VIC ELFORD

Starts 8 Best result 6th (1973)

Elford was one of the fastest drivers of his era, with a charging comeback drive to victory at the 1968 Targa Florio being perhaps his greatest triumph. He was also a star on the world’s finest circuit, the original Nurburgring.

Not one to play it safe, Elford preferred to opt for the most-potent cars available when it came to Le Mans. That’s why he chose the new and aerodynamically unstable Porsche 917 in 1969, and subsequently stuck with the Langheck (long tail) versions of the five-litre monster when others preferred the shorter tail of the K variant.

He and Richard Attwood dominated much of the 1969 event. They treated the 917 carefully and made it far further than most had predicted, but eventually retired with less than four hours to go. “We treated it with kid gloves,” says the 82-year old. “It lasted longer than expected and it was the bellhousing that cracked. It was so fast – even though it was a bit of a bastard to drive – we were leading by five laps [at one stage].”

The following year, Elford again went for the

Langheck, run by Porsche Salzburg. He took pole at over 150mph and was again in the mix in the race despite rain that negated some of the long tail’s straightline speed advantage.

“[JW Automotive boss, running the works Gulf 917s] John Wyer did not want the long tail,” explains Elford. “No-one wanted it, except me. It was more difficult to drive than the short tail – you had to be more precise. Once you had committed to a line you couldn’t adjust it, but it was 20mph quicker.”

After Jo Siffert’s engine blew, Elford/kurt

Ahrens moved ahead, but then got a puncture and finally broke an inlet valve.

The long tails were sorted by 1971 and the two JWA examples and the Elford/gerard Larrousse Martini car (above) qualified 1-2-3. This time a bolt holding the cooling fan broke while Larrousse was driving. “I felt cheated,” says Elford, who instead watched a short tail win for the second year in a row.

Either side of his 917 efforts, Elford won his class with a Porsche 906 in 1967 and a Ferrari

365 GTB/4 in ’73, but they were the only times he saw the chequered flag.

“Sure it grates, because there were a couple of times I should have had it,” he says. “I believed in the 917 and that we could make it work.”