RIP Guy Ligier

Racing events, drivers, cars or anything else from the past.
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PTRACER
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RIP Guy Ligier

#1

Post by PTRACER »

Only just read the news that he passed away today. I have pretty fond memories of the Ligier team before they were bought out by Alain Prost. Olivier Panis's Monaco win springs to mind.
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Post by theracer120 »

RIP.
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Post by Everso Biggyballies »

PTRACER wrote:Only just read the news that he passed away today. I have pretty fond memories of the Ligier team before they were bought out by Alain Prost. Olivier Panis's Monaco win springs to mind.
They (almost) always had beautiful cars and I always loved them.... great sounding too. An interesting character was Guy Ligier, and one with so many interests in his background. Very likeable and very sad news.

RIP Guy Ligier

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#4

Post by erwin greven »

RIP.

Overlooked this topic btw.
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#5

Post by kals »

One of the last entrepreneur F1 entrants. RIP Guy.
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#6

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

None of the obituaries give the full story of his life, from his days as an orphan who became a butcher after WW2 and made a small start in road construction that became a fortune, having bought a second hand bulldozer with his butcher's savings to start it in the 50's.

He played International Rugby for France, made many influential friends (including an up and coming politician called Mitterand), who proved a financial life support to Ligier in later years with backing from state owned corporations when he formed his F1 team. He had raced motorcycles but used his increading wealth to support his passion, turning to cars and as a privateer worked his way up to the top level. He set up in partnership with Jo Schlesser to form their own F2 team with McLaren cars, in the year that Jo was killed.

Guy retired from driving as a result and set up his own manufacturing team. The Ligier race team was born, all cars bearing the JS prefix in tribute to Jo.

JS2 Ligier (came 2nd outright to the mighty Gulf Mirage Ford of Bell and Ickx in the 1975 Le Mans 24hr)

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Producing Sportscars initially for both his team and customers he progressed through to F1. This wwas in the era of kit cars where a chassis was built to fit a Hewland or similar transmission and a Cosworth engine, but ultimately he incorporated / absorbed the Matra team.

With support from French business (not to mention Renault engines) thanks to his friends in high places, the team won several Grand Prix and enjoyed considerable success, before resukts waned, and various partnerships were made and failed. He then sold the team in the early 90's and reinvested the money to make a second fortune from natural / organic fertilizer.

Still keen on Motor Racing he purchased the Martini team a decade or so ago and set up to manufacture and contest in F3. I know this recently expanded with an association to retur to LMP racing and Hybrid engineering, but I am not up to date on where it stands currently. I do know that one of the later Sportscar projects was the Radical like Ligier Martini JS53, Check the brochure out here with the new association with the French OAK racing still using the JS prefix for its chassis..

The Ligier Martini JS53

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The Ligier JS P2

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Motor Racing has lost one of its iconic characters, one who was in motor racing as a result of passion and not for the ego. Im sure he will be missed by many. :rip:

* I started life with nothing, and still have most of it left


“Good drivers have dead flies on the side windows!” (Walter Röhrl)

* I married Miss Right. Just didn't know her first name was Always
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