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One of our greatest fans from Germany, Karl-Heinz Roggendorf sent us two pictures of the Oly Express at Le Mans in 1976. The above is from Tuesday scrutineering at Place des Jacobins. Below is when the car was refueled before the race. As you can see on the pumps, only road type gasoline was available at Le Mans!
Our faithfull fan François Breton sent us this great screen capture from a little amateur film of Le Mans 1976. It shows Hershel McGriff at the wheel of the Oly Express Dodge Charger after sidelining his racecar right after the Mulsanne corner. Read more about the whole story by clicking here.
Hershel McGriff returned to race at Le Mans in 1982. After the not so successfull attempt with his son Doug in the Dodge Charger in 1976, Billy Hagan signed on Hershel to drive the Stratagraph 1979 Camaro with Dick Brooks.
Continue reading "Hershel McGriff's Le Mans snowplow Camaro" »
Thanks to Dick Pierson's recent TV appearance on the Seattle local news, Ron Zuehlke had some memories coming back to him. Ron was at the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1976 and took these two excellent pictures of Hershel McGriff and the Dodge hurdling toward Dunlop. Thank you so much, Ron. I just love it when this whole story keeps growing thanks to contributions like yours!
Continue reading "Great 1976 Le Mans photos by Ron Zuehlke " »
Today was sure a day to remember for Team Oly Express as Hershel McGriff came back to the Le Mans track. After racing the Charger here in 1976 and one of Billy Hagan's Camaro's in 1982, Hershel, alongside with wife Sherrie, daughter Marilyn and son-in-law Tex Powell (yes, THE Tex Powell), came to France, 25 years after his last 24 hours drive.
Alain Jourdainne has recently put his private Le Mans photos from 1971 to 1981 on this great Le Mans picture site. Among those is this shot of Hershel McGriff at the wheel of the Charger. Since the car has not yet the outside rearview mirrors, it must be a picture taken during qualifying. The real Le Mans experts among you might be able to identify on which part of the track it was shot.
Courtesy Photos 24 H Le Mans dot Free
John Todd from Seattle recently got in touch with us. That may not seem worth mentionning to you, unless you know who he is. John Todd was working at Precision Engines and assembled the 426 Wedge engines for the Charger in 1976. He was also a member of McGriff's pit crew at the Le Mans. You bet that we called him right after reading his e-mail. Here is what John told us about the Chargers engines!
Continue reading "Pistons took a pounding at Le Mans in 1976" »
French fan Stephan Vallois bought one of the 1/43 scale kits of our Charger. He is doing the complete starting grid of the 1976 24 Hours of Le Mans, which also includes a few group 5 BMW 3.5 CSL. Congratulations to Stephan for this great job!
May 2007 bring to all of us peace, health, happiness and may the Oly Express bring more great moments of vintage racing!
For those still searching for an outstanding Christmas present and for who'd like to have a model of the most american Le Mans entry of the 70s, here is the 1/43 scale model of the Olympia Charger! We had a limited run of just 10 models made for team members and sponsors. Two fully assembled models and two to be assembled kits for are still available. The assembled model, as pictured above costs 200 EURO ($250) + shipping and the kits cost 65 EURO ($80) + shipping. To order just leave a comment below or write directly to Team Oly Express!
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