Description:

MG EX257 LMP675 "Hot Wheels" Chassis #003

• Perfect car for both the Global Endurance Legends Series and Masters Endurance Legends Series.
• Ex Factory car with great history
• Very Competitive.
• 0 mile Rebuild.
• 50 Shakedown Miles on the Clock.
• New Tank.
• Crack Testing Certified.
• Certain Winner in the right hands as Audi beater in period.
• With Spare Bodywork.

Price: £550,000

The Automobile Club de l’Ouest’s new LMP675 prototype rules and the MG marque might have been made for each other. The new class, introduced for the 2000 season, gave a manufacturer now back in British ownership the opportunity to build a lightweight racer in the spirit of a line of famous MG sportscars and chase outright glory at the Le Mans 24 Hours. 

What became the EX257 was the brainchild of Lola Cars International, whose owner Martin Biranne had been a leading figure in the Phoenix consortium that have taken over the MG Rover Group from BMW. It saw the potential in the new class that had been conceived by ACO rules boss Alain Bertaut to offer an alternative route to building a car for the existing top class at Le Mans, which had been renamed LMP900 for 2000. 

MG Rover wanted to promote its sporting credentials at a time that it was launching a series of specials based on its existing product line. A Le Mans assault under its newly-created MG Sport & 

Racing banner with a car that tipped its hat to the marque’s experimental ‘EX’ record cars of the past made perfect sense. 

The 675 in the name of the new class referred to the weight of the car. Lola’s calculations suggested that Bertaut was correct in that a purpose-designed lightweight car could challenge the heavier 900kg cars such as the Audi R8 LMP900 that had claimed a one-two-three victory at the French enduro in 2000. 

“Everyone assumed that that an LMP900 was the way to go, but that wasn’t what our simulations suggested,” says long-time Formula 1 designer Frank Dernie, who was employed by Lola as a technical consultant and played a key role in the conception of the EX257. “We weren’t the only ones. I got to know some of the Audi engineers quite well and they came to the same conclusion. They were shitting themselves that LMP675 was the winning formula.” 

The MG’s new two-litre turbo XP-20 engine produced by Advanced Engine Research in the UK pushed out just north of 500bhp. The powerplant in the Audi R8 had a little over 600bhp. The two cars had the same 90-litre fuel capacity, so the maths was relatively straightfoward. A purpose-built LMP675 car had the potential to be a genuine victory contender, just as Bertaut had intended. 

The EX257 programme began at Lola in the second half of 2000 under the leadership of Julian Sole. His team conceived a minimalistic design that was right down on the minimum weight. The cars actually came in under the weight limit when they went on the scales at scrutineering for their first Le Mans campaign. 

AER in the UK had been contracted to supply a small-capacity turbo engine. Legal issues forced the British builder to change tack from its initial plan to base the powerplant on a Nissan block and resulted in a new design from a clean sheet of paper, turning around the new engine in time for the car to hit the track in early April 2001. 

The Chamberlain Motorsport squad — led by stalwart Le Mans entrant Hugh Chamberlain, but now under the ownership of racing enthusiast Jack Cunningham — had been chosen to run the cars under the factory flag. It began testing with the EX257 after the shakedown at the MIRA proving ground at Jerez in Spain. The team then moved to the Albacete track for the official launch of the programme and more running. 

An all-British driving crew was unveiled at Albacete for the two cars. MG signed up former Le Mans winner Mark Blundell to drive with Julian Bailey and Kevin McGarrity, while Anthony Reid was teamed with Warren Hughes and Jonny Kane. 

The build-up to Le Mans wasn’t entirely straightforward. The Chamberlain team wouldn’t get to show the potential of the EX257 until the race. 

The abject conditions played into the hands of the lightweight racer. The #33 car shot up the order in Blundell’s hands after a switch to wet-weather tyres and made it as high as third position. Both cars would be early retirements from the race, but MG had hinted at what the new lightweight contender might be able to achieve. 

Twelve months on, the EX257 didn’t need rain to mix it with the LMP900 cars. Hughes recalls thinking that MG had made its mark when he arrived at the pits for his first refuelling stop. 

“As I drove into the pits, I could see a bit of a commotion down our end of the pitlane,” he says. “There was a big crowd of people and as I pulled into the box, it suddenly swarmed around me. The car was surrounded by photographers and camera crews. That’s when I realised we were creating a bit of a buzz.” 

The reason for the buzz was that Huhghes, in the #27 car, was up into third place overall in among the four factory Audis at Le Mans that year. 

“We were running third on pace,” continues Hughes. “We were in among the four Audis on merit and it was awesome to be part of it.” 

Hughes, who was also racing for MG in the British Touring Car Championship, has good memories of the EX257. He describes the car as “one of the best I’ve ever driven”. 

“It was such a great car in terms of the rewards it gave you as a driver and how sweet it was,” he says. “It was very lightweight compared with the other LMP cars: it was so nimble and had a great power-to-weight ratio.” 

Reid remembers coming out of the pits during the night that year with an Audi ahead of him. It happened to be driven by none other than Tom Kristensen, who was on his way to the fourth of his nine Le Mans victories. 

“Immediately, you could see the strengths and weaknesses of the car,” recalls Reid. “We were probably about 5mph slower on the Mulsanne Straight, but in terms of braking, and acceleration off the slow corners, we were quite a bit superior. In the fast corners, we were equal to the Audis. Overall, at that moment, we were quicker than the Audis and running third.” 

But Lola’s LMP675 contender hadn’t been developed to its full potential, at least not in what turned out to the be the two-year life-span of the MG factory programme. Testing between the two editions of Le Mans in which the EX257 took part had been limited — the funds were not in place for the kind of test and development regime the car needed to take on Audi over the full course of the race. 

The #27 was still running third when Hughes was stranded out out on the track just before the Esses in the ninth hour. MG’s all-to-brief return to Le Mans lasted into hour 16 when the sister car was also retired. 

That wasn’t the end of the story of Lola’s LM675 design. The British constructor was already selling customer versions of what it called the B01/60 — the internal code for the chassis — around the world. The car would go on to taste success on the short tracks of North America, and do what it threatened to do at Le Mans. 

The Dyson Racing team would notch up no fewer than four victories in the American Le Mans Series in 2003-04. And each time it beat the might of Audi. 

MG EX257 CHASSIS #003 

This is one of only three factory MG EX257 chassis and the only car to take to the famous Circuit de la Sarthe at both the Test Day and the Le Mans race in each of the Chamberlain Motorsport team’s factory participations. 

Each time it was raced by Mark Blundell, Julian Bailey and Kevin McGarrity and was the first of the MGs to make its mark around the 8.46-mile track. The British sportscar manufacturer was only a few laps into its return when the EX257 started to make people sit up and take notice. 

Blundell, who had qualified the car 17th, was already up seventh when he switched to wet-weather Michelin tyres on the arrival of the rain that would dominate the race. He was quickly up into the top five aboard car #33 and would make it as high as third before handing over to Bailey. 

“It was terrible out there in the rain, but the lightweight design really worked on a wet track,” says Blundell. “I really felt that I had a car underneath me that could do something in those conditions.” 

The rain had allowed the car to shine, but it would also hold it back. Water in the electrics would cause delays, as would a change of oil tank. The car was still able to come back into the 675 class lead — and creep towards the top six — early in the night, before an engine issue related to the earlier oil leak put the car out. 

Twelve months on, Blundell again starred, though this time in qualifying. He was fifth after the first day of running — the same position in which he had finished the Test Day — and was seven tenths up in the first sector of the lap when he went out for another qualifying run on Thursday evening. Engine issues prevented him from improving and the car ended up starting from sixth position, but a spot on the second row had been there for the taking. 

MG EX257 #003, now with race number #26, was firmly established in the top six in the opening hours. Alternator issues subsequently dropped the car back, prior to a change of gearbox, though that didn’t prevent the car from making it back into the outskirts of the top 10. 

The car would make it into the 16th hour — the longest participation of any of the four factory MG entries in 2001-02. The car was registered as a retirement with engine issues around 8am on Sunday morning. 

That marked the end of MG’s bid to win Le Mans. Despite being billed initially as a three-year programme, there wasn’t the funding to continue the factory campaign. 

It was a case of what might have been, reckons Blundell. 

“The car had so much potential and we did show it on a number of occasions, he says. “What we didn’t have were the resources of someone like Audi to make good on it.”