Guy Camille Ligier (French pronunciation: [ɡi ka.mij li.ʒje]; 12 July 1930 – 23 August 2015) was a French racing driver and team owner. He maintained many varied and successful careers over the course of his life, including rugby player, butcher, racing driver and Formula One team owner.
Ligier is the father of Philippe and Pascale Ligier and the grand father of Etienne Ligier former French motorsport hopeful.
The son of a farmer, Ligier was orphaned at 7 years of age. He left school in his mid-teens and went to work as a butcher's assistant in his home town of Vichy.
Athletic and competitive, Ligier became a French rowing champion in 1947. He also had a passion for rugby and was good enough to play for the French Army during National Service earning a place on the French national B team. His rugby career was cut short due to injuries.
Determined to become successful, Ligier saved all of the money he earned working as a butcher to fund his aspirations. In 1960, he rented a backhoe and, a short time later, bought a bulldozer of his own and went into the construction business.
With help from Pierre Coulon, Vichy's Mayor, Ligier founded the public works company "Ligier Travaux Publics". With motorway construction booming in France, Ligier was able to rapidly expand his business. By 1961, he had 1200 employees and 500 machines and had also diversified into bridges, dams and development. During this period, his business contacts allowed him to make important friends in (then) local politicians François Mitterrand and Pierre Bérégovoy.
When his rugby career ended, Ligier switched to racing but on motorcycles. He would win the French Motorbike Championship in the 500cc class riding a Norton Manx "LA" in 1959 and in 1960.
Ligier made an early foray into auto racing with a Simca 1300 at the 1957 Parisian Salon Cups in Montlhéry, but it was in 1960 that he first tried his hand at single-seater racing with a Formula Junior Elva-DKW, which he drove at Monaco and Montlhéry.
By 1964, Ligier was racing Porsche sportscars as part of Auguste Veuillet's team, starting with a 356 and then a 904 Carrera GTS, in which he placed seventh with Robert Buchet at the 1964 24 Hours of Le Mans. That same year, Ford France signed Ligier to drive one of two Formula 2 Brabham BT6 cars. These were year-old models, but one would be replaced by a newer Brabham BT10 during the season. Ligier's teammate was Jo Schlesser. Ligier finished fifth in his debut at Enna-Pergusa. So at the relatively late age of 34 Ligier began his "real" career as a driver.
In 1965, Ligier won the 24th Grand Prix de Albi Sports in a GT40 for Ford. In 1966, he drove Shelby Mustang GT350 chassis 5R209 rented to Martial Delalande to a second-place finish in the 14th "Rallye des Routes du Nord".
Ligier broke into Formula One as a privateer, entering his own Cooper-Maserati T81 in the 1966 Monaco Grand Prix. In five starts with this car he either ran unclassified or out of the points. That year he and Schlesser also joined forces to become the exclusive importer of Ford-Shelby products to France.
Teaming with Schlesser in a Ford France GT40 again that year produced good results – a fifth-place finish at the Nürburgring 1000 km. Although his year was ended by a knee broken while practicing for the German GP, things could have been worse. Following the crash doctors had wanted to amputate and it was only through the intervention of Schlesser that the leg was saved.
In 1967, Ligier fielded another car of his own, a Brabham-Repco BT20, in the British Grand Prix. His sixth-place finish in Germany produced the only championship point of his F1 career. Ligier also won the 12 Hours of Reims when sharing a GT40 Mk IIB with Schlesser.
In 1968, Ligier drove a Ford Escort TC in the Coupes de Vitesse. That was the same year that Ford France was winding down its motorsports involvement, so Ligier partnered with Schlesser and José Behra to launch Ecurie InterSport with a pair of McLaren Formula 2 cars. Schlesser was killed that year in his Formula One debut at the French Grand Prix while at the wheel of the magnesium-bodied air-cooled Honda RA302 Formula One car. The shocking loss of his friend prompts Ligier to retire from racing.
Ligier had one outing in a Ford Escort TC in the 1969 Coupes de l'ACIF, but he returned to regular competition in 1970 for the 24 Hours of Le Mans in a car bearing his own name, the Ligier JS1, and continued to participate in various endurance races with his own cars until 1974.
In total, Ligier participated in thirteen Grand Prix Formula 1 races, getting one point in the drivers' world championship with an eighth-place finish in the German Grand Prix in 1966 due to the two finishers in front of him being F2 cars, and so ineligible for F1 points.
GT Class win in Coupes du Salon 1963 (de Montlhéry, in a Porsche 356 Carrera);
1964 Coupes de vitesse (de Montlhéry, in a Porsche 904 GTS);