Top Six Gérard Ducarouge race cars, Gérard Ducarouge 1941-2015

With recent news that Formula One car designer Gérard Ducarouge (23 October 1941 – 19 February 2015) who passed away on last Thursday after a long battle against illness. Ducarouge worked for a number of teams in his 27 year period in Formula 1, includes Matra, Ligier, Alfa Romeo, Team Lotus, Larrousse and Ligier once again. Winning many races and winning a drivers' and constructors' title in his time in F1.



R.I.P. Gérard Ducarouge (23 October 1941 – 19 February 2015).

So this post is the Gérard Ducarouge race cars (does include other race car that did race outside of Formula 1), starting with Number 6:

Number 6: 1981 Ligier JS17
Story: Ligier JS17 was designed by Gérard Ducarouge and Michel Beaujon. The Ligier JS17 had the Matra 3 litre V12 engine underneath. The Ligier JS17 took Ligier to fourth in the Constructors standings in 1981, almost took Jacques Laffite to the 1981 Drivers' title and took two wins for Jacques Laffite at the Österreichring and Montreal.



Number 5: 1986 Lotus 98T
Story: Lotus 98T was designed by Gérard Ducarouge and Martin Ogilvie. The Lotus 98T had the Renault 1.5 litre V6 turbo engine underneath, which produce over 1200bhp in qualifying and around 800bhp in race pace. The Lotus 98T was dubbed as the fastest Lotus ever! The Lotus 98T took Lotus to third in the Constructors standings in 1986 and took two wins for Ayrton Senna at Jerez and Detroit.





Number 4: 1987 Lotus 99T
Story: Lotus 99T was designed by Gérard Ducarouge and Martin Ogilvie, and was the first Formula 1 and Lotus chassis to be fitted with electronic active suspension. Also, the Lotus 99T had the Honda 1.5 litre V6 turbo engine underneath, which produce over 1000bhp in qualifying and around 790bhp in race pace. The Lotus 99T took Lotus to third in the Constructors standings in 1987 and took two wins for Ayrton Senna at Monaco, Detroit and the final Grand Prix win for Team Lotus.





Number 3: 1979-80 Ligier JS11
Story: The Ligier JS11 was designed by Gérard Ducarouge, Michel Beaujon and Robert Choulet; and was the first ground effect F1 car for the Ligier Team, the Ligier JS11 was powered by the 3 litre V8 Cosworth DFV engine. Overall the Ligier JS11 took five Grand Prix wins between 1979 and 1980, three for Jacques Laffite and one each for Patrick Depailler and Didier Pironi. While the Ligier JS11 took Ligier to third in the Constructors standings in 1979, and second in the the Constructors standings in 1980 the highest for Ligier as a team ever achieved.





Number 2: 1972-74 Matra MS670
Story: Matra MS670 was designed by Gérard Ducarouge and Robert Choulet, the Matra MS670 uses a Matra 3 litre V12 engine and produces over 450bhp. Matra MS670 took three Le Mans victories in a row in 1972, 1973 and 1974. In 1972, Henri Pescarolo and Graham Hill took a Malta one-two in the race. While in 1973 and 1974, Henri Pescarolo and Gérard Larrousse took back to back victories in the Matra MS670B and Matra MS670C. While the Matra MS670 took two World Championship for Makes titles to Matra in 1973 and 1974.



Number 1: 1969 Matra MS80
Story: The Matra MS80 was designed by Gérard Ducarouge and Bernard Boyer, the Matra MS80 was powered by the 3 litre V8 Cosworth DFV engine. Which, took the Matra MS80 to five wins in 1969, all five wins for Jackie Stewart. Which took, Jackie Stewart to the 1969 F1 Drivers' Title, his first of three titles, and Matra to its only Constructors' Championships in 1969.



End of blog for now. New post soon. Bye.