NZ attack on Le Mans 1996? Any info?

[RSZWEI]

Does anyone have any stories/photos on the 1996 New Zealand challenge at Le Mans?
The drivers I know that were in the team were Greg Murphy and Bill Farmer. Im unsure who else drove?
The car they raced was a Porsche 993 GT2.

Any information would be grateful.

[Powder]

Does anyone have any stories/photos on the 1996 New Zealand challenge at Le Mans?
The drivers I know that were in the team were Greg Murphy and Bill Farmer. Im unsure who else drove?
The car they raced was a Porsche 993 GT2.

Any information would be grateful.

Some more info on who drove here:
http://www.racingsportscars.com/photo/1996/Le_Mans-1996-06-16-071.jpg
http://www.racingsportscars.com/photo/1996/Le_Mans-1996-06-16-083.jpg

I think it was well covered by Speedsport magazine at the time. I'll check tonight which are the relevant issues. I've probably got spare copies if you're interested.

Edit: Speedsport No.66, Feb '96, has 5 pages.
Speedsport No.67, Mar '96, has 7 pages on their Daytona 24hr effort.
Speedsport No.70, Jun '96, has 4 pages.
Speedsport No.71, Jul '96, has 5 pages.
Speedsport No.72, Aug '96, has 6 pages.

[John B]

New Hardware Racing / Parr Motorsport entered two 3600cc turbo Porsche 993 GT2s at the Le Mans 24-hour in 1996 (to celebrate the Kiwi 'one & two' at Le Mans thirty years earlier).

The #71 car driven by Bill Farmer (NZ), Greg Murphy (NZ) and Robert Nearn (GB) finished a commendable 14th.

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The #83 car driven by Andrew Bagnall (NZ), Stéphane Ortelli (F) and Andy Pilgrim (GB) finished 17th. Owen Evans was scheduled to be one of the drivers of this car, but two weeks earlier he crashed his Porsche while setting the NZ Land Speed Record on Goudies Road, Reporoa.

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Bill Farmer often talks about the 1996 Le Mans race, and is still extremely proud of what the Kiwi team achieved.

[beowulf]

From memory, (Unreliable) I think that Richard Lester was involved with this effort. The team did exceptionally well. Richard is a member of TRS so may pick up this thread.

[Grant Ellwood]

From memory, (Unreliable) I think that Richard Lester was involved with this effort. The team did exceptionally well. Richard is a member of TRS so may pick up this thread.

Rich probably organised the logistics, cetainly was a great effort from a Kiwi team. Wayne Renner (Tauranga) was a crew member and (I think) rounded up some sponsorship, Wayne or Rich would be able to provide all the details. My old company (Flamecrusher) provided the driver and crew apparel.

[seaqnmac27]

#71 was Murphy, Farmer and Robert Nearn, #83 was Stephane Ortelli Andy Pilgrim and Andrew Bagnall

This site http://www.lemans-history.com/equipas.php?ano=1996 gives full details including hour standings.

[John B]

From the sponsorship on the cars, it looks like a lot of New Zealand companies supported the 1996 Le Mans effort...

> New Hardware Clothing
> Giltrap Motor Group
> Destinations Unlimited (Allan Bremner from the Porsche Club)
> Flamecrusher

Another nice touch was the "Le Mans 1966 - Chris Amon - Bruce McLaren" tribute on the roof of the cars.

This is 1:43rd Vitesse model of the #83 car driven by Andrew Bagnall (NZ), Stéphane Ortelli (F) and Andy Pilgrim (GB). Overall, not a bad model, but it is a shame they spelt Bagnall's name incorrectly. You'll note that Owen Evan's name appears on the car, although of course he didn't drive!

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[Powder]

From the sponsorship on the cars, it looks like a lot of New Zealand companies supported the 1996 Le Mans effort...


Another sponsor, Klondike, sold gold & silver coins and had 7500 coins minted to raise money for the team. I've never seen one to hold, although there was one on TradeMe a year or two ago, asking price around $1k if I remember correctly.

Edit: I've just tracked down the old TradeMe listing and it says "This is the rarest of the Klondike series as very few were actually minted."... I'll stop looking down the back of the couch.
http://www.trademe.co.nz/antiques-collectables/coins/other/auction-265185965.htm

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At the Auckland Motor Show, Nov'95.
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[Roger Dowding]

Have the same model, didn't realise that Owen Evans, wasn't there as mentioned, remember when I first joined Northern Sports Car Club in 1966 ,( my Uncle Ed Dowding was a founding member [ during WW11 ] and Club Captain, ) that Laurie Evans, Owens Dad was one of the stalwarts of the club and very serious about Trials, as was his mate Colin Waite, and Rob Williams, Rob still runs a Formula Junior at Historics in NZ, and Colin did too [ a Stanguellini - Fiat engine ] Rob built me a custom exhaust system for my first car a 1960 Mini [ in 1966 ] using a Ferguson Tractor muffler and a straight pipe, how happy was this 19 year old at the time, lots of noise and Twin 1/1/4 inch SU's as well. 850 cc with Jolly Wide Wheels on the front. a Cooper sticker in the back window, as an aside, have just found the Auckland Car Club magazine 1972 40th Anniversary Edition, amongst my collection, amazing recollections of motoring from the 1930's to 1972.

[John McKechnie]

Is this the same Rob Williams-had/has panel Shop in Glen Eden- that ran a 1939 Ford V8 Coupe at Club events and had it at the Leadfoot recently?

[Oldfart]

Yes John

[ElCoyote]

From memory, (Unreliable) I think that Richard Lester was involved with this effort. The team did exceptionally well. Richard is a member of TRS so may pick up this thread.

Nothing wrong with your memory, Richard went several months earlier to set up the logistics and engineering with obvious results. I recall that Own had qualified the car but there was some difficulty getting an alternative driver in the seat due to politics. With the consent of other teams it was accomplished. Bill is a legend as an orator which helped.

[Powder]

I recall that Own had qualified the car but there was some difficulty getting an alternative driver in the seat due to politics.

I'm not sure how Owen's replacement, Stéphane Ortelli, was rated in 1996 but he won Le Mans outright in 1998 and was arguably Porsche's No.1 driver in the early 2000's so Bill Farmer certainly chose wisely. Apart from the Le Mans win Ortelli's best performance came at the 2003 Spa 24hr race where his N-GT Porsche (ie, not a top class car) qualified 22nd and won the race outright by 8 laps. I wish I'd had some money on that result.

[John B]

Have the same model, didn't realise that Owen Evans, wasn't there as mentioned...

Hi Rog. Yes, Owen was a bit too busy to race. He was recovering from his 300+kph crash.

Bill Farmer is still a little 'disappointed' that Vitesse decided to produce a 1:43rd model of the #83 Bagnall car, but didn't model his #71 car.

[Steve Holmes]

Wow, was that REALLY 17 years ago! Scary stuff. I'm suddenly feeling old(er).

[richard lester]

Nothing wrong with your memory, Richard went several months earlier to set up the logistics and engineering with obvious results. I recall that Own had qualified the car but there was some difficulty getting an alternative driver in the seat due to politics. With the consent of other teams it was accomplished. Bill is a legend as an orator which helped.

i didnt realise how long it has been since having a look here.Bill and i met in 1994 to plan the le mans attack...it also involved bill getting up to speed license wise ,hence he did some F/vee for national license status and then embarked on the formula holden campaign to get his correct international license sorted.....i went to the Uk in 1995 to meet the new car at Parr motorsports shop south of london and after a brief shakedown at snetterton where the pristine red gt2 was backed into the tyres by paul edwards(short lived co driver)..we embarked into races at Donnington and Monthlerey as part of the BPR series and then sent her to Suzuka for the 1000km race.i also attended the full 10x days that is lemans in 95 to do a full recce of all aspects of the event.
we brought her back to NZ and fully freshened at my workshop in palmerston north prior to Bill and Owen battling in support races at the international asia pacific formula holden event at manfeild.
off then to Daytona for the 24hr with my 2x race spanners and linked up with parr motrosport guys....beleive it or not we were running 3rd outright at 16 hours when the engine went bang(thats another story).i remember doing live crossovers with i think Deaker as all of a sudden we were News as we ran near the front.
then we packed up mechanics /kids/nanny etc and moved to Surrey near the parr workshop and my boys ran Bills car and the poms ran the white car....we did monza/Jarama/lemans qually/silverstone and then the 24hr and we had generally great success with our pro-am driver line up against a couple of GT2's with factory drivers as now...
then boom it was over ...car rebuilt and given to new owner and we packed up and came home.
thats a fairly short overview...
i still have all the folders with lapcharts/results/notes etc etc.

[Steve Holmes]

Richard, great analyses of events. Does anyone know where the Porsche is now? Has Bill ever considered getting it back just for sentimental reasons?

[richard lester]

Richard, great analyses of events. Does anyone know where the Porsche is now? Has Bill ever considered getting it back just for sentimental reasons?
the car is in the US apparently....running in the le mans livery as we ran it....the owner messaged Jono on facebook a while ago when we had put some photos up.

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks Richard, I'd love to see some pics of it now.

[richard lester]

From the sponsorship on the cars, it looks like a lot of New Zealand companies supported the 1996 Le Mans effort...

> New Hardware Clothing
> Giltrap Motor Group
> Destinations Unlimited (Allan Bremner from the Porsche Club)
> Flamecrusher

Another nice touch was the "Le Mans 1966 - Chris Amon - Bruce McLaren" tribute on the roof of the cars.

This is 1:43rd Vitesse model of the #83 car driven by Andrew Bagnall (NZ), Stéphane Ortelli (F) and Andy Pilgrim (GB). Overall, not a bad model, but it is a shame they spelt Bagnall's name incorrectly. You'll note that Owen Evan's name appears on the car, although of course he didn't drive!

17876178771787817879

we left owens name on the car as a tribute.....we actually discussed the whole land speed thing over a few beers at le mans qualifying in april....it was suggested by some that after le mans could be a good time to do the record run as owens profile may be bigger if we do well...but was too late to change planning by then...
we than had the issue of owen having qualified the white car and for a short while the whole entry was in doubt.....by moving Stefan ortelli out of the red car with bill and greg fixed that as he had driven the white car during qually day(which by the way was open track from i think 10am until about 4 or 5 pm with single lap time counting).
the problem was fixed but we were weakened somewhat by having Robert Nearn(capable journeyman and son of the then caterham car company owner) replace Ortelli....with greg and ortelli along with Bill we had two drivers with real speed and bill was competent enough to do a good job as well...
the white car actually stayed close for a good part of the race but lost each side turbo in quite close succession....i remember the boys changed the second turbo failure in 20 mins...and we also lost the rear window when the rattle gun line hooked over the wing and the gun went straight thru the plastic...we taped another in double quick...

[John B]

Thanks for all the insider information Richard. Bill's a great guy, and a great story teller, and often talks about the Le Mans campaign at Porsche Club lunches etc, but he hasn't mentioned some of the details that you've shared with us.

In fact in Bill's version of events he came up with the idea; planned the entire campaign; raised the funds; built the cars; and did all the driving single-handed! And each year he tells the story, the finishing position improves and the top speed increases!! Mind you, that is after a few beers. Oh shit - hope Bill doesn't read this!

[billfnz]

Hi, Bill Farmer here. John Bennoch has asked I comment and give some insight into the campaign. I will also dig out some photos and post the same. The Drivers were myself, Stephanne Ortelli, Robert Nearn, Owen Evans, Andy Pilgrim, Andrew Bagnall and Greg Murphy. The race at Le Mans was the culmination of a 20 month campaign to commemorate the 30th Anniversary of the Ford entry with New Zealanders Bruce McLaren, Denny Hulme and Chris Amon. The team was run by Richard Lester and ably assisted by Parr Motorsport in the UK - a company owned and still involved in Porsche motorsport by Paul Robe. Other events in the lead up included races in the BPR championship throughout 1995, the 1000km at Suzuka and the 24 Hour race at Daytona.

I look forward to posting more soon, Bill.

[Malcolm McLeod]

Aw, that will be really neat, Bill! I look foward to seeing it.