Trident

Photo by Andy Heywood

The ultra rare Ligier JS2

Photo by Andy Heywood

Ligier JS2 Brochure

Ligier JS2 Technical Specification

The following article is taken from the Winter 2005 issue of Trident magazine.

The French Connection

by Andy Heywood.

Whilst we are being kept waiting another year to find out whether Maserati will return to the Le Mans 24 hours with the MC 12, it is still a viable quiz question for a pedantic meeting organiser to ask when a Maserati `engine' last ran in anger at La Sarthe.

You see, if we are talking complete cars then it was 1965 (Tipo 65) but if we look at Maserati-powered cars, then it was actually 1975, when the lone Ligier Maserati JS2 of Jean-Pierre Beltoise and Jean-Pierre Jarier managed 36 laps before retiring due to an accident. After four years campaigning the Maserati engine, Guy Ligier was returning to Ford. Two other JS2s in the race were both Cosworth DFV equipped and as if to punctuate that decision, the number 5 car came in second overall driven by Jean-Louis Lafosse and Guy Chasseuil.

I have long been fascinated by the Ligier Maseratis and have felt that there has been little published on the subject. The sight and sound of my `first' JS2 on the recent French International and a few hasty pictures was all the excuse I needed to start research on the following article.

Why three came before two.

The first connection between Frenchman Guy Ligier and Maserati had been in 1966, when as a driver, Ligier got his big break in Formula One driving a Cooper Maserati T81. By 1968 however, Ligier had retired from F1 to concentrate on running a Formula Two team with his friend Jo Schlesser. Ecurie Intersport fielded McLaren M4As for both drivers in the 1968 season with enough success that rising star Schlesser was offered the chance to drive a Honda Formula One car at the French GP at Rouen. Tragically, early in the race, the Honda crashed and burst into flames. Schlesser was killed instantly and Ligier immediately withdrew from motorsport, grieving the loss. When he returned a year later, it would be as a constructor and team owner.

The first Ligier car was named JS1 (the initials clearly in Schlesser's memory) and was immediately put into service on the racetrack. Ligier had employed a young French designer named Michel Tetu to bring the project to fruition, although Pietro Frua is credited with the original styling. Using over its two-year career various Ford Cosworth four cylinder engines, the best results in non-championship sports car events came at Albi and Montlhery in 1970 with Ligier himself driving. Ligier also entered for Le Mans, co-driving with Jean-Claude Andruet but they only lasted 65 laps before distributor failure ended their race. No matter, the Ligier marque had made an auspicious start as a constructor and back in Vichy, Tetu was just putting the finishing touches on the new car - the JS2.

Ligier had always intended to build cars for sale but there is no information to suggest that more than one JS1 chassis was ever made before they moved on to the JS2. From the outset however, the new car (in reality no more than a development of the first) was designed as a road and racing car in an attempt to satisfy the homologation requirements of the World Sportscar Championship. Tetu had settled on using a Ford V6 Cosworth engine and such a car was shown to the public for the first time at the Paris Salon in 1970. Unfortunately, Ford then withdrew their support, having realised that they might need that engine for the GT70 project, also destined to run in the World Sportscar Championship!

Too much time and money had been invested in the project for the Ligier team to just give up, but while they worked out a solution, Ligier sent Tetu literally back to the drawing board to come up with a stopgap for the 1971 racing season. And what a wonderful `stopgap' it proved to be. Tetu had created an open top sports prototype using aluminium honeycomb for the chassis and a Cosworth DFV engine subsequently named JS3. Ligier campaigned this car throughout 1971 in the championship while the JS2 project was on hold - which is why the numbers always seem to be out of order! The JS3 won at Montlhery, won a three-hour event at Le Mans and was then entered for the big one. Alas, a gearbox change led to lengthy periods in the pits during the 24 hours and although running at the end of the race, the JS3 was unclassified in the results.

After Le Mans, Ligier pensioned off the JS3 and it was never used again (see note 1 below). This was because things were looking up for the JS2 project with an offer from a most unlikely source.

Ligier, by Citroen, by Maserati.

In late 1971 Citroen stepped into the breach to help Ligier by agreeing to supply engines and transaxles from the Citroen SM to power the JS2. The 2.7-litre V6 unit was dimensionally similar to the Ford engine and the five-speed transaxle was a bonus as previously the choice would only have been between a Hewland race box or a Renault road car box - the former difficult to use on the road, the latter hardly able to take the power. The other bonus was that the engine was made by Maserati.

This engine had been at the heart of the Citroen takeover of Maserati in 1968. The French giant had no in-house motor suitable for its proposed `supercar' and Maserati, well, they always needed a bit of help didn't they? There is an old wives tale that persists in which Maserati told its chief engineer, Giulio Alfieri, to build the new engine within six weeks and so Alfieri chopped two cylinders off an existing V8 and hey presto (see note 2 below). This is only true in as much as Alfieri did work quickly and the only physical similarity between the new V6 and the old V8 is really the angle of the V, which at 90 degrees is unusual for a V6. It reduces the overall height of the engine however, which would have been necessary for it to fit under the sleek bonnet of the SM.

The capacity of 2.7 litres (2670cc) was agreed between Citroen and Maserati due to the nuances of French engine size taxation and when the car went on sale in its original form in 1970, the SM engine produced 170bhp @ 5500rpm. However, by 1972, Alfieri was already working on increasing the engine size to 3.0 litres - primarily for the automatic version of the SM, but also for the forthcoming Maserati Merak. It was this size that appealed to Ligier, because of the potential for extra horsepower and so the JS2 road car got ever closer to production. Some comment that Ligier themselves overbored the V6 engine to 2.9 litres but this hardly makes sense. What is most likely is that the Ligier waited until the 3.0-litre engine was ready and fitted these into the JS2 road cars. In carburettor guise, these engines would have produced around 200bhp - remember that this was all before the SS version of the Merak was developed.

The chassis and suspension were standard sports car of the time, designed by Tetu and, as previously stated, the JS2 body was an evolution of the JS1. A fibreglass, mid-engined two seater based on a design by Pietro Frua. A pretty car from most angles but one that suffered in styling terms from the needs of any low volume manufacturer to make proprietary parts fit. When new, the JS2 cost FF22,000, which was more than a Citroen SM. With the 3.Olitre engine, they produced 195bhp and could manage 235km/h. Production of road cars took place at the factory in Vichy between 1972 and 1975 and sources record wildly contradictory figures for the total number of examples built. Presumably Ligier needed to 'blue-sky' the FIA for homologation purposes but while one source states 295 in all, another equally reputable one says 77. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle but needless to say, they are extremely rare cars today. One source remarked that JS2s were another victim of the oil crisis of the early/mid seventies and Ligier in fact remaindered the bulk of unsold stock back to Citroen to sell through hapless dealers of their own. In the course of research for this article, I came across one car for sale in New Zealand and another in a museum at Sinsheim in Germany. It is unlikely that there is one in the UK - but as always, if you know differently, please let me know!

The lure of Le Mans.

Although road car production was an important aspect of the JS2 project, it was ultimately sustained to provide the means to go racing. Ligier wasted no time in preparing a Maserati engined JS2 for competition and in spring 1972 the car competed in the Rallye Des Ardennes with Jean-Francois Piot in the driving seat. It recorded a DNF that day but was back for the traditional Le Mans test weekend in April when Guy Ligier accompanied Piot to set a healthy 4'22" fastest lap - enough to qualify for the main event in June.

With lucrative BP sponsorship and some burnt midnight oil for the team, Ligier managed to line up three JS2 Maseratis for the beginning of the 24-hour race. Two were the official factory entry in BP green and yellow - the number 22 car for Laffite and Maublanc, the number 21 for Piot and Ligier himself. The third car was entered privately by Claude Laurent and raced by he and Martial Delalande. No doubt the Ligier factory helped out as both Ligier and Piot were acknowledged as reserve drivers for this car. All three cars looked outwardly similar to the road version, with the exception of a rear aerofoil and larger wheels with slick tyres. Clearly however, the engines must have been modified to be competitive and this raises some interesting questions, of which more later.

None of the three cars finished the race in 1972, the Maublanc/Laffite car surviving the longest completing 195 laps before succumbing to an unspecific `engine' problem. Low oil pressure and a broken engine valve claimed the Laurent and Piot cars respectively. To draw a line under a frustrating season, Piot also DNF'd on the Tour de Course. Clearly there was some development to do, not least of which at Maserati.

In 1973, Ligier committed fully to the World Sportscar Championship and the JS2 Maseratis competed in the 1000kms of Dijon, the Tour de France, the Giro D'Italia, plus of course another three-car assault on Le Mans. From all of this, the team were only able to achieve a 10th place in the Tour de France and 19th at Le Mans for the Laurent/Delalande private entry - the same car they had raced the previous year. Engine woes were still high on the list of reasons for failure to finish - including the disqualification of Ligier's own Le Mans entry for illegal replenishment of the engine oil.

Lacklustre results and flagging morale in the team brought about a rethink for 1974. Up to now, the racing cars had closely resembled their road going cousins, but for the new season Tetu worked out an aerodynamics package that was to include a towering rear spoiler and a deep front splitter as well as pumped up wheel arches to accommodate ever-widening wheels and tyres. Engines were uprated again and the cars showed an immediate improvement. As Michel Bollee notes in his book on Maserati at Le Mans, the victory by a JS2 Maserati at the 4 hour season opening event in April was the only victory by a Maserati engine at La Sarthe to date - another cracking quiz question!

During the test weekend for the 24-hour race, Guy Chassieul managed to record a fastest lap of 3'57". The track and even the weather was the same as it had been in 1972, which show just how much progress the team from Vichy had made in three seasons. This newfound momentum carried another JS2 driven by Jacques Laffite and Alain Serpaggi to 8th place in the Monza 1000kms before yet again, all eyes focused on Le Mans.

There was only a two-car entry for the '74 race (the private Claude Laurent car having been retired at the end of the previous season) but with new sponsorship from the Total oil company, the now dark blue Ligier Maseratis looked the part as the flag dropped at four o'clock. The number 14 car of Chasseuil and Michel Leclere DNF'd on its 82nd lap, again with valve problems but the Laflite/Serpaggi number 15 car not only made it all the way to the finish but came in 8th overall. Guy Ligier must have been overjoyed that his team had finally finished well at Le Mans, though maybe his elation was tinged with a little sadness - for although he had signed up as a reserve driver for both of his cars, it was the first time a Ligier had competed at Le Mans without the boss driving and it more or less marked the end of Ligier's driving career.

In August, at the Paul Ricard 1000kms, Chasseuil, together with Francois Migault, managed to get 6th place and so the Ligier team worked towards September's Tour de France Auto with renewed enthusiasm. Like all of the great races, the Tour de France had been devised in a simpler age and mixed the disciplines of the rally with those of the racecourse. Any team that produced a winner here needed a good all rounder. Two JS2s were prepared especially for the 1974 event and not only did the 139 car of Gerard Larrousse and Jean-Pierre Nicolas come home in first place, but the 140 car of Bernard Darniche and Jean Joubert came second. It would prove to be the best result a Ligier JS2 ever obtained and one of the last for Maserati engine.

They returned to Le Mans in 1975 with the single JS2 Maserati for Jarier/Beltoise, which brings us back to where we started. Guy Ligier reverted to Ford DFV power for the remainder of the JS2s career but this would only be the 1975 season as for 1976, this determined Frenchman had already set his sights on Formula One and would never again race Sports-prototypes.

24-valve engine - the Holy Grail.

Most sources I have come across casually state that Ligier used a 24-valve version of the V6 engine in their racing JS2s - and yet I cannot find photographic proof of this anywhere. I rushed to look into the engine bay of the car I recently saw on the Dijon rally, only to find that it has a reasonably standard looking 12 valve Merak/SM engine. The only picture I have ever seen of a 24-valve engine is in the Peter Pijlman book on the Citroen SM and that states that a number of these engines were built by Alfieri to produce 380bhp on fuel injection, gear driven camshafts and a dry sump. This output was apparently achieved at a stratospheric 11,000rpm! Yet, Maserati themselves have no information on this and Signor Cozza at the Factory only remembers two or three experimental engines. Given the current plundering of the Maserati archives for any historical marketing, surely we would have seen some pictures of such an engine, especially if it had it been used for racing?

Between Alfieri (see note 3) and the Citroen engineers, the 3.O-litre twelve-valve engine could be persuaded to give around 330bhp, especially on racing type fuel injection. This is far more likely to be engine used by Ligier for the majority of the JS2 campaign. However, Michel Bollee in Maserati at Le Mans records the power output of the 1974 JS2 at 380bhp, coincidentally the same figure Pijlman gives. It should also be mentioned that a great number of the DNFs for the JS2 stemmed from valve trouble (if you'll excuse the pun) and yet in 1974, there were no such issues. One could therefore conclude that the 24-valve engine was developed to address these issues and was fitted to the JS2 but only for 1974.

It is some compliment to the abilities of Giulio Alfieri at Maserati that the engine he created under pressure for the SM road car could be developed into a race winner and that it took the might of the Cosworth DFV to better it.

Monsieur Bordier's JS2.

For me, the sight of a JS2 actually running on a circuit was the high point of the recent French International at Dijon. It was a tatty old thing but there is something beguiling and noble about a racing car that looks as if it has had a hard life. This was the first JS2 I had ever seen in the metal and I tried to find out as much as I could about it on the day (see note 4). Alas, the French owner was somewhat `monosyllabique' about his fantastic car, even when I helpfully pointed out that he had blown the oil filler cap off and was spraying engine oil around the inside of the Perspex rear window.

As has been said earlier, the engine looked very much the same as a pre-SS Merak engine, except that the ignition system had been uprated to a transistor type. It was even on carburettors, albeit larger Webers than a road car and with a custom-made air box ramming as much unfiltered air in as possible. Needless to say the exhaust system was also made to measure and minimalist in the silencing department. The transaxle was also familiar to any Merak owner but shorn of the inboard rear discs and the LHM clutch actuation. The suspension and brakes on this car were pure early seventies racing fare - simple but effective. One interesting point was that Ligier had felt the need to re-engineer the driveshaft flanges further forward and there was a kind of drop gear arrangement on either side of the transaxle casing to accommodate this. A simpler way to do this would have been merely to mount engine and transaxle further to the front and it remains a mystery why they would not have chosen to do it this way.

I had the good fortune to cadge a ride with Andrew Green in his Barchetta and we happened to leave the pits just behind the JS2 as it started its first warm up lap of the day. We had a bird's eye view as the car darted this way and that, the driver vainly trying to hurry some warmth into what was clearly last year's rubber. And even with a helmet on and over the noise of a Barchetta at 7,000 revs, the howl of the Ligier was immense - that fantastic no compromise, un-PC, mad, bad and dangerous noise a real racing car makes. Grumpy as hell until the cam timing wakes up, then really loud, high-pitched and hard. At the end of the lap, we shot past the JS2 (there's progress for you), but could still hear it giving chase. In fact, I can still hear that noise now.

To end.

I spent a considerable amount of time researching this article and yet it probably asks as many questions as it answers. I made enquiries to various sources and yet nobody really seems to know much about the JS2s, either race or road cars, or the 24-valve engines. If you have any information about these cars, I would love to hear from you.

Notes.

Note 1. JS3 history. Following Le Mans in 1971, the unique Ligier JS3 was sold to a private collection at Mas Du Clos in France, where it was rarely seen. In 1998, dealer Christophe Pund offered it for sale in need of a complete restoration. This was carried out in the UK by Simon Hadfield for the new owner Nicolas Zapata. Following the restoration, Willie Green raced it in historics. In 2003, the car was offered for sale again and was bought by Michael Jankowski, owner of the team `Creation Autosportif'. After many events in 2004, the car is currently undergoing further restorative work, including some improvements, under the watchful eye of its original designer Michel Tetu.

Note 2. Alfieri and the C114 engine. In his excellent book on the Citroen SM, Peter Pijlman describes how Alfieri was given the brief to design the V6 engine as long ago as 1963 and without being told from whom the brief originated. He goes on to state that Alfieri presented engineering drawings to the Citroen board (he had guessed the client) a few days later. Alfieri impressed the board and Maserati gained the contract to produce the engine on the back of this. Personally, I think that although the story may be correct, the date cannot be right. In 1963, Maserati and Alfieri were still in the process of honing the V8 design from 4505, through 5000GT, through Quattroporte. It would not be until 1968 and the Ghibli engine that the real blueprint that was copied for the SM engine arrived.

Note 3. Peter Mjlman again: For his own enjoyment, Giulio Alfieri installed a Maserati V8 engine into his SM. He and his wife drove it until 1979, when he left Maserati to become a director at Lamborghini, leaving the car at Maserati. Whether the car still exists is not known.'

Note 4. Crump and Box acknowledged the existence of the JS2 in their various `Maserati sports and racing cars' volumes. In all, the pictures show only one car, which must be the car I saw and now owned by M. Bordier. Why? Because this car, although clearly original, bears no resemblance to any of the Le Mans cars and it's early history remains unknown.

"Issue de la JS1 qui etait une voiture de competition, la JS2 est devenue une grande routiere d'une extreme velocite, elle a cependant su garder les qualites de tenue de route et de freinage qui sont les caracteristiques principales d'une vraie voiture de competition. Elle s'est en outre enrichie de qualites de confort et d'un coffre a bagages important, indispensables a une grande routiere. Cet ensemble de qualites en fait une voiture vraiment exceptionnelle que seul un essai pourra vous faire decouvrir."

Descended from the JS1 that was a car for competition use, the JS2 has now grown into a high speed grand tourer, whilst being careful to maintain its road holding and braking capability, the principal characteristics of a true race car. Moreover, it boasts a high level of comfort and an ample boot, qualities essential in a grand tourer. In fact this combination of factors has produced a really exceptional motor car that only a test drive will reveal.




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