11.01.2004 LE MANS 24 HOURS GTS CLASS WINNING FERRARI 550 MARANELLO ON THE PRODRIVE STAND IN BIRMINGHAM

Banbury-based Prodrive are one of British motor racing's most important company's with a rich history of competition successes, most recently claiming the World Rally Championship title yet again, this time with Petter Solberg driving the Subaru Impreza.

One of their smaller projects in recent years has been the Ferrari 550 Maranellos they have built on behalf of Care Racing Developments, that have gone on to take victories in the FIA GT Championship, the American Le Mans Series and an historic GTS-class win at last year's Le Mans 24 Hours.

The no88 car driven to a victory in the endurance classic by Peter Kox, Jamie Davies and Tomas Enge is displayed on the Prodrive stand at the Autosport International in Birmingham.

Sitting proudly on a stand that epitomises the peak of British race engineering excellence, the red Ferrari is joined by Petter Solberg's 2003 World Rally Championship winning Subaru Impreza and Jenson Button's F1 BAR-Honda.

Last June, few doubted the speed of the Care-owned Prodrive-run Ferrari 550 Maranellos, but many doubted the fragile car's potential to remain reliable for 24 hours. However, this small, privately run & financed English team took the fight at Le Mans to the factory Chevrolet Corvette's backed by might of the US automotive industry, from the start to the finish of the world’s most testing endurance sportscar race, and came away with an historic victory and the first for a GT Ferrari at Le Mans since 1974. 

The Veloqx Prodrive team led the GTS timesheets for the entire race and Jamie Davies, Tomas Enge and Peter Kox achieved a popular and rousing victory, crossing the finish line at 4pm, with ten laps in hand over the first of the Corvettes.