Guy Ligier at the British Grand Prix in 1967. Still image from video below.
The phrase “Renaissance Man” is oft-overused these days, but in the case of Guy Ligier, it’s utterly appropriate. Over the span of his remarkable 85-year life, he enjoyed success as a rugby star (playing for the French national team), a rower (champion of France in 1947), a motorcycle racer, a sports car racer (and constructor), a Formula 1 driver and an F1 team owner. Ligier died on August 23, just two months after the latest endurance racing chassis to carry his name was introduced at Le Mans.
Orphaned at an early age, Ligier was determined to achieve success. Working as a butcher’s assistant during his time as a rugby star, Ligier amassed enough money to buy a second-hand bulldozer, and in the devastation of post-war France, it didn’t take long to grow this into a construction empire. Along the way Ligier befriended many politicians, a skill that would pay both short and long-term benefits.
By the late 1940s, injuries ended his rugby career but launched him on a path to motorsports. A decade later, in 1959, Ligier captured an intermediate French motorcycle racing championship, then another in the following year. Next, he switched to formula cars, racing a Formula Junior Elva before switching to sports cars. In 1964, driving a Porsche 904/4 with Robert Buchet, Ligier took a class win at Le Mans in his debut year, and would go on to race in the endurance classic another seven times.
His Formula 1 career started in 1966, at the advanced age of 35, and Ligier made a dozen starts over the course of two seasons, with his best finish, an eighth place, coming at the 1967 German Grand Prix. The death of close friend Jo Schlesser (who was killed in a crash at the 1968 French Grand Prix) convinced Ligier to end his career as a professional driver, and turn to building race cars instead. Since the beginning, Ligier sports racers have carried the designation JS, followed by a model number, in tribute to Schlesser.
Ligier driving a GT40 Mk IIB with Jo Schlesser at Le Mans in 1967. Photo courtesy Ford Motorsports.
The 1974 demise of Matra opened yet another door for Ligier, this time as a Formula 1 team owner. Turning to old friends in the world of politics for support, Ligier was able to obtain sponsorship from state-owned companies like Elf Petroleum and SEITA (through the Gitanes cigarette brand), advancing the careers of French drivers like Jacques Laffite, Patrick Depailler and Patrick Tambay. Though the team never finished higher than second in the constructor’s championship, Ligier drivers did capture nine victories from 1976 through 1996.
Ligier had stepped down from the team that bore his name by then, selling his interest in the squad to Cyril de Rouvre in 1992. Once again, Ligier turned in a new direction, this time investing in the fertilizer market and once again amassing a fortune through his investments. Today, his name lives on in both the Ligier sports racers built by Onroak Automotive and in the line of microcars that bears his name.
More gadget review in www.mamaktalk.com
