Mustang Racing Past in Europe

© Wolfgang Kohrn - Feb.12th, 2001, last update 2010

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1964

1965

1966

1967

1968

1971

Tour de France   Monte Carlo  
Brands Hatch  
Lyon-Charbonnières  
Swedish TC
Monte Carlo   Monte Carlo  
Targa Florio  
R.A.C Tourist Trophy  
Rallye des Routes du Nord  
Swedish TC
Hillclimbing Uray (F) Course de coté de Troumousse  
Special:
   65/66 Hillclimb races
  

Checkered Flag
  Other races will follow soon.




New photos from the Tour de France 1964



Mustangs won their share of glory in Europe starting with the Tour de France 1964. Full details about the race, the drivers and the cars can be found on our club webpage. In addition I got these uncovered pictures courtesy of Christian Bonnemaison, a french fellow enthusiast of historic race events.

More pictures - look inside the Procter/Cowan Mustang


Henri Greder/Ecurie Ford France in the Monte Carlo rallye 1965

Photo courtesy AUTO Collection N.o.7

In the 34th. Monte Carlo rallye 1965 Jacques Anquetil grabbed the steering wheel of this 1965 Mustang hardtop during the rallye to Monte Carlo with co-driver Raphael Géminiani. Henri or "Titi" Greder, how his friends called him, the famous Ford driver can be seen on the left side of the car. Raphaél Gemiani recalls: "120 starters were already out of race during the etappes in the Jura mountains. At Chambéry only 28 cars were still racing, of course we were still in." (It might be that this statement is not quite the truth, because "Sports Car Graphics wrote in April 1966, that 35 cars showed up in Monaco - editor). Anyway the night rallye was a nightmare.
The Monte Carlo rallye is a very unique rallye, as not all starters drive from the same starting point. Reims was only one spot. The others usually having been in Spain, Italy and one other european country. Thus the 4 groups of starters arrived at the meeting point in Chambery in the french Alps "starwise" from 4 directions. From there they headed on in speedy night sections to the Monte Carlo finish line for a days celebration and gala. The distances like from Barcelona/Spain, Turin/Italy and Reims were almost the same length, allowing the participants equal road racing and hill climbing opportunities.
With no. 66 another Mustang (one of the Alan Mann Racing prepared Tour de France 64 cars) participated in the 65 Monte Carlo rallye.


Henri Greder and Delalande in the Solitude of the Rallye Lyon-Charbonniérs

Photo courtesy AUTO Collection N.o.7

They finished first in the Tourism class


Swedish rallye driver Bo Ljungfeldt in a 65 Mustang in the Touring Car Championchip, pictured in Sweden


Photo courtesy Tord Jönsson/Sweden

Mustangs and Falcons in the BRSCC at Brands Hatch/UK early Jan.1966 
(27. Dec. is written on the backside of the pic, but that race was cancelled)

Photo copyright Wolfgang Kohrn (former Rob de la Rive Box collection) 

The British Touring car championship was another area, where Mustangs carved their glory into the pavement. The white Mustang was entered here in this race by Roy Pierpoint, the other one hidden is Sir Gawaine Baillie's . The green Fastback in front belonged to Ken Baker.


Henri Greder and Martial Delalande (F) in the Monte Carlo rallye 1966

Photo copyright Wolfgang Kohrn (former Rob de la Rive Box collection)

 

In the 35th. Monte Carlo rallye 1966 Henri Greder was a star, showing his driving skills with this 1966 Mustang hardtop during the rallye from Reims to Monaco. The rallye started on 14th. January and ended on the 22nd and coincided with one of the coldest winter and heavy snow. In 1966 the rallye started from eight european capitals (Lisbon, London, Oslo, Minsk, Warsaw, Reims, Athens and Monte Carlo). In this year however they did not met in Chambery, but raced in 8 groups directly to Monte Carlo. The Principality of Monaco had requested that more cars should show up in Monaco and forced the teams to set up headquarters there (for good business and better publicity for Monaco).
Distances of about 1800 miles with a low average speed of 26mph between the various control points made up the total rallye with many winding roads. Ford sent 5 Lotus Cortinas (3 entered by Ford England and two by Alan Mann Racing). Drivers were Peter Proctor, Bo Ljungfeldt, Roger Clark, Elford and the Swedish ice champion Soderstrom. There were some private Ford Cortinas as well, some factory supported german Ford 12M and 20TS and last but not least our hero Henri Greder in his Mustang. In fact 164 cars out of the 192 starters made it to Monaco. From there one rallye section included the same route as in 1965 from Monaco-Chambery-Monaco. 86 saw the finishing line after that heavy-duty-race, only 37 remained unpenalized. Henri Greder finished on 5th place behind 2 Minis, the Cortina of Lungfeldt and the third factory Mini. The final section saw another 400km section, where the Minis improved their places. Politics made it happen that all Minis and the Cortinas were disqualified after the last race due to their lights with iodine-vapor bulbs, a fact that was not known and not informed to the british teams. This decision caused much anger and the Monte Carlo Rallye 1966 was called later the Monte Fiasco rallye.
Henri Greder was a very successful Mustang racer of the Ecurie Ford France. In 1965 he already won 9 french touring car races with a Mustang (co-driver Martial Delalande, Beaumont, Rives). His affiliation with Mustangs started at the Tour de France 1964, while he was driving a Galaxy already in 1963 (9th place with Foulgoc (F)in the TdF).With start no. 184 the Mustang mastered even snowy road mountains, one of the many challenging sections of this famous road rallye. Henri finished 6 french races in 1966 seeing the checkered flag as a winner, 5 of them with co-driver Beaumont.


Johnny Halliday, the famous singer in the 36th. Monte Carlo rallye 1967

Photo copyright Wolfgang Kohrn (former Rob de la Rive Box collection)

 

Johnny Halliday was a famous singer back in those heydays of real music. Real stompin' music could be heard in Mustangs for sure. As Johnny must have loved the V8-music, he took over the steering "knob" of this 1967 Mustang during the rallye from Reims, where 58 competitors of total more than 200 started to Monaco. Starting at 9.34 a.m. on 14.Jan. 1967 each of them left with a one minute delay. That makes almost one hour difference between the first and the last starter. Police officers are keeping an eye on his fans in the above picture, while they are trying to get autographs. Co-driver Henri Chemin. Henri Chemin was the french Ford Public Relations manager from 1962 to 1969. He was a very skilled rallye driver as well and kept some championship titels in the french touring cars class ... on Chryslers. Read on! It was his idea to promote the Mustang with famous singers or celebreties. Among those VIPs were Francois Hardy, Vadim, Sheila, Claude Francois. According to Henri Chemin, Johnny Halliday was a real skilled driver, as he had the same "force" and "heart" like champions have.
Note the big honking horn behind the grill and additional fog or high-beam lights below the bumper. Johnny also seems to have a kind of pillow at his back. Interesting convenience option. The Mustang hardtop with a 390 cui engine had the no. 105 on its doors. During one "etappe" a broken rear axle was successfully changed during the night.

Left photo courtesy Christian Bonnemaison et Auto Collection n.o.7 - Right photo courtesy Mustang Club de France


In 1967 Henri Chemin participated also in the Targa Florio in a Shelby with start no. #38, that was unfortunately totally destroyed during this race. If anybody knows the Shelby VIN of that car, please help.

Bo Ljungfeldt and his 67 Shelby notchback at the R.A.C. Tourist Trophy, Dutton Park (UK), 29th. May 1967

Photo copyright Wolfgang Kohrn (former Rob de la Rive Box collection)

Bo Ljungfeldt was one of the first european FORD rallye drivers. With great experience in various Falcons, Cortinas and finishing the Monte Carlo 1964 rallye 2nd overall, he also won amongst others the Circuit de Karlskoga in 1965 in a Mustang. Later he got this Shelby built notchback (#8) via FoMoCo Sweden for his private rallye practice. An interview with Bo was published 1980 in Wheels magazine and in 1990 in the Shelby American. According to this this car was entered into several races between June and October 1967 and Bo was successful in most of these races. The May, 29th. event in UK must have been the first race, where this Shelby notchback was entered. The pictured car was later loaned to Ford Denmark and driven by Tom Belso, who rolled it in a norwegian race. It was then purchased by FoMoCo Norway, repaired and raced through the 70ies, until it was converted for street use and moved through a series of owners. Today it is still in Norway and restored to Shelby racing specs of that time. Owner Bjorn Djonne. (some text passages from the Shelby American #66)

The same car racing in Sweden

Above pictures courtesy Tord Jönsson/Sweden

Martin and Hanrioud in the Rallye des Routes du Nord 1967


Photo courtesy Automobil Collection No.7
 
Routes du Nord 1967

Driver Massoneri with a '67 in the hillclimb race Uray

Photo courtesy Urs Hauenstein
Uray 7.9.1968

The Ecurie Felippinetti participated in this hillclimbing race with driver Massoneri from Dijon/France. The race took place on 7. September 1968. The 1967 Mustang Hardtop has the licence no. 435 K221. More about the Ecurie on our club website. Whoever knows more about this Mustang or the driver, please contact me by e-mail


Martin and Hanrioud in the Rallye des Routes du Nord 1967


Photo courtesy Automobil Collection No.7
 
Routes du Nord 1967

An early Mustang in the Course de Troumousse, August 1971


Photo courtesy Automobil Collection No.7
 Routes du Nord 1967

Malte Huth and his 1965 Shelby in Hillclimb and airport races

Photo copyright Wolfgang Kohrn/Malte Huth
Schauinsland-Rennen in FreiburgHillclimbing race in RoßfeldAirport race in Innsbruck. Later in this race the car went off the road and a fire caused some damage to the car

Malte Huth was 20 years old back in 1965, but he was fortunate enough to have a rich father, who financed his motorsport career. The father - Wilhelm E. Huth was a good friend of Lucky (Lloyd) Cassner. Lucky was a race driver as well. He won the 1000km race of the Nürburgring beginning of the 60ies with Masten Gregory on a Bird-Lager-Maserati. Lucky Cassner was a real playboy of that time. He sold everything, cars, wom....o.k. stop here. Wilhelm E.Huth ordered and paid an original R-Shelby GT 350 via Lucky, but when the airplane arrived with the Shelby, he received a "normal" S-Shelby. Not so good friend Lucky. However the car was already modified, when son Malte took the wheel in his hands. Note the radiused fender lips. The car came with US licence plates (WD-...), then was initally licenced for a Berlin army guy (higher rank), later it was driven with german licence plates such as the pictured STA-M620 for Starnberg. So it was still street approved. Malte won many races with this car. We have had an interview with him in one of our club magazines, where he mentioned some of his experiences and thrilling challenges with the Porsches of that era, plus we have a video of his car at a 65 hillclimbing race. Good times unfortunately went by. The car was later sold to the Ford Schwabengarage. If you have any further information on the whereabouts of this car, let me know.


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