GT40 Mirage : M1 0001

MIRAGE M1 Chassis M10001

After its 2 wins at Le Mans in 1966 and 67 Ford decided to withdraw its racing program. JWA the manufacturer of the GT40 wanted to continue and developed a lightweight version of the car. As Ford was not involved they renamed their cars Mirage. JWA bought the plans from Alan Mann of its lightweight version (the AMGT1 and 2 cars). A little known fact is that the original Alan Mann project included a narrower cockpit. That solution not used on the AMGT cars for lack of time had been retained by JWA for the M1. With the sponsorship from Gulf Oil they built 3 Mirages M1 for the 1967 season. The M1was not ready for the 2 first races of the season (Daytona and Sebring). They used Grady Davis (Vice president of Gulf Oil) GT40 1049 painted in the Gulf colors (dark blue and orange)
For the Mirages they chose a light blue and orange from the Wilshire Oil (a subsidiary company recently acquired by Gulf Oil).
M10001 and 2 appeared for the first time at the 1967 April Le Mans trials originally with a Mk1 spare wheel cover ( 2 outlets in V shape) They experimented with a Mk2 cover during testing, and the set up was retained for the race.
Both cars retired at Le Mans. Next 2 races for M10001 were in Sweden: at Karlskoga (2nd) and at Skarpnack (winner)
While the sister cars M10002 and 3 were rebuilt as GT40s to comply with the new 1968 regulations M10001 was kept in its Mirage form and was sent to Kyalami in South Africa for the 9 hour race that it won. It was stored at Slough for a year unused until it was shipped again to Kyalami (non championship race) for another win. It was its last race under the Gulf colors. The car was sold to Malcom Guthrie who entered it under its own colors (dark metallic grey with violine stripes)
M10001 was raced at the Norisring and Hockenheim in Europe before being shipped back to South Africa for the Springbok series.
In 1972 the car was sold to a private owner, changed hands several times and can be seen racing in historic events now restored to its Gulf livery.

The Models: