When Ford beat Ferrari in 1966, 1967, 1968 and 1969 with the legendary GT40

In the early 1960’s, Ford was called by Ferrari. Ferarri said they were for sale and they were lokking for people interested to buy them. Ford took this opportunity, but later they were called again with Ferrari saying the deal was off. Turned out they wanted to sell their company to Fiat, and just wanted Fiat to pay a Higher price. 

Ford was angry, of course, so they sought revenge, at the racetrack. They failed magnificent in 1964 and in 1965. But during this period Carrol Shelby (I’ll write more about him soon, of you can’t wait Here you can see a movie about him). Henry Ford II Tasked Shelby with this: He had to build a car that could go over 200mph and that could do a race like the 24h of LeMans.

What Shelby basicly did was designing a supercar with a musclecar engine. He decided to fit the Ford 427 (7.0 litre) V8 in his supercar. This engine had to compete with Ferrari’s 3.0L or 4.0L V12. This was how the GT40 came to life.

The GT40 would be driven by Ken Miles. Shelby himself said that Miles was the best sportscar driver of America, and that he could most likely win the LeMans race for Ford, to take revenge on Ferrari. Ken Miles was a WW2 tank commander from Birmingham (Great Britain, not Alabama).

The first GT40 was very ‘bad’. When Miles got out of the car for tje first time he said: ‘It’s bloddy awful!’. This however was in 1965, when none of the GT40’s finished the LeMans race and Ferrari humiliated Ford again, just like in 1964. But than….

1966. Ford returns to LeMans, with it hopes resting on the GT40 Mark II, who was ‘better’, it had the 7.0 litre V8 wich Ford was famous for, instead of the 4.2 litre the 1965 GT40 had. The car was also more relaible, because the first GT40 was untamable at high speeds, with the MK II this was not the case. And after thousends of test drive hours in this new car Ken Miles wa squite positive about the race. 

Ford’s opponet Ferrari also deployed a new car, the 330 P3. Fitted with a V12 engine and a top speed of 190mph, this car was slower that the GT40, wich had a top speed of 210mph. Enzo Ferrari was willing to sacrifice speed for manouvrebility. The P3 was lighter and more agile that the GT40, and it didn’t had to stop so much for fuel.

In the first hours of the race, the GT40’s were looking like they would be victorious, but when night fell, it lokked like a repeat of 1964 and 1965. The Ford drivers had strict orders not to push their cars to it’s limits, for fear of the car breaking down…

Ken Miles wasn’t listening to those orders. Miles set blistering lap times and reset the lead in his GT40. The ferrari’s couldn’t catch up anymore, because the had either broken down or crashed. That morning Ford’s Gt40 was victorious apfor the first time at LeMans. 

There is a film made about this event, wich I think every pertolhead, young or old should watch. Ford v Ferrari, or LeMans ‘66 in Europe. Watch it Here