After their victorious debut in 1995, the 24 Hours of Le Mans the following year was set to be a much tougher affair for the McLaren F1 GTR. The 1996 iteration of the fastest production car in the world at the time had seen a number of improvements, but the new Porsche 911 GT1s proved to be dominant in qualifying and even the excellent driver line ups of the McLaren teams were not enough. 

The strongest of these teams was undoubtedly the Bigazzi team from Italy. With one car shared between ex-F1 driver Jacques Laffite, Touring Car megastar Steve Soper, and Belgian Endurance expert Marc Duez, they were classified 11^th after needing exhaust repairs and a new gearbox in the night. The other car that featured an American flag over the rear bodywork was piloted by Danny Sullivan, Johnny Cecotto and triple F1 world Champion Nelson Piquet. This team also needed a new gearbox to complete the 24 hours, and due to a host of other issues the car concluded the 1996 24 Hours of Le Mans in 8^th place.