First Mustang Club Of Germany 1964 - 1973 e.V.
1. Tour - Notizen (from AMS 1964) (sorry, in german language only)
2. Tour de France 1964 - 4CV en France - Full
english version
Updated: 04.02.07
von Julius Weitmann
auto motor und sport 21/1964
Den am raffiniertesten ausgeteilten Rallyedienst organisierte Ford. Sah man die bis zum Platzen gefüllten Ford Kombiwagen, auf den Dächern ein Schweißgerät, umgeben von einem Wust Ersatzreifen, allgegenwärtig bei Tag und Nacht, dann hielten Neid und Bewunderung sich die Waage. Kaum aus dem Parc fermé heraus, wurden die Mustangs in langen Stops wieder fit gemacht. Ihre 4.72 Liter-Maschinen sorgten dafür, daß die weit vorausliegenden Konkurrenten einer nach dem anderen eingeholt wurden und man sich brav wieder in die richtige Reihenfolge einordnen konnte.
Zwischen Albi und Clermont leistete sich Henri Greder mit seinem Mustang ein Husarenstückchen. Wie so oft mußte er wieder eine Reihe Konkurrenten überholen und fuhr wie vom Teufel gejagt an einem Ortseingang auf einen in einer Rechtskurve liegenden Bahndamm los, hinter dem eine Spiltstrecke begann. Linge, der ihm gerade Platz gemacht hatte, ging auf die Bremsen, weil Greder das nie schaffen konnte. Hinter dem Bahnkörper stand er denn auch quer in einer Ecke: hinter sich zu einer Hausfront 10 cm, vor sich zu einem Zaun 5 cm Platz. Normales Drehen war unmöglich. Gewußt wie - inzwischen waren hinter ihm 3 weitere Wagen aufgelaufen - stößt er mit der Kraft seines 4,7 l-Motors rückwärts gegen die Hauswand, dabei alle Lampen variierend, dann voraus gegen den Zaun und das dann noch ein paarmal, bis er sich frei geboxt hatte. Ein Wunder mußte geschehen, sollte dieses Auto Nizza sehen. Es geschah nicht. Auf der Autostrada nach Monza sah man ihn bei seinem letzten Halt in einer riesigen Öllache stehen.
CV is the french abbreviation for cheveaux, synonimous for ponys, so you now may understand the headline a little better. This story includes some background about the worlds most famous rallye event back then in the glorious days of the 60ies - The Tour de France.
Author and copyright: Wolfgang Kohrn
The mixture of rallying, circle tracks and hillclimbing races caused the special outstanding thrill to drivers as well as spectators. However it demanded a well-balanced synergy of experience, technical and driving ambitions and skills as well as healthy and trained body and mind conditions from the participants.
In order to convince european car buyer potential of the sportiveness and reliability of the new Mustang, Ford USA chose its already existing UK connection. Due to very good results with the GT40 project with Ford Advanced Vehicles and success with Alan Mann Racing with the Falcons, e.g. in the Monte Carlo rallye, the selection went easily to England and a professional rallye team and race shop.
Alan Mann already received and modified 19 Falcon Rally Sprints (another source indicates just 8 cars) for use in european rallye events like the Monte Carlo Rallye. The swedish driver Bo Ljungfeldt - a thorough Ford blooded guy - got second there overall and first in the Falcons GT class. When the new Mustang entered the scenery, almost all Falcons were stored and remained 2 years untouched until they were reused in the british Saloon Car race events. In 1967 - just to name one result - the famous Ford race driver Frank Gardner won the British Touring Car Championchip with a Falcon for the Alan Mann team.
The Alan Mann Racing Team was known in the movie industry, too. Sure you know the famous movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. 4 of these extraordinary cars were built together with the boat builder Bates in Chertsey.
I have done an interview with Alan Mann, which you can find here.
According to the Mustang Production Guide by Haskell/Smart 5 Mustang Hardtops with the early serial numbers (VIN) 5F07F100025, 100026, 100030 and 100055 left the factory on March, 9th. 1964 for Europe - the first day of Mustang delivery. But these were not the Tour de France Mustangs. Alan Mann himself claims that he got a first pre-series prototype for testing around February 1964, then later just 2 other Mustangs aside from the 4 TDF-Mustang, of which he used 3 for the actual race entry and one for spare parts. So probably of the first batch only 2 arrived in England, while 2 others went to Ford of France acc. to our ongoing research. Alan Mann entered the first 2 Mustangs in the Liege-Sofia-Liege rallye. Later he prepped the other Mustangs - most probably 5F07K208109, 5F07K208110, 5F07K208111 and 5F07K208112 - for the TDF (one being planned as a back up car). With one surviving car documents, we could meanwhile verify this sequence.
The Ponies were already equipped with the 289 engines from Holmann-Moody and were delivered to England - Surrey to the Alan Mann Racing Team and the team immediately went to work on the suspension and other stuff..
Although the VINs of the early Mustangs indicate the 260 engine - as above mentioned - 289ers were installed in the U.S. already. The engines were well known to the british team from the Falcons. The output was brought up to 285 hp. The suspension was upgraded with bigger stabilizers, a stronger Galaxy rear end, while steering was replaced with another shorter gear ratio.
The Alan Mann team went to France not only with the 4 modified Mustangs, but with some service
cars, that were filled completely with spare parts, even a welding device was mounted on a
top carrier side by side with piles of spare tires. 3 Mustangs were entered by Alan Mann
team itself, the 4th driven by Alan Mann between the races, later used as a spare parts car and parts being dismantled.
The 4th actual TDF race Mustang was piloted by
Henry Greder for the Ford of Europe (France) Team. Its modifications are not yet known in detail, but
Henry has reported of some weak components that gave him no chance compared to the Alan Mann prepped Mustangs.
Still he won the Albi and Auvergne sections, as he told us in early 2007.
(courtesy of Mustang Club de France and "Auto Collection" No.7/1992 published by SNEP/Nanterre)
After the race the winning Mustang was tested thoroughly by the famous journalist
Bernard Cahier:
0-100km/h 7,5s (data approx. corresponding to 0-60mph)
0-130km/h 13,2s
0-160km/h 19,4s
Top-Speed 220-240km/h
The magazines "Sport Auto" and "Moteurs" tested a 15,2 sec. time slip for the 400m (1/4mile)distance. A quite respectful result for the first race Mustangs ever.
Bo Ljungfeldt, Peter Harper, Peter Procter and Henry Greder were those lucky guys, who jumped on the left seats of their race Mustangs. 3 of them (the cars) were painted in red - No. 82 - Bo Ljungfeldt (co-driver Sager), No. 83 - Peter Procter (co-driver Cowan), No. 85 - Peter Harper (co-driver Pollard), No. 84 - Henry Greder (co-driver Rive) with the Mustang being in silver-greyish colour..
The Tour de France consisted of 17 etappes (sections). The total distance of road and circle tracks amounted for 3700 miles or 6000 km, including 10 1/2 hours racing at 9 racecourses. 13 of the 17 sections were won by the Mustangs.
But back to the start. 117 cars started in Lille, special events were to be driven at the race courses at Reims, Rouen, Le Mans, Cognac, Pau, Albi, Auvergne und Monza (Italy). Then the Tour went on via Braus to Nizza, where the trophy was handed over to the winner.
At the circle track race courses the cars mostly started in 3 classes as Touring cars or Gran Turisom (GT) depending on the track. separately or all together devided into cubic classes from 1001 to 1300ccm, 1300 - 1900 or above 1900ccm. The ranking was done in these classes, even if the section demanded to race against each other.
While the lower ccm class consisted of Minis, NSU and Fiats, Abarths as well as Lotus, Cortinas, MG and Alpines, the Mustangs had to race against Jaguar, Volvo, Saab, Citroen, a Galaxy, Lancias, Alfas and others. The big GT-class included Porsche, Daytonas and Ferraris.
The first road section was mainly used for learning about each other. The material was not yet abused to avoid damages and repairs in the initial hours, which would have caused big headaches to the sponsors and team chiefs.
Total race time was limited to 1 hour and the winner would be the one who covered the most miles in this time limit. In the lower ccm class the Minis won while the Mustangs finished 1st, 2nd and 3rd with Procter, Harper, Ljungfeldt in a row. A Galaxy driven by Sir Gawaine Baillie had Problems with its "technical soul" and had to enter the pits during the race.
- The field being race-ready for the course of Reims. Henri Greder up in the front row
with Bernard Consten on Jaguar and Sir Gawaine Bailly in the Galaxy, second and third row
with the Alan Mann prepared red Mustangs, followed by Jaguars, Alfas, BMW, Citroen and
others.
(courtesy of Mustang Club de France and Automobile Classique Special TDF 1998)
- Bernard Consten, Jaguar driver discussing with his competitor and friend Henri Greder
(leaning on his Mustang), race course of Reims
(courtesy of Mustang Club de France and Automobile Classique Special TDF 1998)
In this section the first hill-climbing speed test was included. The drivers had to drive up the mountain for 1 hour.
The Alan Mann Racing Team dominated throughout the race at the hilly landscape of the Rouen race track. Ljungfeldt, Procter, Harper finished again as winners in this order.
In Le Mans all touring and GT cars raced in one race - from the Mini to the Mustang and the GT-class at the same time including Spitfire to Ferraris and Cobra Daytona.
At the third race section - the airport area from Cognac - the Mustangs again could take advantage of their outstanding acceleration performance and were always up in front of the others.
Apart from several through-city route sections, this etappe included a hillclimbing race in the so called Pyrennes (Pyrenn"en). A 20km route up the Col d'Ausbique separated the lighter ones from the heavy metal. In the lower cubic classes the Minis headed the field, surprisingly enough in the big class the Jaguars pointed their rears to the Mustangs. The suspension of the Ponys was the reason for the higher bill Mustang-drivers had to pay at this mountain, as their rear ends swayed heavily to the outside of the turns several times causing the drivers to slow down. Occasionally the cornering looked really dangerous with the Mustang drivers having a decent view down the hill at the edges of the road. At the same time the Ponies had some problems with traction due to the very uneven surface of this road section.
The narrow and tiny route around Pau that also included a road section through the village and passing dangerous walls and tunnels was again dominated by the 4 Mustangs. Leading from start to finish, 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 unallowed help. The 3 others remained undisturbed. Later Ljungfeldt participated again in the race, but without being ranked in his class. When the GT-class started, heavy rain caused big problems for the Porsches and Ferraris.
The following night - after the heavy rain - brought big trouble. Procter und Harper first denied to drive on the wet roads without good street tires - they had still their slicks on the cars and it appeared to be too dangerous. After changing the tires they succeeded to gain better time slips. Henry Greder, who dared to drive with the race tires, lost more than 7 minutes on this road section.
According to a german magazine the 2 1/4 miles circle track of Albi was dominated by Procter up front of Harper and Greder. Henry Greder contacted us to report that indeed he won this race section. A Jaguar finished 4th. Bo Ljungfeldt was no more a race participant. The GT-class saw the Porsches before the Ferarris, but calculating the handicap factors, the Triumph Spitfire of Robbie Slotemaker won at Albi.
In the following public road section Henry Greder happened to be caught between a house wall and a fence after a spectacular driving incident. With just 10cm (4inch) remaining space up front and at his rear end and using his 289 brutal engine power, leaving his headlights and taillights partially behind, he succeeded to get out of this trap, but some of the damage pulled him out of the race on the road to Monza later.
The difficult 5-miles-race course (1 1/2 hour time limit) nearby Clermont-Ferrand was initially headed by a Jaguar followed by our 3 Mustangs, later the Mustangs had some technical problems, which caused them to loose this section. Henry Greder reports, he was up front of the Alan Mann Mustangs. Acc. to an english TDF race video the Triumph of Rob Slotemaker won this etappe in the GT-class.
On the road to Monza Henry Greder was seen stopping and the engine spilling oil underneath the car. That was the end of his race participation..
In the 1-hour-race at Monza nothing special was reported, just that a Renault Alpine was stopped by a big engine damage. Leaving Monza behind, the drivers had to cope with 3 other hill-climbing sections before heading via Chambousse to Nizza on public roads.
A rare photo of the Tour de France cars:
- Famous movie actor Peter Ustinov leaning on Peter Procter's Mustang in front of the studios of Bologna
(courtesy M.Club de France and TdF Special edition 1998 - (photographer Bernard Cahier)
Your curiosity does not end here, right? Some of your questions have already been answered above, but the main question remains. We are happy to have solved a few mystery about the remainders of the TDF cars with the help of Jeffrey Harris, an interview with ex-Alan Mann racing mechanic John Grant and a few more european Mustang enthusiasts like Martin Fokkens.
According to the Mustang Production Guide (Jim Haskell/Jim Smart) most of the Alan Mann Racing Ltd. prepared cars were returned to the U.S. and either sold or used for other special purposes. But that is not really true.Only one went back, the winning car, licence plate DPK7B..
The winning car was thought for a long time to have been tested by some european journalists, among them Bernard Cahier,
Alain Bertaut (Moteurs), José Rosinski (Sport Auto). But indeed we have
statements from team members, that the winning car was ordered back by Ford immediately after the
race. DPK6B was used for the promotional winner car shots, although it was
the second winner.
This winning Tour de France Mustangs DPK7B appeared in April 1965 at the shop of the Comstock Racing Team of Canada. Steve Smith, then editor of "Car & Driver" drove the TDF-Mustang together
with a Comstock Team prepared racing Hardtop Mustang. Steve judged the TDF-cars
performance as being far away from impressive, but he gave some fair comments, as well.
"The Tour de France Mustang was a veteran of not only 1200 miles of flat-out European
rallying, but also of innumerable hours in the hands of enthusiast-type motoring
jornalists. As a result, the car was, to be charitable, clapped out - acceleration times
were not much better, if any, than a hot street car. But its suspension had been worked
over, and we expected better things in the handling department. Unfortunately, wear and
tear had exacted a toll there, too. The rear suspension lurched sideways on its mounts
before and after a corner. Once centrifugal force had taken up the lateral slop, it
cornered well enough, but S-bends were murder. We can't exactly say we loved the car, but
considering that it and its teammates won 13 of the Tour's 17 "speed tests" and
finished one-two in the sedan class, driving it was an enlightening footnote to history.
The Comstock Mustang was a prancing horse of a different color...." (Car and Driver
May 1965/Steve Smith). You may read more about DPK7B here.
The 3rd car (Ljungfeld/Sager #82) has been a mystery for a long time.
We've followed the car for years and finally thanks to Mike Salmon (race driver)
and Martin Fokkens, a dutch racing enthusiast, we've got pics and records of
this long lost car. Read more here
We hope to have more pictures and a story from Henry Greder, who contacted us in
early 2007.
Alex Gabbard - Fast Mustangs
Richard Carlyon - Mustang
R.de la Rive Box - Ford Mustang
Roger W.Hicks - Mustang - Americas Legend
Nickey Wright - Mustang Anniversary Edition
Car & Driver Mai 65
Video Tour de France 1964 out now by BMIHT/UK!
Even more exciting than reading this thrilling article - thank you - this new video will get you right into history. Heritage Motoring Films from good old England (UK) offers this stunning video, unfortunately for you - only in PAL right now, but if you show numerous interest, they sure will think about a NTSC compatible one. The video sequences shows the TDF race from Triumph-drivers Robbie Slotemakers point of view, but our Mustangs got a good dose of coverage, so you will not be disappoinnted.
14,99 Pound Sterling plus 1,95 pound (maybe slightly higher right now) will get you the video. Order by phone at BMIHT in the UK +44/1372 805000. VISA-cards accepted.
If you have any additional information on the TDF Mustangs, your contribution will be very much appreciated. Mail
