Ford GT40
The Ford GT40 is a high-performance mid-engined racing car originally designed and built for and by the Ford Motor Company to compete in 1960s European endurance racing and the World Sportscar Championship. Its specific impetus was to beat Scuderia Ferrari, which had won the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans race for six years running from 1964 to 1969. As rules of the time required that GT cars were built in dozens and sold, around 100 cars in total have been made, mostly as V8-powered Mk Is, of which at least 50 were made in 1965, which allowed FIA-homologation as Group-4-Sportscar for 1966 until 1971. This gave the old MK.I car of Gulf-Wyer the chance to enter and win Le Mans in 1968 and 1969 after prototypes had been limited to 3 litre, with the performance of the Ford 7-litre-V8 in the factory 1966 Mk.II and 1967 Mk.IV prototypes causing this rule change, which also banned the 4-litre V12 Ferrari 330P4 and others after 1967. The Mk.III designation was used for some road-legal cars.
The Ford GT40 debuted in 1964, and improvements in 1965 led to Ford winning World Championships categories from 1966 to 1968. The first Le Mans win came in 1966 with three powered Mk.II prototypes crossing the finish line together, the second in 1967 with the same engine now in quite different US-built Mk.IV prototype chassis similar to the "J-car" mule. In order to lower ever-higher race top speeds, a rule change from 1968 onwards limited prototypes to 3.0 litre Formula 1 engines; the sportscar "loophole", however, allowed the private JW "Gulf Oil" team to win at Le Mans in 1968 and 1969 running a Mk.I with a 5.0 litre engine.
The GT40 effort began in Britain in the early 1960s when Ford Advanced Vehicles began to build the Mk I, based upon the British Lola Mk6, in Slough, UK. After disappointing race results, the engineering team was moved in 1964 to Dearborn, Michigan, US, to design and build cars by its advanced developer, Kar Kraft. All chassis versions were powered by a series of American-built Ford V8 OHV engines modified for racing.
In the 1966 Le Mans, the GT40 Mk II car broke Ferrari's winning streak, making Ford the first American manufacturer to win a major European race since Jimmy Murphy's Duesenberg in the 1921 French Grand Prix. In the 1967 Le Mans, the GT40 Mk IV car became the only car developed and assembled entirely in the United States to achieve the overall win at Le Mans.
Name
The "GT" in the car's name stands for grand touring, and the "40" its height in inches measured at the top of the windscreen, the minimum allowed. The first 12 "prototype" vehicles carried serial numbers GT-101 to GT-112. Production GT40s began with GT40P/1000.History
had wanted a Ford at Le Mans since the early 1960s. In early 1963, Ford reportedly received word through a European intermediary that Enzo Ferrari was interested in selling to Ford Motor Company. Ford reportedly spent several million dollars in an audit of Ferrari factory assets and in legal negotiations, only to have Ferrari unilaterally cut off talks at a late stage due to disputes about the ability to direct open-wheel racing. Ferrari, who wanted to remain the sole operator of his company's motorsports division, was angered when he was told that he would not be allowed to race at the Indianapolis 500 again if the deal went through, since Ford fielded Lotus 29 cars with the new Ford Indy V8 engine and didn't want competition from Ferrari. Enzo cut the deal off out of spite and Henry Ford II, enraged, directed his racing division to find a company that could build a Ferrari-beater on the world endurance-racing Gran Turismo circuit.To this end, Ford began negotiation with Lotus, Lola, and Cooper. Cooper had no experience in GT or prototype and its performances in Formula One were declining as others also used the rear-mid engine layout.
The Lola proposal was chosen since Lola had used a Ford V8 engine in its mid-engined Lola Mk6. It was one of the most advanced racing cars of the time and made a noted performance in Le Mans 1963, even though the car did not finish, due to low gearing and slow revving out on the Mulsanne Straight. However, Eric Broadley, Lola Cars' owner and chief designer, agreed on a short-term personal contribution to the project without involving Lola Cars.
The agreement with Broadley included a one-year collaboration between Ford and Broadley, and the sale of the two Lola Mk 6 chassis builds to Ford. To form the development team, Ford also hired the ex-Aston Martin team manager John Wyer. Ford Motor Co. engineer Roy Lunn was sent to England; he had designed the mid-engined Mustang I concept car, making him the only Dearborn engineer to have some experience with that configuration.
Overseen by Harley Copp, the team of Broadley, Lunn, and Wyer began working on the new car at the Lola Factory in Bromley. At the end of 1963, the team moved to Slough, near Heathrow Airport. Ford then established Ford Advanced Vehicles Ltd, a new subsidiary under the direction of Wyer, to manage the project.
The first chassis built by Abbey Panels of Coventry was delivered on 16 March 1964, with fibreglass mouldings produced by Fibre Glass Engineering Ltd of Farnham. The first "Ford GT" the GT/101 was unveiled in England on 1 April and soon after exhibited in New York. Purchase price of the completed car for competition use was £5,200.
It was powered by the 4.7 L HiPo 289 cu in Fairlane engine with a Colotti transaxle. An aluminium block DOHC version, known as the Ford Indy V8 engine, won the 1965 Indianapolis 500 and in later years.
Racing history '64-'65
The Ford GT40 was first raced in May 1964 at the Nürburgring 1000 km where it retired with suspension failure after holding second place early in the event. Three weeks later at the 1964 24 Hours of Le Mans, all three entries retired, although the Ginther/Gregory car led the field from the second lap until its first pitstop. After a season-long series of dismal results under John Wyer in 1964, the program was handed over to Carroll Shelby after the 1964 Nassau race. The cars were sent directly to Shelby, still bearing the dirt and damage from the Nassau race. Carroll Shelby was noted for complaining that the cars were poorly maintained when he received them, but later information revealed the cars were packed up as soon as the race was over, and FAV never had a chance to clean and organize the cars to be transported to Shelby.Shelby's first victory came on their maiden race with the Ford program, with Ken Miles and Lloyd Ruby taking a Shelby American-entered Ford GT40 to victory in the Daytona 2000km in February 1965. One month later, Ken Miles and Bruce McLaren came in second overall and first in prototype class at the Sebring 12-hour race. The rest of the season, however, was a disappointment.
Racing history '66-'67
The experience gained in 1964 and 1965 allowed the 7-liter Mk II prototypes to dominate the following years. In addition, as more than 50 had been built, the 4.7 litre Mk.I was homologated as Group 4 Sportscar, and privateers could challenge for wins in the S 5.0 class, earning championship points for Ford in the 1966 World Sportscar Championship International Sports Car Championship Division III.In February, the GT40 again won at Daytona. This was the first year Daytona was run in the 24 hour format and Mk II's finished 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. In March, at the 1966 12 Hours of Sebring, GT40s again took all three top finishes, with the X-1 Roadster first, a Mk II taking second, and a Mk I in third. Then in June, at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the GT40 achieved the desired Le Mans victory, with yet another 1–2–3 result.
The "orchestrated" Le Mans finish, however, was clouded in controversy: The No1 car of Ken Miles and Denny Hulme held a four lap lead over the No2 car of Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon. This disintegrated when the No1 car was forced to make a pit-stop for replacement brake rotors, following an incorrect set being fitted a lap prior in a scheduled rotor change. It was found to be a result of the correct brake rotors being taken by the No2 crew.
This meant that in the final few hours, the Ford GT40 of New Zealanders Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon closely trailed the leading Ford GT40 driven by Englishman Ken Miles and New Zealander Denny Hulme. With a multimillion-dollar program finally on the very brink of success, Ford team officials faced a difficult choice. They could allow the drivers to settle the outcome by racing each other—and risk one or both cars breaking down or crashing; they could dictate a finishing order to the drivers—guaranteeing that one set of drivers would be extremely unhappy; or they could arrange a tie, with the McLaren/Amon and Miles/Hulme cars crossing the line side by side.
The team chose the latter and informed Shelby. He told McLaren and Miles of the decision just before the two got into their cars for the final stint. Then, not long before the finish, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest, organizers of the Le Mans event, informed Ford that the geographical difference in starting positions would be taken into account at a close finish. This meant that the McLaren/Amon vehicle, which had started perhaps behind the Hulme-Miles car, would have covered slightly more ground over the 24 hours and would, in the event of a tie for first place, be the winner. Secondly, Ford officials admitted later, the company's contentious relationship with Miles, its top contract driver, placed executives in a difficult position. They could reward an outstanding driver who had been at times extremely difficult to work with, or they could decide in favor of drivers who had committed less to the Ford program but who had been easier to deal with. Ford stuck with the orchestrated photo finish. What happened on the last lap remains the subject of speculation. Either Miles, deeply bitter over this decision after his dedication to the program, issued his own protest by suddenly slowing just yards from the finish and letting McLaren across the line first, or Bruce McLaren accelerated just before the finish line robbing Miles of his victory. Either way, McLaren's car was declared the victor.
Neither driver had many opportunities to elaborate on the event, as both died testing new race cars, McLaren in 1970. Already two months later in 1966 Ken Miles died at the wheel of the Ford "J-car" at Riverside Raceway. The J-car was a GT40 prototype that included several unique features, most notably an aluminium-honeycomb chassis construction and a "bread-van" body-design that experimented with "Kammback" aerodynamic theories. Miles' fatal accident was attributed at least partly to the unproven aerodynamics of the J-car design, and to the experimental chassis' strength that had no roll cage yet.
The team embarked on a complete redesign of the car, which became known as the Mk IV. The Mk IV newer design, with a Mk II engine but a different chassis and a different body, won the 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans, but only two of them finished, 1st and 4th. The high speeds achieved in that race caused a rule change, which already came into effect in 1968: the prototypes were limited to the capacity of 3.0 litres, the same as in Formula One since 1966. This took out not only the Ford Mk II and Mk IV, but also the Chaparral V8 Chevy, and the V12-powered Ferrari 330P and Jaguar XJ13.