Le Mans Diecast 1978 to 1981
In the late seventies, the prototype scene was becoming full of old cars and indifferent manufacturers. The European economy was in a rut due to lingering effects of the oil crisis, and the Cold War was still going strong. The 'golden' era of expensive factory efforts and well-financed privateers had definitely come to a close. Le Mans remained the only event of any real singifigance for prototypes.
1978
The top-level prototypes were classified as 'B6' cars and conformed to the open-cockpit 3-litre and 2.0 litre turbo spec. The Renault-Alpine 442 series and Porsche 936 cars were the ones to beat in this era. Jean Rondeau created come memorable closed-cockpit 'GTP' spec cars.
Porsche 936/78
Porsche must have finally had some time to throw the 936 beast in a wind tunnel, as they showed up with a much sleeker car. 1978 was also the last year that the works Porsche cars ran in the famous "Martini" colors. Note that the #7 car is the 1977 version of the 936, and was run as a semi-works entry with Joest. In terms of diecast, both the Minichamps and Trofeu cars are excellent.
Renault Alpine
Renault pulled the old "win Le Mans and then cancel the sports-prototype program" trick in 1978. Although they did go on to pioneer turbos in F1. Note that this yellow paint scheme has been revived for the 2002 F1 cars.
|
Place |
Car
Sponsor |
Car # Class |
Model |
Ref. # |
Image |
| B6 Class |
| Renault Works Team |
| 1 | Renault-Alpine A442B ‘elf’
Didier Pironi 
Jean-Pierre Jaussaud | 2
B6 | Minichamps
| 430 781102 |  |
| | | | Solido
('10' Series) | 87 |  |
| | | | Solido
('Retro Le Mans' Series) | 2435 | |
4 | Renault-Alpine A442A ‘elf’
Guy Fréquelin
Jean Ragnotti
José Dolhem | 4
B6 | Solido
Racing | 1938 |  |
| DNF | Renault Alpine A 443 ‘elf’
Jean-Pierre Jabouille
Patrick Depailler | 1
B6 | Minichamps
| 430 781101 |  |
| Porsche Works Team |
DNF | Porsche 936/78 'Martini'
Jacky Ickx 
Henri Pescarolo
Jochen Mass  | 5
B6 | Trofeu
| 1201 |  |
| | | | Minichamps
| 430 786905 |  |
2 | Porsche 936/78 'Martini'
Bob Wollek
Jürgen Barth | 6
B6 | Trofeu
| 1202 |  |
| | | | Minichamps
| 430 786906 |  |
3 | Porsche 936/77 'Martini'
Hurley Haywood 
Peter Gregg
Reinhold Jöst | 7
B6 | Minichamps
| 430 776707 |  |
| GTP Class |
9 | Rondeau M378 Ford 'SKF'
Jean Rondeau
Bernard Darniche
Jacky Haran | 72
GTP | Quartzo
| QLM017 |  |
1979
The underclass has its day
Not unlike recent Daytona 24 Hours events, this race was won by a car from the "lower" classed Group 5 ranks. All of the prototypes dropped out with mechanical woes, and even Jacky Ickx was tossed out for having a fan belt thrown to him during an on-track repair.
The Kremer K3 Porsche
The Group 5 class had the Porsche 935, but Kremer took it further and made yet a wilder version. Like Cher, this car had so much elective surgery the stock 930 buried underneath was undiscerable.
|
Place |
Car
Sponsor |
Car # Class |
Model |
Ref. # |
Image |
| Group 5 |
1 | Porsche Kremer K3 'Numero Reserve'
Klaus Ludwig
Don Whittington
Bill Whittington | 41
Group 5 | Quartzo
Classic Sports Racing | 3001 |  |
| 13 | Porsche Kremer K3 'Minolta'
Axel Plankenhorn
Philippe Gurdjian
"John Winter" | 45
Group 5 | Quartzo
| 3009 |  |
15 | Porsche 935 'Kores'
Jacques Guérin
"Chanaud"
Fréderic Alliot | 39
Group 5 | Solido
| 1702 |  |
| DNF | Porsche 935/77A 'Hawaiian Tropic'
Rob McFarlin
Bob Akin
Roy Woods | 71
IMSA | Le Mans
1979 | 2411 |  |
| DNF | Porsche 935/79 'interscope'
Ted Field
Milt Minter
John Morton | 68
IMSA | Le Mans
1979 | 2412 |  |
| Group 6 Class |
5 | Rondeau M397 'VSD'
Jean Ragnotti
Bernard Darniche | 5
Group 6 | Quartzo
Classic Le Mans | QLM018 |  |
10 | Rondeau M397 'ITT Oceanic'
Henri Pescarolo
Jean-Pierre Beltoise | 4
Group 6 | Quartzo
Classic Le Mans | QLM019 |  |
| Porsche Works Team |
DNF | Porsche 936 'Essex'
Jacky Ickx
Brian Redman 
Jürgen Barth | 12
Group 6 | Trofeu
| 1203 |  |
| | | | Minichamps
| 430 796912 |  |
DNF | Porsche 936 'Essex'
Bob Wollek
Hurley Haywood | 14
Group 6 | Trofeu
| 1204 |  |
| | | | Minichamps
| 430 796914 |  |
| Dome Works Team |
DNF | Dome Zero RL Ford 'Roland'
Chris Craft
Gordon Spice | 6
Group 6 | Spark
Bizzare | BZ04 | |
DNF | Dome Zero RL Ford 'Roland'
Bob Evans
Tony Trimmer | 7
Group 6 | Spark
Bizzare | BZ05 | |
| Group 4 |
4 | Porsche 934 'Lubrifilm'
Herbert Müller 
Angelo Pallavicini
Marco Vanoli | 82
Group 4 | Eagle Collectibles
| UNHV2302 |  |
19 | Porsche 934 'Lois'
Anny Charlotte Verney
Patrick Bardinon
René Metge | 84
Group 4 | Eagle Collectibles
| UNHV2304 |  |
DNF | Porsche 934 'Denver'
Christian Bussi
Bernard Salam | 87
Group 4 | Eagle Collectibles
| UNHV2309 |  |
1980
In 1980, Jean Rondeau won in a self-made car. In France, there is no better pick-up line to impress women than "I won Le Mans in my own car". He must have scored some serious babes... (Too bad he was killed shortly after at a railroad crossing)
The B6 Prototypes were subcategorized into 2.0 and 3.0 divisions. The Production based cars came in both the European "Group 5" and "IMSA" spec. Although many of the teams in the IMSA category had never turned a wheel in the United States.
Reinhold Joest got Jacky Ickx to share his 908/80 semi-works Porsche prototype, as the "Official" factory teams were in the GTP class. Derek Bell led a charge of three 924 coupes. There is no model of this car yet.
Group 4 was all but absent, but one of these was a Porsche 911SC, the only time that generation of 911's raced at Le Mans.
1981
BMW M1 (Leave it to BMW to make a Boring sports car)
The BMW M1 is just plain ugly, or boring, or both. Like Butt-head said to Beavis many years ago, "This sucks in ways we haven't seen before".
This year also gets the honor of having the car with the stupidist livery of all time. The BMW "Muenchen" car is covered with little knick-knack emblems that you would see on ceramics at tourist traps. Unless they are pulling off the ultimate irony, this paint job takes the concept of tacky to new levels. However, knowing the Bavarians they probably thought it was cool.
What happens when you get stoned and you have some Porsche 917 parts...
In a bizzare twist, Kremer got the bright idea to build a Porsche 917 replica and take it to Le Mans. They had won overall in 1979, and in some mescaline-induced moment of hubris must of thought they were invincible or could walk through walls or could fly or whatever. Anyway, they got some help from the Porsche factory, but only because they lied and said they were putting together a show car. They also got Bob Wollek to race along with two pay-driver shitheads to foot the bill. Supposedly they did fairly well before dropping out...
