Ford GT40

12448 Views 54 Replies 11 Participants Last post by supraz, Feb 21, 2021

supraz

Discussion Starter · Jul 6, 2017 (Edited)

I'm in full curmudgeon mode today. It's hot and I just got back from the prairies

7
Ford GT40 Mk I - Prototype

https://www.classicdriver.com/en/article/autos/driven-1965-ford-gt40-roadster

Ford GT40 Mk I - 289 Cubic inch Ford Fairlane motor

http://hiconsumption.com/2016/06/auction-block-1966-ford-gt40-mk-1/

Ford GT40 Mk II -- Aaaah

Just your typical grocery getting Ford sedan motivation 427 Cubic Inch Ford Galaxy motor

Now that's a functional rear end

http://www.finescale.com/product-info/kit-reviews/2009/10/trumpeter-1-12-scale-ford-gt40-mkii

Ford GT40 Mk III - Street Car 289 Cubic inch
Wire Wheels
Sold as a street car from the beginning.

http://www.topcarrating.com/1967-ford-gt40-mk-3-mark-iii.php

Ford GT40 Mk IV
This is the one that makes Italian and German car makers sweat at night
The Mk. IV ran in only two races, the 1967 12 Hours of Sebring and the 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans and won both events.

http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/g5273/photos-1967-ford-gt-40-mk-iv/

Just a couple'a good ol' boys - Dan Gurney and AJ Foyt

http://performance.ford.com/series/...ons-of-ford-performance--mark-iv-engines.html

If you can't beat them, change the rules. That's the only way the Europeans could beat this car.

The Ford GT40 had a long and interesting history.
When Ford wanted to go endurance racing they went to Eric Broadley and Lola Automobiles in England to design a chassis. Ford hamstrung the English by demanding that the chassis be constructed of steel because Ford was more comfortable with this than aluminum. As a result these cars were seriously overweight.
They started with 255 cubic inch small blocks and switched to 289 cubic inch small blocks for the production Mark Is.
If a little is good, a whole pile more is a whole pile better. Ford went with the 427 cubic inch FE big block for the Mark II
The Mark III was a street version of the Mark I and sold to the public in England. 7 were sold. The 289 was detuned to 335 hp.
Ford decided to get serious and totally redesigned the GT40 in the USA by Kar Kraft using aluminum and modern construction techniques.
The GT40 Mark IV is the only time there was a totally American victory at Le Mans. An American car with an American engine driven by American drivers and an American team.

2004-2006 Ford GT

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_GT

Supercharged 5.4L modular V8
A pretty well executed redo of the Ford GT40 Mk III

2016-2020 Ford GT
3.5 liter twin-turbocharged EcoBoost V6 engine making 647 hp

Well, I guess if you go to Home Depot and have to bring some 2x4's home you can stick them in that tunnel.
Okay, okay, it's not THAT bad looking, and it may be aerodynamically efficient, but it's just got too much junk on it.

Oh, and in case you are wondering why the new cars are Ford GTs rather than Ford GT40s, the brain trust at Ford forgot to copyright the name GT40.
A company, Safir Engineering Ltd. copyrighted the name in 1985. In 1999 the name was transferred to Safir GT40 Spares Inc. which makes spare parts for the original Ford GT40s. Safir offered to sell the name to Ford for get this, $40 million! Ford declined.

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SupraFiend

· #19 · Jul 10, 2017 (Edited)

SilverMk2 said:
I think you missed the best part of the original GT40. The car was created as a big middle finger to Ferrari to beat them at Le Mans after old man Ferrari screwed Ford. Ferrari won Le Mans for several years straight beforehand and they haven't been back since in an official capacity. The cars originally in their first couple of years were horribly unreliable until they got Ken Miles and Shelby involved. Ford spent a ridiculous amount to money and time to pull it off.
I love the story as well, but there are always 2 sides to every story.
Apparently Enzo Ferrari wanted to sell the company to Ford to fund his racing efforts. He saw selling street cars as a means to an end rather than the end itself. After being told that he would have complete freedom to run the racing team, he found in fine print that he would have to beg for budget.

I'm sure for someone as proud as Enzo Ferrari, it must have been insanely infuriating to be a small cog in a big organization. I can see why he would renege on the talks.

supraz said:
I love the story as well, but there are always 2 sides to every story.
Apparently Enzo Ferrari wanted to sell the company to Ford to fund his racing efforts. He saw selling street cars as a means to an end rather than the end itself. After being told that he would have complete freedom to run the racing team, he found in fine print that he would have to beg for budget.

I'm sure for someone as proud as Enzo Ferrari, it must have been insanely infuriating to be a small cog in a big organization. I can see why he would renege on the talks.

http://www.autonews.com/article/199...tory-reveals-why-enzo-ferrari-said-no-to-ford

It's the small company versus big corporation issue which I think we all can sympathize with. Having said that, I love Ford, and I love the idea of ANYTHING that pisses off Ford enough to go racing with both guns blazing, damn the cost!

Well glad you guys have read the whole story. Most people omit the bit after where Ford gets pissed, then spends over 3 years continuing to get their asses handed to them at Lemans by Ferrari because their FordGT is so unreliable. Then finally after over 100million invested and an injection of new tallent, manages to beat them.

But really, who won in that deal? Ferrari is considered one of the absolute most valuable brands in the world now. Their street cars are basically the most sought after exotics in the world and considered fantastic investments. It would be a very differnt automotive world today if Enzo had gone thru with that deal.

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SupraFiend

· #25 · Jul 17, 2017

pffffft, BMW beat both of them to market by years...

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SupraFiend

· #30 · Jul 24, 2017

Man that guy is an idiot for trying to drift a morgan without a helmet on.

Morgans are cool, but not really what I'd be after if I had a huge pile of cash to dump in a car.

I was at an autocross in Pitt Meadows yesterday and I guy stopped by to show off what his 100k just bought him...

No flying buttresses here, just damn good looks all the way around.
If you're wondering why these things are so heavy, its because they're huge! From the pics I've seen online I assumed these were about the same size as a mk4. Nope, these are Aston Martin Vanquish sized.

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SupraFiend

· #32 · Jul 24, 2017

yeah about that

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SupraFiend

· #36 · Aug 21, 2019

Cool, I'll have to watch that one when I have a little time.

I just realized this thread is 2 years old, so no one has dropped this here yet (in case you missed it)...

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SupraFiend

· #38 · Aug 21, 2019

Mine too. I'll tell her its a 60s bio pic staring Matt Damon and Christian Bale.

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SupraFiend

· #50 · Nov 29, 2019

I would recommend Dark Fate! Its worth seeing just to see Linda Hamilton back on screen, kicking ass as the most ass kicking grandma ever on screen! The movie as a terminator sequel is pretty decent, as good or better then anything made after the original T2 for sure. I know a low bar, but myself and many think T3 was actually pretty decent. I think this is either on par with it or better. The story is quite good, for the things they wanted to happen for this film, (Arnie and Linda coming back) its about the best you could hope for, and James Cameron's involvement can be felt everywhere. That said, he didn't direct it, and it doesn't feel like one of his movies, which is a bit of a shame.

The F&F movies aren't for everyone thats for sure, and they aren't all good either. The first one is a good flick, though super cheesy dialogue. At least all of the car stunts were largely done for real so it doesn't feel as fake as some of the later ones. 2 is shit, just avoid it at all costs. 3 is actually my favourite, though it has little to do with the series (untill much later!). 4 is blah, but it starts to pull the series back to its roots (But has the worst CG action crap of any of them in it). 5 to 7 are all pretty much the same movie, and all equally good and are responsible for the franchise becoming what it is today. But they should have ended it with 7. Brian Walker dieing was the right point to walk away from all of these characters and the situations they are in (they all become multi-millionaires in 5 lol). 8 has the action and quality of the early ones, but the franchise lost its soul, they shouldn't have made it IMO. I'm expecting the same for 9.

I'm going to see Ford vs Ferrari tonight!

Lemans, god dang, I still havn't gotten around to seeing that for some reason. I need to see if its on any of my streaming services. But I have trouble beliving its better then John Frakenheimer's amazing Gran Prix (shot in 66). The behind the scenes documentary on that movie (its on the dvd) is almost as amazing, crazy story about how that was made.

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SupraFiend

· #52 · Dec 2, 2019

Cool, I will have to see that!

Well saw F vs F. Its really good! And pleasantly, they got the details pretty good. Just keep in mind when you see it, the point in time from the first attempt at Lemans to big race at the end, 2 years and another loss at Lemans have actually passed. From the trailers, I was afraid they were going to condense the entire story into the period of a single year, which would have been far from the truth. It was on the 3rd attempt when they pull it off (so 3 years in), and god knows how many millions spent. The film sort of ignores the 2nd attempt, but it acknowledges a big chunk of time passed.

Really good as a movie movie too though. Actually reminded me of Apollo 13 quite a big. A list actors, writing, directing budget etc. Not just a movie for car folk, though like I said they got that stuff right.

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SupraFiend

· #54 · Dec 17, 2019

If you enjoy car action scenes in movies like The Transporter, Baby Driver, Ronin etc, check out Michael Bay's latest on Netflix, 6 Underground. Just be aware its M Bay, if you hate his stuff you will hate it, if you loved his old stuff, Bad Boys, The Rock etc, you will probably enjoy it. Warning, its pretty violent, crazy collateral damage!

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