RE: Ginetta Heads To Le Mans
RE: Ginetta Heads To Le Mans
Friday 5th June 2009

Ginetta Heads To Le Mans

First pics of Le Mans car as British team's debut draws closer


Mind that paintwork, lads...
Mind that paintwork, lads...
These are the first pictures of Ginetta's debut LMP1 Le Mans entry - newly resplendent in a bright orange paint job that was only finished yesterday.

Our friendly insider at Team LNT sent PH these exclusive pictures of the Ginetta Zytek GZ09S earlier this morning, when the paint had dried sufficiently for the car to be loaded onto its truck for the trek south to France.

The racer will be driven by Le Mans veterans Lawrence Tomlinson and Richard Dean who won the GT2 class in 2006 at the wheel of a Panoz, and the pairing will be joined by 'superkid' Nigel Moore who at 17 will be the youngest Brit ever to compete at the 24hr race.

Steady as she goes!
Steady as she goes!
The pics came with the following message attached for PHers travelling to La Sarthe for next weekend's race:

'The car should be easy to spot in the Ginetta orange colours, so there's no excuse not to support our homegrown talent at Le Mans!'




 

 

 

Author
Discussion

Johnpidge

Original Poster:

588 posts

218 months

Friday 5th June 2009
quotequote all
Good luck - something to be proud of in this cr*p country

Patrick1964

746 posts

260 months

Friday 5th June 2009
quotequote all
I'm a bit behing this story - good luck to the team. Is the car a rework of one of the old Reynard chassis ? It certainly looks like it.

Snoggledog

9,255 posts

246 months

Friday 5th June 2009
quotequote all
Hope they do well. What engine are they using though? Info on the Ginetta website seems a little skimpy.

JHS

43 posts

214 months

Friday 5th June 2009
quotequote all
that thing looks mint eek hope they do well in the races thumbup

KrissJ

202 posts

212 months

Friday 5th June 2009
quotequote all
Johnpidge said:
Good luck - something to be proud of in this cr*p country
Haha, here here. laugh

Seriously though, good luck to the team. And as far as the car goes, it's orange and British, therefore, I love it. wink

BoRED S2upid

21,035 posts

269 months

Friday 5th June 2009
quotequote all
Very nice and good luck to them. Just the one car?. That truck didn't look too big, hope reliability holds for them.

piper

309 posts

297 months

Friday 5th June 2009
quotequote all
Ginetta is a great British Specialist Sports Car marque, such happy memories of my G15 in the early 1980's, Fantastic to see for the first time a Ginetta Le Mans entry, I wish them all the best, this needs more publicity with a little reference to their heritage.

Edited by piper on Friday 5th June 13:16

Hansgerd

1,274 posts

313 months

Friday 5th June 2009
quotequote all
Patrick1964 said:
I'm a bit behing this story - good luck to the team. Is the car a rework of one of the old Reynard chassis ? It certainly looks like it.
It's an evolution of the Reynard Reynard 2KQ. When Reynard went bust in 2001 Zytek bought their assets and developed the car further to the 04S.

MaestroDave

150 posts

231 months

Friday 5th June 2009
quotequote all
Good on 'em! Good Luck! We'll be waving our Union Jack in your general direction!

Red Firecracker

5,346 posts

256 months

Friday 5th June 2009
quotequote all
Nice to see some recognition for Ginetta and nice to see a British P1 car not in blooming Gulf colours (even more so now we've lost Creation to the US).

Good luck to LNT & Strakka with their P1 Ginettas and Barazi-Epsilon, Quifel-ASM & G.A.C. with their P2 cars.

Horse_Apple

3,795 posts

271 months

Friday 5th June 2009
quotequote all
For me, this is exactly what Le Mans is all about. Driving all the way to sit in a field with some beer and support a brilliant little British underdog.

I'm sure that it will be the main car that everyone counts round during the night while smoking, drinking stubbies, peeing in hedges and talking rubbish.

Have fun everyone going and good luck to Ginetta.

dandarez

14,010 posts

312 months

Friday 5th June 2009
quotequote all
Watch out Aston (Lola), Audi, Pug and the rest...

You're about to be TANGO'd!!! biggrin

and yes, I'm being serious!

ginV8

153 posts

305 months

Friday 5th June 2009
quotequote all
3 cars are entered but two by Private race teams. Not sure they can compete against the advantaged Diesels sadly.
I have had many rare Ginetta's over the years and its fantastic to see our first entry in LM after 50 years of sports car manufacture.
I love the fact that they are a little bit more exclusive and elusive than the other British names such as TVR, Lotus and Marcos.
Typical question we all get is “Ginetta aren’t they Italian”? NO British and Built in Leeds now!

dandarez

14,010 posts

312 months

Friday 5th June 2009
quotequote all
BoRED S2upid said:
Very nice and good luck to them. Just the one car?. That truck didn't look too big, hope reliability holds for them.
You obviously didn't notice that a Ginetta Zytec LMP1 was on Pole at Barcelona (came 5th). Yep, it's reliable.
Last weekend in British GT the G50Z (Zytec) annihilated the field at Rockingham - Ferrari, Aston, Ascari, Ford GT could not cope with this car. Ginetta are really on the UP in a very big way.

Oh, nearly forgot. No, not one car... FIVE!!!!
2 LMP1, 1 LMP2 and 2 in GT.

Where can I place a bet? (serious again!)


Patrick1964

746 posts

260 months

Friday 5th June 2009
quotequote all
Hansgerd said:
Patrick1964 said:
I'm a bit behing this story - good luck to the team. Is the car a rework of one of the old Reynard chassis ? It certainly looks like it.
It's an evolution of the Reynard Reynard 2KQ. When Reynard went bust in 2001 Zytek bought their assets and developed the car further to the 04S.
I thought so - I was the buyer at Reynard, and did Le Mans twice with them (and seven times with TWR)

asb

4 posts

211 months

Friday 5th June 2009
quotequote all
cracking looking car.....looks as though the brits are going to show strongly this year.....
......but please stop with all this Le Mans......having been for the last 7 years, for one reason of another (something to do with the credit crunch and lost jobs) our team cannot make it this year and needless to say, we are all absolutely f'ing gutted and are already longing for it to be June 2010......not being able to go is probably the hardest thing I have ever had to take, and not to mention now having to spend the time with the wife...!! :-(
All that are going, hope you have a great time.

Red Firecracker

5,346 posts

256 months

Friday 5th June 2009
quotequote all
dandarez said:
Oh, nearly forgot. No, not one car... FIVE!!!!
2 LMP1, 1 LMP2 and 2 in GT.
2 x P1 (LNT & Strakka), 3 x P2 (Barazi-Epsilon, Quifel-ASM & G.A.C.)

Just-In

480 posts

254 months

Friday 5th June 2009
quotequote all
Im behind this all the way, love the Ginettas. I have followed LNT for years now and always thought Lawrence and the guys would be back! Awesome car, fantastic colour (especially for us marshals!)cool

madbadger

11,752 posts

273 months

Friday 5th June 2009
quotequote all
Red Firecracker said:
Nice to see some recognition for Ginetta and nice to see a British P1 car not in blooming Gulf colours.
It's halfway there. Nice dab of blue on the back and it could be done in an hour. wink

Seriously though, Good luck Ginetta! A great effort and will look forward to seeing the cars there.


smile

dandarez

14,010 posts

312 months

Friday 5th June 2009
quotequote all
Bit more of the heritage.
We (Ginetta fans) have waited a bloody long time to get to Le Mans... we should have been there 41 years ago.
Here is the little known story for those outside of Ginetta history.

In 1968 it was Ginetta, not Lotus, who were instigators behind the introduction of tobacco advertising in motorsport.

A done deal with Players for 3 Ginetta G12s at Le Mans was scuppered at the last minute when Lotus got the deal, and the red, white and gold paint was sent out to New Zealand.

How did it happen?
All down to a girlfriend of a Lotus mechanic.
She was working for for Sales Link - the PR arm of John Players. She overhead about the Ginetta deal and tipped off Lotus... the rest is history.


Move over Lotus biggrin


Edited by dandarez on Friday 5th June 14:15