The 1965 the 24 hours of Le-mans was set to be the first real battle between Ford and Ferrari. The Americans arrived with no fewer than six GT40s. Ferrari’s three works and seven privateer entries may have outnumbered Ford, but they were all vastly underpowered. The Yellow #26 Ferrari 250 LM Pierre Dumay entry, piloted by Dumay and Gustave ‘Taf’ Gosselin, qualified down in seventeenth position.

Ford started the race strongly but, by a quarter distance, it had already become a total disaster for the Americans and not one of their entries remained. It was Ferrari’s to lose. However, Ferrari’s own entries started to fade, with the two Maranello Concessionaries and Ecurie Francorchamps privateer cars retiring overnight. Then, the works team started to suffer. The drivers were struggling to slow the cars down and were told to use engine braking instead, putting an intolerable strain on their powertrains, two succumbing to gearbox failure, the third to engine trouble. A faulty batch of disc brakes was later discovered to be the culprit. As the morning dawned the #26 car of Dumay and Gosselin found themselves in the lead, two laps ahead of another 250 LM piloted by Masten Gregory and Jochen Rindt. The #21 car was gaining five seconds a lap on the frontrunner, leaving the spectators expecting a potential photo finish, right up until a tire on the yellow #26 Belgian car exploded at high speed on the Mulsanne Straight. Despite severe damage, Gosselin managed to bring the car back to the pits, but vital time was lost repairing the damage and the car returned to the track behind the NART entry. Despite this, Dumay and Gosselin had brought their car home in second place overall.

1965 Ferrari 250, Le Mans 2nd place

Drivers: Pierre Dumay, Gustave Gosselin

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Designed for the Academy 1/24 scale kit - available in other scales. Classic Racing Resins offers upgraded resin tires for this kit.

1965 Ferrari 250, Le Mans 2nd place

Drivers: Pierre Dumay, Gustave Gosselin

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1965 Ferrari 250, Le Mans 2nd place

Drivers: Pierre Dumay, Gustave Gosselin

Purchase 1965 Ferrari 250 Le Mans Decals Select Scale 1/18 scale $10 1/24 scale $7 1/32 scale $6 1/43 scale $5 1/64 scale $4

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Purchase 1965 Ferrari 250 Le Mans Decals

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