We’ve been so busy looking after your cars that we haven’t had time to blow our own trumpet about our Le Mans Classic 2010 result back in the summer. For anyone that doesn’t know, the Classic is the single most important historic racing event in the world. It only happens every two years and attracts some of the biggest names and best funded enthusiasts out there. For the record, we’re not big headed enough to think we’re among them! Now, you can’t just decide to turn up and pay your entry fee either, because it’s an elite, invitation only event. In short, competing in a Le Mans Classic is the absolute pinnacle of classic ownership and endurance racing.
Click for a few more photos of DSD Motorwerks at the Le Mans Classic 2010.
So, how did we do?
Well, in association with our friends at Vargus Racing, we (that’s our very own Dave Dennett, Tom Pead and Jeff Moyes) campaigned the 1958 Jim Clark 356. We certainly know the car in intimate detail having rebuilt it completely a few years ago. However, that didn’t stop us giving it the most thorough race preparation at our main Essex workshops. Taking a car that’s over 50 years old and demanding that it performs at least as well as it did in its heyday is a seriously ‘big-ask’ for any engineer. But we are well used to ‘big-asks’ when it comes to old Porsches (and not so old for that matter), so the usual and fastidious DSD attention-to-detail came in more than handy.
DSD / Vargus Team 68 set Le Mans record
We knew it wouldn’t be easy and were determined not to be returning home with a ‘DNF’. In reality, that’s the most likely odds for any Le Mans endurance entry, at any level. While we knew we were setting out with the right attitude, we honestly didn’t quite expect to do as well as we did.
From a field of 72 cars, we finished 2nd in the scratch and 3rd in the index of performance. Dave Dennett set a best lap time of 5m 54s, which, as it turns out, is an all time record for a 356 at Le Mans! How about that? Dave can’t really tell you how it feels and is still pretty modest about it but we think there is no better testament to the skills of the man who not only heads up the company but wields the tools and was sitting behind the wheel at the time. Well ok, there was probably something more to it than just sitting there.
Skills that deliver a top Le Mans place – Available and affordable for your own car…
With snow piling up outside the workshop door, our Le Mans Classic 2010 result really does seem like a distant summer memory; but the good news is that Dave and the DSD team are available, as ever, to prepare your car for your own track aspirations next season – or to simply sort out that list of little issues on the road car that you’ve been leaving ’til the winter.
Seriously, you have to ask yourself how many places you could take your car where you’ll have a race-proven Le Mans mechanic and driver working on your pride and joy? Not too many we suspect. You owe it to your car and yourself to give Dave a call before you consider going anywhere else. And remember, you don’t need to be Derek Bell or Nick Mason to afford DSD standards either.
Call us, send us a message or just come and see us… the kettle is on, always, though you may have to wash up your own mug if we’re a bit flat out!
