With John Bennoch
WINNER of the 289 V8 Cleveland engine (in #53 Classic Driver) is Tom Peterson, Blenheim
To acknowledge Howden Ganley signing on as a columnist with Classic Driver, our Editor suggested that we feature a model of one of Howden’s race cars. Great idea, but easier said than done! Although Spark has in the past produced a number of miniatures of cars driven by the Hamilton-born F5000, F1 and sports car star (these include his 1972 Le Mans Matra-Simca MS670 and 1973 Mirage M6, plus his 1972 F1 BRM P160B), unfortunately these are all now out-of-stock. Happily we have just received stock of another Matra-Simca – the winning #7 MS670C driven at Le Mans in 1974 by Henri Pescarolo & Gérard Larrousse – so I’ve selected this as our featured model.
The mid-1960s to mid-1970s was a golden age for Mécanique Aviation Traction. During this era both Le Mans and Formula One shared the same 3.0 litre capacity limit, thus allowing Matra to use their powerful and reliable 2993cc 4-cam V12 engine in both forms of racing. In particular, 1972 to 1974 proved incredibly successful for their sports car programme.
In 1972 Matra arrived at Le Mans as favourites, with one M660 and three brand new M670’s, so it was no surprise that the #14 & 15 M670’s found themselves leading the 24 hour race. However, while in front, Ganley’s #14 M670 was hit by another car and had to pit for repairs. This gifted the win to the #15 sister car driven by Henri Pescarolo & Graham Hill, with the Ganley & Cevert car holding on for second place.
1973 saw another strong fourcar Matra line-up for the 24-hour endurance race, and they were rewarded with a win and a third place. This time the winning #11 MS670B was driven by the French pairing of Henri Pescarolo & Gérard Larrousse. I wonder if Howden regretted moving over to Gulf Mirage for the 1973 24-hour race!
Matra again entered a four car team for the 1974 Le Mans, and the result was near identical to the previous year. Again Pescarolo & Larrousse finished first in their #7 MS670C (our featured model), and again another Matra followed them home in third place. This ended a spectacular ‘hat-trick’ of three consecutive wins at Le Mans. At the end of 1974, exactly 10 years after they entered motorsport, Matra withdrew from all racing. They had stated that they would invest 10 years to become world champions – which they did. In fact they scored some 125 victories; a Formula One Championship; a World Championship in endurance racing; plus of course their three consecutive Le Mans wins.
Our featured 1974 Le Mans winner is beautifully produced in injectionmoulded resin, with numerous delicate photo-etched components. With its French roots, Spark obviously has an affinity with this marque, as they have close to 40 different Matra F1 and sports car models within their range.
This high-quality 1:43rd model, along with the rest of the Spark range, is available direct from the SPR Models
nz.. online store, or from specialist hobby shops.
For more information about the Spark, Bizarre, TrueScale, Brumm or ARMCO ranges, phone John on 09-414 5959, or visit www.sprmodels.co.