Welcome to the HEC III press room. Below please find a selection of recent feature publications. If you require additional information other than what is provided on this page, please contact: gtcmirage@aol.com
Phil Hill: A Driving Life: By Phil Hill and John Lamm
Though he’s best remembered as the first American Formula One champion and a three-time Le Mans winner, Phil Hill (1927-2008) also enjoyed a long career as an automotive writer. Hill was a regular contributor to Road & Track magazine, writing vivid, first-person accounts of his experiences driving everything from the earliest horseless carriages to the most modern road and race cars. Phil Hill: A Driving Life gathers the best of these stories, each of them accompanied by dazzling photographs from Hill’s friend and colleague John Lamm
The Ferrari Phenomenon By Matt Stone and Luca Dal Monte An Unconventional View of the World’s Most Charismatic Cars
How much do you really know about Ferrari, the world’s coolest, most exciting carmaker? Why did Enzo Ferrari favor purple ink for all of his personal correspondence? Why didn’t Mario Andretti ever become a full-time Ferrari driver? Which Hollywood actress inspired a shade of silver paint that is still available from Ferrari today? And where’s the best place for an authentic meal when you’re visiting Maranello?
Mario Andretti, John Wyer, John Horsman, Michael Andretti and Cluxton at Le Mans in 1982.
Harley Cluxton Honored
Harley Cluxton, member of the Road Racing Divers Club and longtime entrant of the Le Mans-winning Mirage team, will soon be named Honour Member No. 1 of the prestigious International Club des Pilotes des 24 Heures du Mans. Cluxton—a race driver who at 26 became the youngest exclusive Authorized Ferrari Dealer in the U.S.—was selected by the Board of Directors of the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO), as its first Honour Member in its renewed effort to reestablish the elite organization that was founded in 1953. The ACO, which originated the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1923 and has sanctioned it ever since, is honoring those teams and team leaders whose achievements and successes have contributed to the spirit, the legend and the living tradition of the race.
Some background: With help from multiple Le Mans-winning team manager John Wyer, Cluxton, who raced for the Ferrari factory team and NART (North American Racing Team), purchased the assets of the Gulf Research Racing Company in 1975. The acquisition included the Mirage team and all associated manufacturing rights to the Mirage marque. After hiring John Horsman as the team's Director of Racing, Cluxton moved the operation to Arizona in 1976. As a Group 6 Prototype entrant, and later a Group C Prototype entrant, Cluxton continued successfully contesting the Mirages at Le Mans as a two-car team. With Wyer's counsel and Horsman's direction, the Mirages won in 1975 and finished 2nd overall in 1976 and 1977. From 1974 to 1978, the Mirages never finished outside of the top-10, posting a 1st, two 2nds, a 3rd, a 4th a 5th and a 10th.
Among the drivers who raced for Cluxton's Mirage team were RRDC members Mario Andretti, Michael Andretti, Derek Bell, David Hobbs, John Morton, Sam Posey and Vern Schuppan, as well as Jean-Pierre Jaussaud and Jacques Laffite.
"It is quite an honor to be named the Honour Member No. 1 of the Club des Pilotes des 24 Heures du Mans," said Cluxton. "Those were magical days during the '70s at Le Mans. As an American and one of only two independent manufacturers to ever win Le Mans after World War II, and to be recognized for our efforts in continuing the Mirage team's success, is really quite humbling."
Cluxton will be formally inducted at this year's running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, June 9-11.
''From Sebring in 1970, Bob Grossman, the longtime Ferrari driver, is in the N.A.R.T. 365 GTB/4, about to be lapped by
race winner Vic Elford in the Martini Porsche 917 owned by Hans-Dieter Dechent. Because of FIA rules, the Daytonas that
year had to run in the same class as the 917s and the Ferrari 512 prototypes. Grossman, teamed with Harley Cluxton,
still finished fifth in class and 12th overall. You see how the Daytona's windows are up? That's because Grossman,
who
had been racing Ferraris since the 1950s, said that in order to run Sebring in his old age, it would have to be in an
air-conditioned car, or so the story went. He was also famous for playing classical music on the stereo, all the way
up
,
during the race. The rule regarding the Daytona was designed to address the few lightweight competition models that
Ferrari had built, but I don't think this was one of them. I think it was a modified road car.''
Feature Article from Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car
As this story and its supporting photos from Hal Crocker will make clear, the Ferrari Daytona, very much a gentleman's GT, had a surprisingly lively existence as a racing car, a role that it was really too heavy and aerodynamically inefficient to play effectively. Regardless, in the early 1970s and lasting until it was supplanted by the 512 Berlinetta Boxer, this was Ferrari's marquee car. It had to get some track cred.
As Hal tells us, through sheer V-12 grunt and some determined driving, the 365 GTB/4 acquitted itself better than anyone from Maranello or anyplace else had any right to expect. It had a portfolio of, largely, slow-and-steady placings driven by reliability when faster, more fragile pure racers hobbled to the paddock. Like many of us, Hal remains a respectful, if somewhat cowed, admirer of the Daytona.
"There were a lot of these that ran in '71, '72. A friend of mine who came into a lot of money owned a photographic studio, went out and bought one of these cars. Just showed up with it one day. He was a really good guy, served on a World War II bomber crew," Hal recalled. "I owned a 911 at the time. I was real excited about the Daytona, but as it ended up, I didn't like the car. It ran like Jack the Bear, but it was an expressway car. Not a road car, in my estimation. But I never reached top end in it. It kind of scared me. I came over a rise and the front end got real, real light. Ned kept it for a while and then got a 911 with a Tiptronic. Then he goes out and buys a Porsche and Volkswagen dealership. I got a great quote from Tony Adamowicz about these Ferraris: 'A beautiful body on a truck chassis.'"
This article originally appeared in the March, 2013 issue of Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car.
March, 2013 - Jim Donnelly
The first complete and fully-authorized book on “una normale” 06885: Ferrari’s 1-off 1965 275 GTB/C Berlinetta Speciale! Told for the first time ever in this full-color fully-illustrated 92-page volume. Introduction by famed owner Preston Henn, with additional detailed stories from previous owner Harley Cluxton, and key participants Al Roberts, Marcel Massini and others. A trove of previously unseen photography, historical text, documents, and memorabilia covering every race, every event, every moment. Without question the first complete and fully accurate account of the life and times of one of the most famous Ferraris ever built: 06885 “the Le Mans legend”!
HAGI invites Harley Cluxton to speak at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business on a variety of subjects pertaining to his experience in the collector car market.
For 48 years Grand Touring Cars, Inc., has been the FIA Manufacturer of LeMans winning Mirage®
Racing Cars and the Registered owner of the trademark Mirage. All rights reserved 2024.
