Jacky Ickx and Tom Kristensen’s Monsieur and Mr Le Mans nicknames are misplaced. Because one man is better suited to carry the mantle: Jean Rondeau.
Like class winner and three-time runner-up overall Sébastien Bourdais, he was born in the very town of the world’s greatest race. But Rondeau went one better than the ex-Peugeot and Ford man, by capitalising when top-line sports car racing was in flux to win his hometown race in 1980.
Going one better still, the car beneath him was one of his own making. And while Jack Brabham and Bruce McLaren had won Grands Prix with their own car, nobody had done the same at Le Mans. It’s a safe bet to say nobody ever will again.
Next week, among the lots of French auction house Artcurial’s Rètromobile auction is one of the cars from Rondeau’s stable. In fact, it’s among the most important he produced: the 1978 Rondeau M378 Le Mans GTP.
It isn’t the black and yellow-liveried winner, but it can boast two podiums itself, and victory in the GTP class. It also marks the beginnings of Rondeau: it’s the first to be feature that name, rather than being called an Inaltera, after the marque’s wallpaper-making early backer.
From top: the M378 on debut at Le Mans; restored and repainted to its most famous colours; dash shows signs of a life well lived
