Roy Pierpoint in the "Druids Bend" at Brands Hatch/UKin
front 1965, you see Mike Salmon in DPK5B behind him.
Picture courtesy Peter Quinn
Mike Salmon at Goodwood in 1965
Photo courtesy Goodwood Archives/
Vintage Racing director Morris
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The History of the TDF
Mustang #82 DPK5B
Mustang 5F07K208109, built between 18 and 20th July 1964
at Dearborn and
delivered to Holman-Moody first, then exported to Alan Mann/Byfleet/UK
was driven by Bo Ljungfeld at the Tour de France 1964 as car #82
The DPK5B licenced Mustang started its racing career in August 1964, after being shipped over in July by Ford to Alan Mann Racing Ltd. With the Tour de France starting on 11th of September, Alan Mann had not much time to modify the cars, but Ford wanted to see them winning, so time was no excuse and so was money. Alan Mann got all he needed plus more to get these cars up in front of the racing herd.
This car is the least famous of 4 Tour de France Mustangs, since it did not
cross the finish line.
Leading from start to finish on the 8th Etappe in Pau, only Bo
Ljungfeldt experienced problems with his battery and had to take a break.
Reasons are not exactly known, but soon after this he was disqualified,
maybe when taking advantage of unallowed help. He later started again in
one or the other race part without being ranked in GT class.
John Grant, an ex-mechanic of Alan Mann explained something interesting about the licence plate numbers to me in an interview: "Alan always had 3 letters up front and the last letter indicates the year - in this case B for 1964, A was 1963, C 1965 and so on. Those licence plates stay with the car for its lifetime typically."
So this is why we identify the Tour de France cars much better by their licence
plates.
What happened to DPK5B after the Tour de France 1964?
John pointed us towards Mike Salmon:
"The ex-Ljungfeldt/Sager Mustang #82 was later painted dark
blue, when Mike Salmon raced it for F.English in Bournemouth/Dorset. F.
English was a garage owner. I think the Salmon Mustang was used
afterwards in club races"
Somewhat documented in english racing history books is the time of DPK5B during
Mike
Salmons Mustang period.
We contacted Mike in March 2005 for further research and here is what he
answered:
"I was most interested to receive your letter and page through
your clubmagazine. ...I don't know what happened to the car exactly
after my ownership, it is such a long time ago. I do know however that
the well known rally driver Rob Slotemaker owned the car for some time
in the late 60ies, maybe early 70ies, as he telephoned me to discuss the
Mustang at some length, but whether or not it is still in Holland is
anybodys guess.
Over many years of racing most of the great classic cars, I have to tell
you that both the Ford Mustang and GT40 proved to be the most unreliable,
the situation may well have improved over the years, but at that time
the engines gave nothing but trouble. Camshafts wearing out within a few
hundred miles, bearings turning on the crankshaft with the GT40 causing
engine seizure...this happened no less than 3 times in one season.
Perhaps you can understand why I am no lover of American engines.
I see your friend Jeffrey has been in touch with Brian Lews, then
mechanic of Alan Mann and later for me at Atherstone Engineering. He was
a first class mechanic. My very best wishes for the future of your club
and thank you once again for sending the magazine."
Michael Salmon
From that point on it was easier to trace the car a step further:
Thanks to Martin Fokkens from www.racehistorie.nl
we got a few pics of Slotemaker driving the car in various events like
the 68 Zandvoort Grand Prix and the 1971 Zandvoort event.
At that time he raced under the banner of the Algemeen Dagblad Racing
Team.
Rob Slotemaker and co-driver Heuvel driving DPK5B at a
dutch event
Picture courtesy Martin Fokkens from racehistore.nl
The car and Slotemaker was still around in 1968 as shown here. Pic
thanks to M.Fokkens from www.racehistorie.nl
Hans Hugenholtz - famous vintage GT40 and Mustang racer, pointed us
initially to
the end of this story in September 2005:
"The last owner of DPK5B was Frans Lubin from
Maastricht/NL.
In any case the car was destroyed many years ago
when the Lubin (Frami Racing) workshop burnt down."
But we had to pick up the trace again March
2006, after being contacted by sb. that claims to have this car
still in his ownership and a few documents later, the car indeed seems
to have been another, that burnt up in Lubins garage. Further research
revealed that the Mustang owned by Frami Racing (Lubin) and the
Slotemaker car in fact were 2 different Mustangs.
It appears that the Slotemaker Mustang (the TDF DPK5 car) changed hands
to Serge Trosch from Belgium. Serge drove a few events in 1968/1969.
Alain Goupy bought the car from Belgium.
When he found an ad in a paper, he contacted the Belgium owner and
visited the shed, where it was stored...burried in pieces in between
pinball machines. Just to learn that the owner had sold the car to a
nearby dealer. Alain went immediately to that dealer and bought the
car from him, just 40% over the value it was advertised before.
The DPK5B then was extensively raced in France in the 80ies until it was
stored away in 1989.
We have seen the VIN 5F07K208109 in the stampings. The historic customs documents
indeed proove the VIN to be one of the 4 written on a Ford letter to
Alan Mann Racing and the DPK5B licence plate was as well documented
there. Whether the car belongs to the papers, can only be inspected
by Alan Mann people or himself.
They have yet to verify the special welds and authenticate it.
Picture courtesy Alain Goupy. This picture shows the car as
being raced in the late 80ies.
The car underwent a restoration by Gérard Cotteret, as
we heard already in 2006 and was subsequently sold to Alain Schlesinger,
who sold it to Speedmasters in 2009 to the UK and on sale for roughly 185.000
pound Sterling (around 250.000 Dollar), as Speedmaster informed us.
Race pass around 1990 with DPK5B licence plate pics
You can spot it at http://www.speedmastercars.com/instock.html.
Thanks to all contributors for their help in
tracing the history of DPK5B down.
Read on - Exclusive on Ponysite:
The History of the '64 TDF winner Mustang
DPK7B
The History of the '64 TDF second winner Mustang
DPK6B
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