Combe Countdown – 26th August 2024

As any of our customers or friends will know, we are racing enthusiasts and love the feeling of pushing a car to its limits on a track. Recently Neil and I were able to purchase a Ligier JS2R GT Sports car to replace our fantastic Viper, which we saw great success in between April 2022 and October 2023 before it sold to a new owner. As we hadn’t yet turned any laps in anger with the new car, we decided to enter the Castle Combe GT Championship in August as a shakedown for the new car, and to see how it performed against significantly more expensive machinery.The Ligier is a contradictory car to our old Viper, with the 8.4 Litre front-engined monster being replaced by a 3.7 Litre Ford-derived mid-mounted V6. This engine difference comes with a significant characteristic shift, with this car driving much more like a modern GT4 car with modern suspension and brakes giving a much more instinctive driving experience.

As the car rolled out for qualifying, the car felt immediately instinctive to drive, and I was confident enough to push out of the box, the cornering grip from this lightweight chassis felt fantastic and through the corners, the Ligier was by far the fastest car on track, but with modern GT3 machinery and other much more powerful cars on track, I was only able to achieve 5th place in qualifying.

Race 1 went green, and I initially struggled off the start due to an error in the tyre pressures, but as the race went on, I got my edge back and was able to maintain his 5th starting position to the chequered flag. Following on from this, we adjusted the pressures and carried out some general maintenance on the car before race 2 later that afternoon. Once again starting 5th, I had a much better start, jumping ahead of a Lamborghini Super Trofeo before Turn 2 before building a gap behind and keeping the leaders well within sight. The race was being led by a Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo, and although I felt significantly more confident in the corners, the Ferrari had roughly 300 more horsepower than our little Ligier, but as the Ferrari was having to defend from the 3 cars behind, I found myself firmly in the battle for the win, in a true David vs Goliath performance. Unfortunately, passing the more powerful cars would prove to be impossible, so I would finish Race 2 in 4th position, winning our class and firmly stating the Ligier JS2R’s competitiveness amongst a field of significantly more expensive machinery.

Our Ligier will be up for sale shortly, with coaching and drive sharing options available if a customer wants proper driver coaching from someone who understands driving, engineering, and working on this fabulous little race car.

We are also please to say that we do not have long to wait until our next race meeting, as I will once again take to the Castle Combe circuit, this time in a 1955 Triumph TR2, which can also be found for sale on our website.