Following Ford's withdrawal from sports car racing in 1967, John Wyer Automotive (JWA) was handed the reigns of the GT40 program. With backing from Gulf Oil, the small team also raced the GT40 and GT40-based Mirage M1 prototype with great success, winning Le Mans outright twice with a GT40. Rule changes, however, rendered the big-bore sports cars virtually obsolete, so a brand new machine was planned for the 1969 season. Known as the Mirage M2, the compact machine had been designed by Len Terry of Lotus and Eagle fame. Despite his close ties with Ford, John Wyer was unable to obtain Cosworth DFV engines for the new project, so he had to make do with BRM's readily available V12. This proved the car's weak spot, and only late in 1969 with a DFV finally fitted did the rebadged Mirage M3 become victorious. It was too late as for 1970, Porsche acquired JWA's services to run a team of 917s. The Mirage prototypes were retired and have only rarely been seen since. In the past year, we have been fortunate enough to see both a BRM-powered M2 and a Cosworth-engined M3, which has allowed us to tell this fascinating story.
With less than two weeks to go until the show opens, Geneva news has been hitting our desk every day. Yesterday it was Bugatti that grabbed our attention with the Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport Vitesse. Effectively an open version of the mighty Super Sport, this is due to be the most powerful production roadster ever built. This morning BMW announced the BMW Concept M135i, which combines the twin turbo straight six engine with the hatchback version of the 1-series body. Although still labelled a concept, we expect this car to hit the showrooms sooner rather than later. Celebrating the company's 100th anniversary, Bertone released more renderings of the upcoming Nuccio Concept. Still an unmistakable tribute to the 'wedge', these latest pictures do show the car to be not quite as wild as the early sketches suggests.
Enjoy the links:
2012 Bertone Nuccio Concept - Images, Specifications and Information
2012 BMW Concept M135i - Images, Specifications and Information
1969 Mirage M2 BRM - Images, Specifications and Information
1969 Mirage M3 Cosworth - Images, Specifications and Information
2012 Toyota FT-Bh Concept - Images, Specifications and Information
2012 Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport Vitesse - Images, Specifications and Information