Winners
2023
Pre-War Trophy
1933
Alfa Romeo
8C 2300 Le Mans Tourer
by Touring
From 1927 through 1930, competing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans must have been a dispiriting experience for many manufacturers and drivers. Mechanical issues and accidents conspired to make the Bentley team sweat occasionally, but for four consecutive years the famous Bentley Boys just couldn’t be beaten.
In 1931, however, Bentley found itself in serious financial trouble. The racing team was disbanded, giving hope to its rivals – until Alfa Romeo came along and snuffed it out again. The Italian manufacturer had previously concentrated on Grand Prix racing, but, sensing an opportunity, it assembled a works team for the 1931 24 Hours, sending two long-wheelbase 8Cs. Neither went the distance, and in fact one didn’t even start. But a third 8C, entered by Earl Howe and shared with former Bentley Boy Tim Birkin, won the race, galloping away from a field whittled down by tyre problems and mechanical failures until just seven cars were left. And so began the era in which Alfa Romeo couldn’t be beaten at Le Mans. Like Bentley before it, the marque would take four victories in a row, no other car able to get close to the magnificent 8C.
This example of Alfa’s serial winner was built to the same specification as the Le Mans team cars. It arrived in the UK in 1937 via Alfa Romeo dealer Thomson & Taylor, and all these years later it remains in highly original condition.
Post-War Trophy
1973
Porsche
911 Carrera RSR
After the 1971 racing season, the FIA changed the regulations for Group 5 competition, reducing the maximum engine capacity to 3 litres. Porsche’s all-conquering 917 was suddenly shut out.
Porsche could still run the 917 in the Can-Am Challenge across the pond, but it decided it would also build a 911- based racer for the Group 4 (GT) class of the 1973 World Sportscar Championship. The Carrera RS 2.7 was developed into a true racing car, the Carrera RSR, and eight examples were given to the racing department headed by Norbert Singer. These, which were numbered R1 through R8, ended up being notably quicker than the regular-production RSRs campaigned by a number of customers, and when the Championship visited Monza in April, a privateer pointed out to race officials that Singer’s cars had been modified such that they no longer matched the agreed spec for a GT-class RSR.
Singer expected the cars to be disqualified, but he was invited to enter them in Group 5 instead – which suited Porsche chariman Ernst Fuhrmann fine. He had received a string of complaints from RSR owners sick of having to race against the factory cars! For the rest of ’73 the ‘R’ cars battled prototypes, and still had success – most notably when R4 won the Targa Florio. Gijs van Lennep and Herbie Müller were behind that win, and the pair steered this car, R7, to 4th place in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, too.
Supercar Trophy
2023
Ferrari Daytona SP3
There’s nothing quite as motivating as the sting of defeat, and when Ford trounced Ferrari at Le Mans in 1966, Enzo Ferrari and his team immediately began plotting revenge. ‘The Detroit-Maranello match continues, as far as we are concerned,’ Enzo wrote.
Ford and Ferrari would next meet at the 1967 24 Hours of Daytona. For its home race, Ford fielded no fewer than six factory-supported GT40s. Ferrari turned up with just two cars: a new 330 P4, and a 330 P3 upgraded to P4 spec, but these cars had been meticulously prepared, and they thundered around Daytona without complaint as the Fords faltered. The works Ferraris finished 1st and 2nd, and 3rd place was taken by a 412 P (the customer version of the P4). The three cars were instructed to cross the finish line together; the chance to twist the knife as dejected Ford bods looked on was too much to pass up!
It was one of Ferrari’s finest wins, and in 2021 the marque honoured the P4 by unveiling the 211mph Daytona SP3, an attempt to capture in a road car the spirit of the 1960s sports prototype. The SP3 blends swooping curves and sharp lines, like the P4, which arrived at a time when Ferrari was beginning to pay more attention to aerodynamics – and the SP3 is in fact the most aerodynamically efficient car Ferrari has ever built without employing active aero technologies.
Hanna Aviation Trophy
1943
Supermarine
Spitfire Mk IX
This famous Spitfire was built in 1943 at the Vickers Supermarine factory in Castle Bromwich, which had originally been set up by the Nuffield Organization, owner of Morris Motors, under the Shadow Scheme. The scheme sought to boost the capacity of Britain’s aircraft industry in years leading up to World War Two by establishing factories close to existing motor manufacturing businesses – the idea being that skilled labour would be readily available.
MH434 first flew on 7 August 1943, with the factory’s chief test pilot, Alex Henshaw, at the controls. Six days later it was delivered with MH415 (see overleaf) to 222 Squadron at Hornchurch, and it was then flown by South African ace Henry Lardner-Burke, racking up several combat victories.
After 79 sorties, MH434 was retired from front-line duties in March of 1945. When the war ended, the Spitfire was assigned to the Royal Netherlands Air Force and sent to the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), where it flew 165 more sorties as the Dutch attempted to squash the independence movement that sprang up after the surrender of the occupying Japanese forces. It went on to be used by the Belgian Air Force and by a Belgian target-towing company before finally coming home to the UK in 1956.
It appeared in the 1969 film Battle of Britain, and later wound up with the former Red Arrows leader Ray Hanna. His family has kept it in the air, displaying it at events across Europe, including Goodwood Festival of Speed, and it continues to be used for film work, too.
Horsepower Hill Trophy
2018
Ferrari 488 Pista Spider
The 488 GTB is powered by a 3,902 cc (488 cc per cylinder, thus the name) all-aluminium dry sump unit of the Ferrari F154 V8 engine family. Turbocharged with two parallel ball-bearing twin-scroll turbochargers and two air-to-air intercoolers, the engine generates a power output of 670 PS at 8,000 rpm, and 760 N⋅m of torque at 3,000 rpm. This results in a specific power output of 126.3 kW per litre and specific torque output of 194.8 N⋅m (144 lb⋅ft) per litre, both records for a Ferrari automobile.
The claimed manufacturer performance for the 488 GTB is 0–100 km/h (0–62 mph) in 3.0 seconds, 0–200 km/h (0–124 mph) in 8.3 seconds, continuing to a top speed of more than 330 km/h (205 mph).
2022
Pre-War Trophy
1933
MG K3 Magnette
The K3 was willed into existence by Francis Curzon, the 5th Earl Howe, who badgered MG for a version of the K1 that could mix it in the Mille Miglia. The K3 was never going to be a match for the bigger Alfa 8C, a model that, in one form or another, won every Mille Miglia between 1932 and 1938. But notice of its potential was served at the 1933 Monte Carlo Rally when the prototype K3 set the fastest time on the Mont des Mules hillclimb, and a few weeks later a pair of K3s entered by Earl Howe came 1st and 2nd in the 1.1-litre class of the Mille Miglia, and 21st and 22nd overall. The following year, a K3 driven by Count Lurani and Clifton Penn-Hughes finished a fabulous 11th overall.
Post-War Trophy
1963
Jaguar E-type Lightweight
In 1963 and ’64, Jaguar built just 12 E-type Lightweights, and every one was intended for life at the sharp end of top-class GT racing. The idea that any could have survived completely unscathed and unmodified seems preposterous – until you meet the ‘Atkins Lightweight’.
Chassis S850661 was supplied to Tommy Atkins, a proper motoring enthusiast. In ’66 the car was bought by Guy Griffiths as a present for daughter Penny, and she enjoyed it for the next 38 years – yet when she finally parted with it in 2004 there were still just 2544 miles on the clock. Eagle E-types went through the car at this point, refurbishing every component while preserving decades’ worth of patina: the driver’s seat, for example, remains just as sat in by the great Salvadori, and the rev counter still sports the redline that was painted on by Penny Griffiths in nail varnish.
Supercar Trophy
2022
Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+
Andy Wallace won the 24 Hours of Le Mans at his first attempt, sharing a Jaguar XJR-9LM with Jan Lammers and Johnny Dumfries in 1988. He admits he was taken aback when he was asked, in his capacity as Bugatti’s official test driver, to attempt to breach the 300mph barrier in a Chiron Super Sport.
In August of 2019 he spent a week at the Volkswagen Group test track in Ehra-Lessien, Germany, working up to an attempt at 300mph. Wallace stated that, ‘part of the circuit had been repaved, and where the new surface met the old was what amounted to a step. It made your eyes pop out each time you hit it! There were massive side winds [to contend with], too.’
Bugatti was soon able to announce its car had hit an incredible 304.77mph – and that 30 special Chiron Super Sport ‘300+’ cars would be built.
Hanna Aviation Trophy
1934
de Havilland
DH.83 Fox Moth
Speed Model
The Fox Moth was designed to be an economical workhorse. It had the wings and tail of the two-seat Tiger Moth, but attached to them was a fuselage with room for four passengers – just. The pilot sat behind, and power was provided by the plucky Gipsy Major straight-four. This example, a ‘Speed Model’ with a canopy for the pilot, was delivered to New Zealand in 1934. It was damaged two years later while landing in heavy fog, but it was rebuilt and put to work by Air Travel (NZ) Ltd, the country’s first airline to fly licensed, scheduled services.
In 1963 the Fox Moth, by then in private ownership, was wrecked in an accident. Its remains were brought to the UK in 1997 by Kiwi pilot Bruce Broady, who gathered parts and information from around the world while Ben and Jan Cooper, Martin Honeychurch and Paul Lipman slowly returned the little de Havilland to flying condition.
Horsepower Hill Trophy
2018
Ferrari 488 Pista Spider
The 488 GTB is powered by a 3,902 cc (488 cc per cylinder, thus the name) all-aluminium dry sump unit of the Ferrari F154 V8 engine family. Turbocharged with two parallel ball-bearing twin-scroll turbochargers and two air-to-air intercoolers, the engine generates a power output of 670 PS at 8,000 rpm, and 760 N⋅m of torque at 3,000 rpm. This results in a specific power output of 126.3 kW per litre and specific torque output of 194.8 N⋅m (144 lb⋅ft) per litre, both records for a Ferrari automobile.
The claimed manufacturer performance for the 488 GTB is 0–100 km/h (0–62 mph) in 3.0 seconds, 0–200 km/h (0–124 mph) in 8.3 seconds, continuing to a top speed of more than 330 km/h (205 mph).
