‘That Ferrari has become iconic, the most famous 512 in existence, and yet it never won a race!’
– David Hobbs

Porsche dominated the 1970 International Championship for Makes with the ultra-light 908/3 and the legendary 917. Ferrari started the year with high hopes for its 512 S which, on paper at least, looked to be a match for the 917. But it didn’t play out that way. The Ferrari only won a single championship race, the 12 Hours of Sebring. That led to the works team parking the 512 S and its evolution, the 512 M, for the 1971 season and instead focussing on the 312 PB that had been planned for 1972 and 1973. The 25 512s were now available for customer teams – and the 512 M run by Roger Penske in the beautiful Sunoco blue would become the most famous of them all.

American auto tycoon Roger Penske has succeeded in almost every category there is. IndyCar, NASCAR, Supercars, Trans-Am, Can-Am, the American Le Mans Series and even, for a short time, Formula 1. He has also run cars in the world’s biggest sports car races. As early as 1969, he entered a Lola T70 Mk3 at both the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring. Penske won at Daytona with Mark Donohue and Charlie Parsons before retiring at Sebring with suspension damage. On the trip home from Sebring to Penske HQ, the car was stolen from the transporter, ruining the plan to race at Le Mans.

The Penske-Ferrari project

In 1970 Kirk F. White was the biggest dealer of automotive exotica in the US. His dealership was in Philadelphia, but also had branches in Miami, Indianapolis and Berkley, and specialised in Ferraris. Not far from his West Philly dealership was the Chevrolet dealership run by a young Roger Penske. Penske met White through his brother David. He suggested running a car in the International Championship for Makes with support from customers and sponsors. White loved the idea and set about finding people who would be interested in being involved…

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by Thomas Nehlert

Photographs: Motorsportimages, Michael Keyser, Bernard Cahier

Forty years ago Jean Rondeau created a stir at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, becoming the first driver to win the world’s most famous endurance race in a car he’d built himself. The success, unique to this day, was a result of the enormous passion Rondeau had for his hometown race, and the tireless energy put into the technical implementation of the project.

Rondeau’s dreams of taking part in the 24 Hours of Le Mans started with his parents. His mother watched the race for the first time in 1923 and was fascinated by the speed of the cars and the bravery of the drivers. She was intrigued by how the teams were able to compete across such a long race, all day and night, sometimes in difficult weather conditions. For instance, that 1923 race, held on a partially unpaved track, took place in the rain. Rondeau’s father often took him to the race, his first visit when he was three. Sports journalist Michel Bonté, who wrote the biography Jean Rondeau: Une Histoire d’Hommes 1946–1985 [xx Titel kursiv], was told by Rondeau’s mother how fascinated her son was with the race, the cars and the drivers. Little wonder he was so determined to become a racing driver and compete at the classic endurance event in his hometown.

As a child Rondeau would be there for scrutineering at the Place des Jacobins in the week before the race, watching as the cars were weighed and measured. As he stood there among the cars and drivers, he didn’t miss a thing. The young technophile didn’t need a ticket, either – he knew the place like the back of his hand, so he knew where the action was.

The early death of his father hit Rondeau hard when he was 13, to the point that he missed the 1959 race. More serious were the temporary problems at school caused by the tragic experience. But he pulled himself together and stayed focussed on his goal of becoming a racing driver. And he continued to watch the 24-hour race every year. While he didn’t have any technical training, he took in every detail of each car’s design…

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by Jean-Marc Teissedre

Photographs: Jean-Marc Teissedre, Bernard Cahier, Bernard Beaumesnil, Christian Courtel

When this Lotus 18 (chassis 908) turned up at an auction in Aachen, Germany, in 1996 and was bought by Dutch Lotus collector Olav Glasius, it was painted green with yellow wheels and was missing its engine, gearbox and chassis plate. During the initial restoration in the Netherlands, the original white-and-blue livery, the Camoradi colours, was found under the green paint.

Peter Denty later took the Lotus to the UK for a more comprehensive restoration and had it fitted with a 2.5-litre Coventry Climax FPF engine running twin 58 DCO 3 Weber carburettors, and a Colotti T32 gearbox. The car featured at a number of motor shows, such as Essen and Maastricht, and Glasius put Simon Diffey in the car at Goodwood. In 2012 Glasius sold his Lotus collection at a Bonhams auction, but the Lotus 18 only found its way to its current owner in 2015.

‘Restoring a historically valuable car to its original glory and bringing it back to the paddock and the racetrack, that’s what really excites me,’ says the current owner, who’s been involved in historic racing for 25 years. ‘The real attraction is being able to drive a car that raced in a real grand prix in 1961. That’s a great honour. And it’s a lot of fun as well. We want to rebuild the Lotus to perfection both technically and visually. A car without compromise.’

Expanding on the restoration, the owner says: ‘We were faced with the huge challenge of overhauling the car from the ground up, each individual component, so the car is back in the condition it was in 1961. I entrusted this mammoth project to James and Peter Denty, who have done excellent work for me on various Lotus and Brabham projects over the past 20 years.’

Peter Denty, a mechanic for various teams in formula racing in the 1960s and 1970s, has long been considered a Lotus specialist. His workshop near Snetterton is described by the owner of the ex-Camoradi Lotus as ‘traditionally English’ – simple, unassuming and old-fashioned. Denty has a huge archive of original drawings and original spare parts, and also manufactures his own spares. He works closely with Clive Chapman’s team on Lotus restorations. One of Denty’s mechanics worked for Japanese driver Satoru Nakajima when he was Ayrton Senna’s and Nelson Piquet’s teammate at Camel Team Lotus Honda. At the time the team was based at Kettering Hall. Today, Classic Team Lotus can be found at Hethel, just 20 miles from Denty’s workshop…

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by Jacob Queissner

Photographs: Alexander Babic, Unbekannt, Revs