McLaren BMW – F1 GTR Le Mans (1997)

After the success achieved by the racing version of the McLaren F1 GTR with its BMW V12 engine in the 1995 and 1996 Le Mans 24-hour races, the BMW works team for the first time entered two specially built-up cars for this legendary event in the following year. The driver team of Hélary, Kox and Ravaglia finished third overall, behind the McLaren BMW entered by Gulf Team Davidoff. A defect caused the second factory entry, driven by Lehto, Soper and Piquet, to lose ground when occupying a promising position during the race; it retired later after sliding off the track.