The Ford GT40 is a high-performance endurance racing car designed and built by the Ford Motor Company. It grew out of the “Ford GT” (for Grand Touring) project, an effort to compete in European long-distance sports car races, against Ferrari, who had won the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans race from 1960 to 1965. Ford succeeded with the GT40, winning the 1966 through 1969 races.
The effort began in the early 1960s when Ford Advanced Vehicles began to build the GT40 Mk I car, based upon the Lola Mk6, at their base in Slough, UK. After disappointing race results, the engineering team was moved in 1964 to Dearborn, Michigan, USA to design and build cars by Kar Kraft. All chassis versions were powered by a series of American-built Ford V8 engines modified for racing.
In 1966, Ford with the GT40 Mk II car broke Ferrari’s winning streak at Le Mans, thus becoming the first American manufacturer to have won a major European race since Jimmy Murphy’s triumph with Duesenberg at the 1921 French Grand Prix.[5][6][7] In 1967, the Mk IV car became the only car designed and built entirely (both chassis and engine) in the United States to achieve the overall win at Le Mans.[8]
The Mk I, the oldest of the cars, won in 1968 and 1969, the second chassis to win Le Mans more than once. (This Ford/Shelby chassis, #P-1075, was believed to have been the first until the Ferrari 275P chassis 0816 was revealed to have won the 1964 race after winning the 1963 race in 250P configuration and with a 0814 chassis plate[9]). Its American Ford V8 engine, originally of 4.7-liter displacement capacity (289 cubic inches), was enlarged to 4.9 litres (302 cubic inches), with custom alloy Gurney–Weslake cylinder heads.
The “40” represented its height of 40 inches (1.02 m), measured at the windscreen, the minimum allowed. The first 12 “prototype” vehicles carried serial numbers GT-101 to GT-112. Once “production” began, the Mk I, Mk II, Mk III, and Mk IV were numbered GT40P/1000 through GT40P/1145, and thus officially “GT40s”. The Mk IVs were numbered J1-J12.
It was born out of motorsport’s most infamous grudge.
Following months of careful negotiation, Ford was ready to do a deal with Enzo Ferrari to purchase his company. The Old Man, as wily as he was, knew he needed some major investment, and Ford wanted to go endurance racing. By May 1963, a deal was on the table, bringing the US behemoth together with the Italian upstart to create road cars and competition machinery. But when Enzo, who may never have intended to sell at all, baulked at losing the autonomy he so cherished, he sent the Americans packing. Empty-handed on his return to Detroit, Ford’s point man, Don Frey, was told by Henry Ford II to ‘go to Le Mans, and beat his ass.’ Or so the legend goes.
The result was the GT40, a car that most definitely is a legend. As impassive a motorsport legend as the statues on Easter Island, as looming a presence as the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey – everyone knows that the GT40 cleaned up in 1960s sports car racing, but the fact that you’d probably struggle to name any of the winning drivers confirms the star power of this particular car.
Yet its development was decidedly ad hoc, its engineering improvisational, and success far from guaranteed, not least because Ford as an organisation had precious little racing expertise when the boss issued his ultimatum. In fact, it was an expat Brit called Roy Lunn – who sadly passed away earlier this month – who had been involved with Aston Martin’s 1949 Le Mans effort and was running Ford’s advanced vehicle department, who got the gig. Lunn’s team had developed 1962’s Mustang concept, a forward-thinking, mid-engined, aluminium-bodied roadster (the pony car that arrived two years later was rather different).
On June 12th, Lunn and Frey presented a confidential competition programme to Ford’s cigar-chomping execs, envisaging a mid-engined racecar called the GT40 (it stood just 40in high), and a road-going GT46 iteration. According to Preston Lerner’s new book on Ford’s big adventure, Lunn wanted to ‘create a high performance, two-seater sportscar prototype that, if produced in low volume, would neutalise the Corvette image’. Apparently it took five minutes to get sign-off, the other 55 being spent discussing the marketing s #jeeplife #diesel #ford #youtubechannel #youtube #youtuber #youtubers #subscribe #youtubevideos #sub #youtubevideo #like #instagram #follow #video #vlog #subscribetomychannel #gaming #music #explorepage #love #smallyoutuber #vlogger #youtubegaming #instagood #gamer #youtubecommunity #likes #explore #youtubelife #youtubecreator #ps #bhfypdançar #viral #share #linkinbio #tiktok #youtubekids #newyoutuber #youtubesubscribers #subscribers #k #smallyoutubersupport #followforfollowback #subforsub #blogger #youtubemusic #comment #youtuberindonesia #newvideo #art #photography #instadaily #contentcreator #memes #twitch #trending #followback #youtubegamer #subs #youtubeindia #fortnite #followme
source