Start first with this clip I uploaded to YouTube yonks ago, the car losing a wheel at the Targa in 1965:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxoAuSmyPOA
Then let me pick up the story 43 years later in 2008 when I was at the Spa 6 Hours weekend.
After it was retired it from racing in the late 60s, the owner of a Ford dealership in the UK bought it from the factory, over time it was forgotten and subsequently thought "lost" for decades.
After the owner died, in 2005 the car was found rotting in one of his lock ups in Stratford.
It found a new owner, who spent 2 years having it fully restored to its Le Mans 65 spec (repainted white, rather than Linden Green as it ran at the Targa just a month earlier).
In 2008 he took it to race at Spa.
Trundling along the pits before the Friday practise session I was delighted to spot the car, and found and chatted to the owner.
I joked with him "Well you know what happened to the car at the 65 Targa, you'd better make sure those wheels are on tight!"
He said "Oh yes, its a tradition to give them an extra knock or two before we go out on track".
You can see it at the start of this clip here, at the practice session:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LzcjgUISX8
Anyway, in the 6 Hour race the next day... the left rear wheel came off the car at Eau Rouge, and the car was wrecked
You couldn't make it up, could you. Talk about tempting fate!
Happily the driver was unhurt, the car was rebuilt again, and out racing again the next year, albeit this time in my preferred Targa spec, in Linden Green.
