Not Ranked
The recent pictures outside the factory were almost certainly taken in mid 2001 when it was being prepared for the the historic Le Mans race. The BMW X5 in the background was being used at that time by Allan Lubinsky. I saw it there at the time but stupidly did not take any photos as the disc drive in my camera was full.
There is a full section on the car in Simon Taylor and Peter Burn's book "AC Heritage" with some nice mid 90's photos of it. In these it still wears FIA style wheels. I presume these were changed for the 2001 Le Mans race. I don't think I'd want to race for any extended period on magnesium wheels that could be almost 40 years old.
All the other facts in this thread are, I believe, correct, including the connection with the speed limit. I can remember as a kid reading about it in the papers - maybe that's where my passion started.
Jack Sears still farms in the UK and keeps in touch with one of my farmer neighbours. His sister used to live just up the road from us and sold her house to a close friend of ours who used to head up Ford of Europe's product planning.
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