The exercise is not easy.
Selected by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest to organise, on the sidelines of the centenary event, an auction of racing cars which have taken part at least once in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, RM Sotheby's limit to 24 lots.
Twenty-four necessarily exceptional vehicles.
We already know five of them.
Two bear the emblem of the prancing horse of the Ferrari house, victorious nine times in the Sarthe, between 1949 and 1965. The first is one of the three barquettes 121 LM that the Maranello craftsman entered in the Sarthe in 1955 , an edition marked by the greatest tragedy that motorsport has ever known.
The disastrous balance will make 84 dead and 120 injured.
Entrusted to Harry Schell and Maurice Trintignant who had won the previous edition with the Argentinian Froilan Gonzales,
the 121 LM chassis #0546 LM retired.
The Italian tray was then to be sold to an American and continue his sporting career on the other side of the Atlantic.
It is an important piece of the manufacturer's history, estimated between 5.5 and 6.5 million euros.
The other confirmed model of the Italian brand has seen the arrival.
This is the Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona that the American NART team had modified into a competition version to meet group 4 regulations in 1971. At the wheel of this berlinetta, Bob Grossman and Luigi Chinetti Jr did not not just won the GT class.
The two Americans placed their Daytona in fifth place, in the wake of the Porsche 917 and Ferrari 512 prototypes. Quite a performance.
Lancia LC2 1984. Simon Clay ©2022 Courtesy of RM Sotheby's
Another confirmed Italian: a Lancia LC2.
Responding to the Group C category, this prototype was aiming for victory in the 1984 edition. At the wheel of this chassis #005 car, Alessandro Nannini and Bob Wollek led the race for a long time before retiring.
This prototype is eligible in the races organized by Patrick Peter.
For the moment, the most recent of the 24 lots is a Nissan R90 CK entered in the Sarthe in 1990. Driven by three Japanese, Masahiro Hasemi, Kazuyoshi Hoshino, Toshio Suzuki, the Japanese prototype powered by a 3.5-litre V8 turbo was to rank 5th overall.
Finally, the fifth confirmed vehicle is one of the A210 prototypes that the Alpine craftsman entered in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1967. This vehicle is eligible for Le Mans Classic.
1967 Alpine A210. Kevin Van Campenhout ©2022 Courtesy of RM Sotheby's
