Among the Bugattis, the Bentley, the Chenard-Walckers, the Excelsiors, and many other continental Europe racing standbys of the interwar era that had lined up for the inaugural 24 Hours of Le Mans sat a lone Ford Model T. It wasn’t described as such on the entry list, and it sported a number of modifications that almost made it unrecognizable as a Model T, but a Ford it was nevertheless, making it the first one to race at Le Mans, long before the GT40s that ran in the Sixties and the Mustang that Ford wants to enter there for the 92nd installment in June 2024. So how did a Model T get there?
Charles Montier is hardly a household name these days, particularly here in the United States, but in a way, the French-man was an analogue to Carroll Shelby, Colin Chapman, or Sydney Allard, all of them adept at transforming common
