to retire after a few hours of racing due to problems with their alternator.

First position passed to their team-mates, who had to defend themselves against the attacks of the Ligiers. Towards the end of the race, the car of Bell and Ickx suffered a breakdown (a burst pipe) which had to be repaired. The work was completed just in time to counter a recovery by the Ligier JS2 of Jean-Louis Lafosse and Guy Chasseuil, which came second by one lap. Schuppan and Jaussaud managed to hold on to their third place, ahead of eight Porsches and two Ferraris. At the end of the season, Gulf withdrew from competition and the cars, renamed ‘Mirage GR8’, were sold to the American Grand Touring Car team, which entered them at Le Mans for two consecutive years, finishing twice in second place.