Guichet came to motorsport as a young rally driver associated with Renault, whose rally cars used Gordini engines. His first appearance at Le Mans came in 1956 as an official driver for Gordini alongside Robert Manzon. He subsequently built his career as a private competitor, purchasing and racing Ferrari machinery with his own resources.
Guichet drove for Ferrari as a private driver from 1957, funding his own racing with support from his shipbuilding business. Racing alongside Pierre Noblet in a small but well-run private team, he made his mark at Le Mans with a Ferrari 250 SWB and then the Ferrari 250 GTO. The pair finished third overall at Le Mans in 1961 and second in 1962, achieving the latter result against official factory teams running more powerful prototype cars. Guichet described the GTO as extraordinary: fast and robust enough to challenge full factory prototypes in the hands of a private GT entry.
He also competed in the Tour de France Automobile and the 6 Hours de Dakar in 1963, winning both events in a Ferrari GTO. A second-place finish at the Nürburgring 1000 Kilometres in 1963 completed a series of results that persuaded Enzo Ferrari to recruit him directly.
Enzo Ferrari contacted Guichet personally following his GTO results and offered him a place as an official Scuderia driver. His first race with an official car was Le Mans in 1963, driving the 330 LMB four-litre prototype.
At Le Mans in 1964, Guichet and Vaccarella drove a Ferrari 275 P. Two hours into the race the pair held third position. During the night they moved to the front repeatedly, benefiting from problems affecting the sister Ferrari driven by John Surtees and Lorenzo Bandini. Guichet and Vaccarella moved definitively into the lead at the halfway point and held it to the finish, completing the race with a five-lap advantage over second-placed Graham Hill and Jo Bonnier in another Ferrari. The distance covered, 4,965 kilometres, set a new race record and came close to the elusive 5,000-kilometre barrier.
At the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1967, Guichet was paired with Pedro Rodriguez in a Ferrari 412P. Ferrari entered the race under pressure after Ford's clean sweep at Le Mans, Daytona, and Sebring in 1966. Ferrari's technical problems, including gearbox failures that had plagued the Le Mans campaign, had been corrected. Ferrari finished first, second, and third at Daytona, with Guichet and Rodriguez third. Towards the end of the race Ferrari management instructed the three leading cars to cross the finish line together, an act Guichet described as their revenge on Ford following 1966. The pair had previously won the 12 Hours de Reims together in 1965 in a Ferrari P2.
Guichet described his approach to endurance racing in pragmatic terms, focusing on respecting the car's limits and never exceeding the agreed strategy. He characterised his partnership with Rodriguez, known for aggressive and risk-tolerant driving, as highly complementary: the two styles balanced each other effectively across long-distance events.
Guichet raced at Le Mans thirteen times in total, between 1956 and 1975, driving Ferrari machinery in seven of those appearances. He completed the 24-hour race for the final time in 1969, driving a Matra alongside his 1964 co-driver Vaccarella. He has been referred to as the "Dean" of former Le Mans winners, a title reflecting both his age and the depth of his connection to French endurance racing history.
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