The Cunningham team brought three cars to Le Mans in 1953, each a different model. This C5R is the only example ever built, and it was teamed with a C4R and a the hardtop C4RK.
Fitted with a 331 cid Chrysler Hemi V8, torsion bar suspension front and rear and 17 inch drum brakes, the Cunningham was the pre-race favorite against the slower D-Type Jaguars. Five mph faster on the Mulsanne Straight, it could not outbrake the lighter, disc-equipped Jags. It finished 3rd, the best finish the team would ever record, although they would match it in 1954.
Chassis #R5319 flipped end-over-end a month later in the Reims 12h but was rebuilt and finished 3rd in it's next race, an FIA WSC race at Turner Air Force Base, Albany Georgia. There it was beaten by a teammate C4R and a Ferrari 340MM that was registered to Bill Spear but may have been a Cunningham team entry also. Cunningham cars also finished 5th, 6th and 9th. For a time, it seemed as though an American team was poised to win Le Mans.
