[supraz]

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.

I think all car lovers won on this one. It's an awesome story at so many different levels. Ferrari stayed independent until bought by Fiat which truly has Italian DNA which makes the fit the best possible.

Ford has one of those stories that helps define the brand. Decades later, Ford comes out with their Ford GT and excites the car buying public about the brand. They spent $100 million...so what? Whew, I wish I could say that about myself. For them while a lot of money, it could have been spent on a new department that optimizes hub cap technology.

A lot of little companies and people won. Eric Broadley and Lola must have been recompensed adequately to fund their own racing. Shelby American, Kar Kraft, John Wyer Automotive Engineering all benefited from the GT40.

I suspect that even Ferrari made out based on the rivalry. While most Americans probably had heard of Ferrari, how many actually knew about their racing history? After Ford says that they want their head, everyone would be aware of them. I'll wager Ferrari got the Monday morning (or a week Monday depending on radio and magazine coverage) sales bump after Le Mans in the states.

I think any car lover would shudder to hear Ford buying Ferrari. It would truly have been horrible.

 

[drjim]

If it wasn't for Shelby, and all the extraordinary people he employed, the GT-40 never would have done very well.

And as much as I love the Pantera, and would truly love to own one, their build quality wasn't that great. I knew several people back in Illinois who owned them, and besides the leaky gas tanks, I could swear the steel they use came pre-rusted!

If they were driven in the rain much, or during the winter in Illinois where they salt the roads, those suckers would melt before your eyes. I lost track of the ones I saw with holes in the rockers.

I know, what idiot would drive it in the winter? Well, young uns, back then they were just cars. They were cheap enough that a well-heeled former Corvette owner could buy one. I think they were about $11k when they first came out, something like half the cost of the more exotic cars.

 

[supraz]

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.

http://www.motorauthority.com/news/...production-next-spring-arriving-as-2017-model

The second generation Honda NSX was being displayed in 2015 and was released in 2016.
The Ford GT was being displayed in 2015 and was released in 2016.

Is this a case of two aerodynamics teams independently came up with the same concept, or a case of 'monkey see, monkey do'?
They put a hole in their car. We'll put a bigger hole in our car.

I'm sure that every new super car that comes out will have a larger tunnel than the previous one.

 

[gamble]

Yeah these things are sort of like the flying buttress wars of the gothic church era. Ford is winning for now

 

[SupraFiend]

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

 

[ray85p]

I'm going to have to look up buttress to see if there's some recent updates to its meaning..... because I know what these pics make me think.....

 

[supraz]

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

Yes. I knew there was at least one other out there but I couldn't remember it!
We'll just have to wait another 20 years until these are all barn finds and find what all is stuck in these crevices!

I know there are only so many looks out there, but really, couldn''t somebody do something at list a little different?

This is sort of a reverse canyon, but hey at least they come by this one honestly!

You call that a hole? THESE are holes!

http://www.caranddriver.com/photo-gallery/morgan-3-wheeler-debuts-at-geneva-auto-show-news-gallery#1

And I dare say that if you parked a Morgan 3 wheeler and a Ford GT in a parking lot, which would have the bigger crowd around it? Uh huh!

 

[supraz]

Waltzing off on yet another tangent...
To all the youngsters who think drifting is easy.
This is how drifting should really be done. Mind you I hope that he has spare underpants.

Drifting a 3-wheeler

 

[supraz]

http://morgan3w.de/photos/album4.htm
A little older model. He swapped engines in 1927.

http://morgan3w.de/photos/photos.htm
This site has absolutely amazing pictures from days gone by.

http://morgan3wheeler.us/about/history
The story of how the new 3-Wheeler came about sounds like a movie script. Morgan was looking to do something to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Morgan Car Company in 2012 and they heard about this fellow in Seattle who was building replicas. Morgan reps flew over and obviously liked it. They bought the rights from him!

http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a26664/peter-egan-morgan-road-trip/

If I was rich instead of so darned good looking, I would be driving one of these...

 

[SupraFiend]

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.

 

[drjim]

They're like what, 4300lbs?

 

[SupraFiend]

yeah about that

 

[supraz]

Well, I finally saw this episode of Jay Leno's Garage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-MCdfqL61E#t=391.0221623

It's the best review of the new Ford GT that I have seen. It gives me more respect for the car, and also I will grudgingly admit that perhaps the aero tunnels are actually aero tunnels! Who knew?

I have to say that the headline 'Ford GT wins Le Mans" is a bit misleading. They won the LMGTE Pro class which means that they finished 18th overall.
This all depends on the class rules each year which can change and make other classes more or less competitive.
It still is a fantastic accomplishment. The competition in this class was pretty serious.

McLaren by comparison, unexpectedly got the overall win in 1995, albeit because of technical problems suffered by most of the faster Le Mans Prototype class cars.

However, it's still a fantastic achievement that I was not really aware of.

 

[mk2suprastew]

This is absolutely beautiful.

 

[supraz]

Okay, I just saw this episode of Jay Leno's Garage.

https://youtu.be/Ef-diAKgRSs

He interviews Camilo Pardo, the head designer of the 2005 Ford GT.
This is fascinating. Camilo describes some of the battles that he had to fight to get the car out the way he wanted. Often you wonder why things were done the way the were and he explains them.

Camilo wanted to keep the dual gas filler tanks in the front fenders of the car. They were there on the GT40 for dual gas tanks and he thinks they add symmetry. The GT has a single tank so Ford did not want to add the second lid. Camilo suggested using the second gas cap for windshield washer fluid.

Engineer: What if they put gas in there, and light their windshield on fire?
Designer: No they won't
Engineer: Yes they will.

Sadly, I'm sure the Engineers were correct!

I love the part where Niki Lauda tells him that the side scoops look like shit! (And Lauda was Austrian, not German)

http://www.camilopardo.com/about

His web site and a bit about him.

https://www.autoblog.com/2009/01/15/ford-gt-designer-camilo-pardo-leaving-the-blue-oval/

He no longer works for Ford but has his own company.

Dale

 

[SupraFiend]

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)...

 

[drjim]

Thanks for reminding me about the upcoming movie.

Definitely on my "Drag-The-Wife-To-See-It" list!

- Jim

 

[SupraFiend]

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

 

[rhartmaier]

Just saw the pic yesterday....my wife enjoyed it. As Hollywood often does, they dramatized some things for the sake of the film that I am not sure were exactly true. Not sure if Leo BeeBee really tried to sabotage Shelby American's efforts as much as was portrayed in the film. Also, they made it seem that Henry the Deuce got angry because Ferrari insulted him and other Ford executives. I always understood that the true story of that was that Enzo never intended to sell to Ford, but entertained the deal in order to have some leverage when negotiating with Fiat. Despite the fact that he ruled Ferrari with an iron fist and was a tough old bird I think he was a traditional European gentleman and would not have said such things to the Ford team. Anyway, the racing scenes were fabulous and it was nice to see Ken Miles getting some recognition because I don't believe too many folks nowadays know about him. When I was reading Road & Track in the '60's he was well respected and his loss was considered as tragic as the loss of Jimmy Clark.

 

[drjim]

We were supposed to go see it today, but I woke up feeling really crummy, so we're going on Friday.

Really looking forward to it!