1973 Ligier JS2 Pilots: J-P. Paoli, A. Couderc Team: Automobiles Ligier Race: DNF (class S 3.0) at Le Mans in 1973 Spark - S0546 (resin)
Published 06/16/17
Automobiles Ligier was founded in 1968 by Guy Ligier, and the JS2 was the company’s second car. Both the preceding JS1 and JS2 were called that way as a tribute to the late Jo Schlesser. Schlesser was Guy’s business partner and close friend. The JS2 was built on an aluminum chassis with fiberglass bodywork by Frua and when it was introduced in 1970, was powered by a 2.6 liter Ford V6. But in 1973 Ligier made a deal with Maserati and the car received the larger C114 engine, a 2965 cm³ 90 degree DOHC V6 with hemispherical combustion chambers and 12 valves.
In 1973 Ligier had two works cars at La Sarthe. Both had engines highly tuned to 2991 cm³ and producing over 330 hp, but both DNF. Car #62 was disqualified for an illegal oil replenishment and this #19 (#JS2-002) had to abandon the race with an oil leakage.
Another oddball model that from my perspective as an ex-1:18 collector is absolutely fantastic. Something I could only dream of some 10 years ago, and a VERY nice model by the folks at Spark. However, the only thing off is the headlight lenses, that as you can see are foggy . I think that happened because Spark used too much glue at assembly. Despite that, overall it’s a very nice model in the distinctive BP colors. But just because of that, my Ixo is a better model.