The 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 35th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 10 and 11 June 1967. It was also the seventh round of the 1967 World Sportscar Championship.

Dan Gurney and A. J. Foyt, driving a Ford Mk IV, won the race after leading from the second hour, becoming the first and as of 2024 the only all-American victors (car, team, and drivers) of the race. Ferrari were second and third, and these top-three cars all broke the 5000 km mark in total distance covered for the first time. All overall records were broken – fastest, furthest, a new lap record, and biggest engine to win, along with a number of class records.^[1]

After the previous year's complete change in the CSI (Commission Sportive Internationale - the FIA’s regulatory body) – the FIA Appendix J – there were no significant changes or updates to the regulations.

In an effort to reduce the speed disparity between the classes, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) lifted its minimum average speed for qualification, from 160 km/h (99 mph) to 190 km/h (120 mph). They also now required all cars to qualify to be within 85% of the pole-position car’s average speed.^[2] There was also about a 2.5% increase to the minimum distances on the Index of Performance.^[3]

Once again there was a marked imbalance between the categories with only six Sports Cars and seven GTs versus the 41 Prototypes in the starting line-up.^[4] It brought together the best of the world’s racing drivers with 37 who had, or would, race in Formula 1. There were five World Champions and in the previous month, eleven drivers had raced in the Monaco Grand Prix and seven in the Indy 500.^[5]

Defending champions Ford, along with Porsche, had the biggest representation with ten cars. The new Ford GT40 Mark IV was an updated version of the Ford J-Car, which was shelved following the fatal accident of Ken Miles in August 1966^[6] (The Mk III being a small-production road-car^[7]). The Mark IV had an all new chassis designed and built in the United States. The big-block 427 cu in (7-litre) Ford Galaxie-derived engine from the Mk.II was now pushing out 530 bhp. Four cars were ready for Le Mans: two for Shelby American who had the American pair of Dan Gurney and A. J. Foyt in one car and defending champion Bruce McLaren with Mark Donohue in the other. The team had to fabricate a roof "bubble" to accommodate the helmet of Dan Gurney, who stood more than 190 cm (6 feet, 3 inches) tall. The other two went to Holman & Moody with its teams of Mario Andretti/Lucien Bianchi and Denny Hulme/Lloyd Ruby.

After a humiliating loss to the Ferrari works team at the opening round at Daytona (who finished 1-2-3) Ford had won the next round at Sebring with Mario Andretti and Bruce McLaren driving the new Mk IV. For safety in numbers, Ford also entered three Mk IIB's (lightened versions of the previous year's car) run by Shelby American (Ronnie Bucknum/Paul Hawkins), Holman & Moody (Frank Gardner/Roger McCluskey) and Ford France (Jo Schlesser/Guy Ligier)

This year Ferrari chose to concentrate its efforts on the large-Prototype category. The latest evolution of the 250P, the 330 P4 had new bodywork, a better gearbox and the engine reworked, now putting out 450 bhp. Although lighter and with far better handling, it could not match the big Fords on sheer straight-line pace. Four were built and all were at Le Mans. The works team, now under Franco Lini, brought three of the cars. F1 team drivers Chris Amon and Lorenzo Bandini had won at Daytona and Monza but after Bandini was killed at Monaco Amon drove with Nino Vaccarella in the open-top, spyder, version. Team regulars Ludovico Scarfiotti/Mike Parkes had the second and Klass/Sutcliffe the third. The other P4 was run by the Equipe Nationale Belge for Willy Mairesse/”Beurlys”.

There were also three updated P3's (now called the 412 P) for the other customer teams: Maranello Concessionaires (Richard Attwood/Piers Courage), Scuderia Filipinetti (Jean Guichet/Herbert Müller) and the North American Racing Team (NART) for Pedro Rodriguez/Giancarlo Baghetti. NART also ran their older modified-P2 again.^[8]

After the success in 1966, John Wyer and Ford had split amicably. J.W. Automotive had purchased the Ford Advanced Vehicles facility and set about adapting the GT40. With a new narrow-cockpit body design by Len Bailey, the Mirage M1 had new suspension and carried the 351 cu in (5.75L) Ford engine.^[9] After Jacky Ickx and Dick Thompson sensationally won the Spa 1000km, race two cars were entered for Le Mans. Ickx co-drove with Alan Rees and Thompson had David Piper.^[10]

Also rewarded for their work with the Ford GT project, Lola Cars returned to Le Mans with the new T70. John Surtees had won the inaugural Can Am series in North America with a Chevrolet V8 engine. The Mk3 GT version was taken to Le Mans, now powered by an Aston Martin engine developing 450 bhp. Surtees had David Hobbs as co-driver, with a second car for Chris Irwin/Peter de Klerk

The most striking cars this year were the two Chaparrals. The new model 2F had a high-mounted adjustable wing pushing down on the rear wheels. It was now fitted with a Chevrolet big-block 427 cu in (7-litre) that produced over 550 bhp through a three-speed automatic transmission.^[11][9] Previous race-winner Phil Hill raced with Mike Spence with Bruce Jennings/Bob Johnson in the second car.

Once again, Porsche arrived with a new Carrera variant – the 910 was lower and lighter than the homologated 906. With a bigger 2.2L engine it had performed consistently in the season so far, culminating in a victory in the Targa Florio, But for Le Mans, the team was cautious and went back to the 2.0L engines (fuel-injected for 220 bhp) in two cars, for Rolf Stommelen/Jochen Neerpasch and Targa Florio winners Udo Schütz/Joe Buzzetta. However, the team also introduced another new car: the longtail 907 built almost specifically for the Mulsanne Straight. Two cars were present, driven by 1964 race-winner Jochen Rindt with current Hillclimb champion Gerhard Mitter and Jo Siffert/Hans Herrmann.^[12]

As neither Alfa Romeo nor Dino showed, Porsche's main opposition would be from Matra. Their new MS630 still used the 2-litre BRM engine, but it was built to also be capable of carrying the Ford 4.7-litre V8 (which was tried at the April test weekend^[3]) as well as a new Matra 3-litre engine still being developed. Although capable of 290 km/h (180 mph) its handling meant it was still slower than the Porsche. The same driver-combinations returned: Jean-Pierre Beltoise/Johnny Servoz-Gavin alongside Jean-Pierre Jaussaud/Henri Pescarolo.^[13]

Last present in 1964, Team Elite returned to Le Mans with the new Lotus 47, the race version of the Lotus Europa. Colin Chapman’s new design was fitted with a 165 bhp Ford 1.6-litre twin-cam engine.^[14]

Alpine arrived with seven entries of its A210 including two for its customer team, Ecurie Savin-Calberson. A range of the Renault-Gordini engine were offered in 1000, 1300 and 1500cc; that latter engine was raced by veterans Mauro Bianchi/Jean Vinatier. There was also an older M64 entered by NART. The two drivers, Therier and Chevallier, had been chosen from 200 applicants in a speed-trial by team-owner Luigi Chinetti.^[15]

After bring the Mini-Marcos to Le Mans in 1966, this year Frank Costin came up with an unusual aerodynamic design for privateer racer Roger Nathan. With a plywood frame, fibreglass bodywork, it had a 1-litre Hillman Imp engine mounted at a 54° angle, putting out 97 bhp.^[16] And making up the class were the returning entries from CD-Peugeot, Marcos and Austin-Healey.

There were only six cars in the Group 4 Sports Cars category, as many of the prototypes could not be produced in sufficient numbers. Ford had entered three GT40s in for Ford France, Scuderia Filipinetti and John Wyer’s J.W. Automotive. Porsche entered a standard 906 for Ben Pon and Vic Elford, making his Le Mans debut, as well as French privateer Christian Poirot. Abarth was back at Le Mans for the first time since 1962, with the French Ecurie du Maine running one of the new 1300 GT. It had Abarth’s own 1.3-litre DOHC engine, that developed 147 bhp.^[17]

In a similarly small field, there were only the seven entrants in the Group 3 GT category. The Scuderia Filipinetti and Equipe Nationale Belge teams supplemented their Prototype entries with Ferrari 275 GTBs. They were up against Belgian privateer Claude Dubois, running a burly Shelby-modified Ford Mustang GT350, and an American-entered second generation Corvette Stingray. Finally, there were four Porsche 911 S, as the car started becoming the privateer’s car of choice.

This year also saw the increasing significance of the “war” between the tyre-companies, as they partnered with major manufacturers: Goodyear with Ford, Firestone with Ferrari, Dunlop with Porsche and Michelin with Alpine.^[5]

At the April Test Weekend, Bandini was fastest in the Ferrari P4 spyder with a sensational lap record of 3:25.4, ahead of Parkes in the other P4, then Surtees in the Lola (3:31.9).^[18] Although Donohue could reach 330 km/h (210 mph) in the Ford MkIV. he could only get 4th fastest time (3:32.6).^[7] The weekend also had tragedy when Roby Weber in the new Matra lost control at full speed on Mulsanne Straight. The car skidded and somersaulted off the track. Trapped in the burning car Weber died before marshals could reach the accident in time.^[13]

By race week, Ford had made further aerodynamic improvements and the MkIVs were going even faster. However the cars were very unstable at high speed creating a lot of concern among the drivers,^[19] and all the cars had problems with their windscreens cracking and popping out at the high speeds^[7][9] The Ferrari team was not without its own problems: the NART P2, going slow, got in the way of Klass’ P4 sending him off into the trees and wrecking the car but leaving the driver uninjured.^[19] Pole position went to Bruce McLaren (3:24.4), just ahead of the surprisingly rapid Chaparral of Phil Hill (3:24.7). Then came the Fords of Andretti, Hulme, Bucknum and Gardner before Parkes’ Ferrari down in 7th with 3:28.9.^[20][21]

Initially qualified with their 5.7-litre engines, the Mirages then both had failures and JWA decided to change back to the 5.0-litre engines. However, the scrutineers pointed out that this could not be done as the cars still carried the larger fuel tanks for the 5.0+ class. Ford, however, managed to supply two engines slightly larger than 5 litres to allow the cars to race.^[10] The Team Elite Lotus had a similar problem but resolved theirs by putting empty plastic bottles in the fuel tank.^[21]

All speeds were up and during the race twenty cars were recorded doing over 300 km/h over a flying kilometre on the Mulsanne Straight:^[22]