Beschreibung:

The ex-Henri Greder/Umberto Maglioli Le Mans and Tour de France 1968 SCUDERIA FILIPINETTI GROUP 4 CHEVROLET CORVETTE L88 COUPE Chassis No. 194378-S-410300 Red with white nose and racing stripe, sponsors' decals and black interior Engine: V8, pushrod operated overhead valves, four barrel carburetor, 6,998cc (427ci.), 500bhp; Gearbox: M22 close ratio four-speed; Suspension: front, independent by A-arms and coil springs; rear, independent 5-link with transverse leaf spring; Brakes: four wheel power assisted ventilated discs with 4-piston calipers. Left hand drive. Although Chevrolet's 2000 Le Mans Corvette promotion overlooked it in order to hype Corvette's connection with the great Briggs Cunningham, there is an extensive and distinguished Corvette history at Le Mans. Much of it revolves around this very 7-liter 1968 L88 Coupe and a long French fascination with big American cars, particularly Corvettes. The central figures in this story are Henri Greder and Umberto Maglioli. Greder nearly won the 1963 Tour de France in a factory entered Ford Galaxie. This earned Greder a Ford of France ride in a 4.7 liter GT40 at Le Mans in 1966. The performance of FoMoCo's 7-liter Mark IVs demonstrated the possibilities of a powerful, but lazy, 7-liter V8 at Le Mans and in preparation for the 1968 24 Heures du Mans , GM's European promotions director (an up-and-coming Bob Lutz) and Greder approached Swiss racing patron Georges Filipinetti with the idea of building and racing a two-car Corvette team at Le Mans. Filipinetti accepted and two of the fabled L88 Corvette coupes shortly arrived from Detroit, fully race prepared for the 24 Hours under Sora Arkus-Duntov's supervision: one (S/N 401300) for Greder and World gold-medallist skier Jean-Claude Killy and another for Sylvain Garant and Jean-Michel-Giorgi. At the last minute GM vetoed Killy and Umberto Maglioli stepped into the breach. Maglioli had a great reputation that included a long relationship with Ferrari in both Grands Prix and sports cars and an exceptional Mille Miglia record with Lancia, Ferrari and Porsche (for whom Zora Arkus-Duntov had also driven at Le Mans in the early Fifties). He had just won the Targa Florio with Vic Elford in a Porsche 917, and had also won the Carrera Pan Americana in 1954. The Corvette's L88 engine was factory built in the U.S. and supplied to Greder through Zora Arkus-Duntov. Greder, seeking to preserve the engine, fitted very tall 2.56 rear end gears, giving a top speed down the Mulsanne straight of 191mph, but turned in a sub-4 minute lap in testing, proving to be the fastest qualifier in its class. The Corvettes were fast, but suffered from what the French called the ennuis de freins , its brakes not measuring up to the inertia of 1 ½ tons accelerated to nearly 200 mph by the puissance of the Big Block L88. Greder recalls having to brake for the Mulsanne turn at the 500 meter mark. In the 1968 race Greder and Maglioli dominated the Porsche competition until the 6th hour when a carburetion problem melted a piston while they were leading the GT category. Garant crashed the other Corvette in the Dunlop curves in the 14th hour. Returning in 1969, now with Reine Wisell as co-driver (Ronnie Peterson had been slated to share the drive), Greder's M22 'rock-crusher' gearbox endured 16 hours of downshifting, to use engine braking to relieve the brakes' ennuis , before giving up, again while leading the GT category. Following Le Mans Greder placed 6th overall at Magny Cours then in September reprised the Tour de France, a 5,000km marathon over nine days including 11 events at 9 different tracks. The Corvette was prepared in Greder's shops in d'Issy-les-Moulineaux using boxes of high performance parts sent to France by Zora Arkus-Duntov. Despite encountering a constant engine misfire which replacing the carburetor, plugs, wires and even the gas tank didn't cure, Greder and his co-driver Vigneron captured seven of the eleven events (Nürburgring, Rouen, Le Ma