Mirage (race car)
Automotive Engineereing (JWAE) at Slough in England, initially to compete in international sports car races in the colours of the Gulf Oil Corporation.
Mirage is one of only two independently constructed racing car marques (the other is Rondeau) to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans overall since the post-World War II return of the Grand Prix d’Endurance in 1949.
John Wyer bought an old project by Len Bailey, an English designer, which aimed to improve the aerodynamics, mass and suspensions of the Mk Is.
The highlight of the M1's short racing career was without doubt the victory in the 1967 Spa-Francorchamps 1000 km by Jacky Ickx and Dick Thompson in chassis M.1003.
The M2 was built in 1968 for the new 3 Litre Group 6 Prototype class, but the BRM V12 powered cars were rarely raced and met with no success.
[5] After competing with Porsche 917s during the 1970 & 1971 seasons, JWAE developed the new Ford Cosworth powered M6 model to race as a Group 5 Sports Car in the new World Championship for Makes from 1972.
At the end of the 1971 season big "5-liter sports cars" like Porsche 917 and Ferrari 512 were banned, leaving the scene to nimbler "3 liter prototypes" and JWAE was ready with a new project from Len Bailey: the M6.
The M6 consisted of a steel reinforced riveted aluminium chassis coupled with a detuned 3 liter Cosworth DFV Formula 1 engine as a stressed member, and covered by open fiberglass bodywork with a large rear wing:[6] the first chassis was completed in March 1972 and raced at 12 Hours of Sebring, the second car was completed halfway into the season, and the third was used to test Weslake V12 engine.
Most of the teams resources were dedicated to Weslake V12 engine development, which did not prove better than the Cosworth, and led to the end of the program with four chassis out of five rebuilt as GR7.
[6] The M6 Coupé[7][8] was the closed version with low-drag bodywork and powered by the 2995 cc Ford-Weslake V12 engine planned to be used at 1973 24 Hours of Le Mans:[9] poor performances (laptimes were 16 seconds slower than M6-Cosworth) ended the project.
As a Group 6 Prototype entrant, Cluxton continued successfully contesting the Mirages at Le Mans as a two car team.
The GTC-Mirage team believes that the rules of the American championship put the new engine on a par with the eight-cylinder Cosworth DFX, which at the time was installed on almost all the cars which participated in it.
Redesigning the engine to reach the displacement limit of 2.65 liters should lead the French V6 to deliver around 800 hp with weight and dimensions lower than those of the competitor, as well as reliability which should be better.
Meanwhile, the new engine is installed in a Lola T900 (HU19 chassis number 24) from the Doug Shierson Racing team, which had been tested by Al Unser Jr. at Rattlesnake Raceway in Midland, West Texas.
