This weekend, at the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, there will be a South African built Bailey LMP2 on show. Although the car won’t make its track debut this time, it will be on display at the Espace Privilege – Club ACO. This is an area reserved for VIPs but also visible to the general public, meaning that tens of thousands of significant people will be able to view the Bailey Cars LMP2 prototype race car. The vehicle will be unveiled to the media on June 12th, the day before the first practice sessions of the race week.

The plan is to raise significant awareness for the team as a precursor to running in the European Le Mans series later this year and hopefully at the Le Mans 24 hour race next year. The project has had to overcome many obstacles and the state of the world economy has not helped its cause. A litmus test of just how tough things have been is the liquidation of the famous and historic Lola car company, which has been building racing cars in England for Formula 1 and Le Mans for over 40 years. The situation is an unfortunate by product of the decline in the world economy and the subsequent effect on motorsport sponsorship deals.

In any event, this is a big step forward for the Bailey Cars factory and shows the progress made by the company. Bailey Cars are the cars to own if you want to win in South African Historic racing classes. The factory now has a worldwide presence with their Porsche 917 and Ford GT4O replica cars, with dealers across the USA. They recently broke into a new market by supplying a 917 to a buyer from India!

Two more of the Bailey LMP2 cars are currently being built: one that will be going to Sbarta Sport in France and another ordered by a South African racer. This car will make its debut on local tracks by the end of August this year.

Source : Bailey Cars