Ford GT40

The Ford GT40 was a mid-engined racing car built by Ford to take on European endurance racing and the World Sportscar Championship in the 1960s. Its main goal was to beat Ferrari, which had won the 24 Hours of Le Mans every year from 1960 to 1965. Because racing rules required GT cars to be sold in small production runs, about 100 were made in total. Most were Mk I models with a 289 cubic inch (4.7 L) V8 engine; at least 50 were built in 1965, which let Ford get FIA Group 4 homologation from 1966 to 1971. This allowed the older Mk I car run by the Gulf-Wyer team to win Le Mans in 1968 and 1969, after a rule change limited prototypes to 3.0 liters. That change came because the Ford 7.0-liter V8 in the factory Mk II (1966) and Mk IV (1967) prototypes had pushed speeds too high, and it also banned the 4.0-liter V12 Ferrari 330P4 and others after 1967. A few road-legal cars were called Mk III.

The GT40 first appeared in 1964, and after improvements in 1965, Ford won World Championship categories from 1966 to 1968. The first Le Mans win came in 1966, when three Mk II prototypes with 427 cubic inch (7.0 L) engines crossed the finish line together. The second win was in 1967, using the same engine in a very different US-built Mk IV prototype chassis, similar to the "J-car" test car. To slow down the rising top speeds, a rule change from 1968 limited prototypes to 3.0-liter Formula 1 engines. But a loophole for sports cars let the private JW "Gulf Oil" team win Le Mans in 1968 and 1969 with a Mk I using a 5.0-liter engine.

The GT40 project started in Britain in the early 1960s, when Ford Advanced Vehicles began building the Mk I based on the British Lola Mk6, in Slough, UK. After poor race results, the engineering team moved in 1964 to Dearborn, Michigan, where Ford's advanced developer, Kar Kraft, designed and built the cars. All versions used a series of American-built Ford V8 OHV engines modified for racing.

At the 1966 Le Mans, the GT40 Mk II 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. At the 1967 Le Mans, the GT40 Mk IV became the only car developed and assembled entirely in the United States (both chassis and engine) to win Le Mans overall. That victory also remains the only all-American win in Le Mans history—American drivers (Dan Gurney and A. J. Foyt), team (Shelby-American Inc.), chassis constructor (Ford), engine manufacturer (Ford), and tires (Goodyear).

**Name** The "GT" stands for grand touring, and "40" refers to the car's height in inches (1.02 m) measured at the top of the windscreen, the minimum allowed. The first 12 prototype cars had serial numbers GT-101 to GT-112. Production GT40s (Mk I, Mk II, Mk III, and Mk IV) started with GT40P/1000.

**History** Henry Ford II had wanted a Ford at Le Mans since the early 1960s. In early 1963, Ford reportedly heard through a European intermediary that Enzo Ferrari was interested in selling to Ford. Ford spent several million dollars auditing Ferrari's factory assets and in legal negotiations, but Ferrari cut off talks late in the process. Ferrari was angry when told he would not be allowed to race at the Indianapolis 500 again (he had raced there in 1952) if the deal went through, since Ford fielded Lotus 29 cars with its new Indy V8 engine and didn't want competition. Enzo ended the deal out of spite, and Henry Ford II, enraged, ordered his racing division to find a company that could build a car to beat Ferrari in world endurance racing.

Ford began talks with Lotus, Lola, and Cooper. Cooper had no experience in GT or prototype cars, and its Formula One performance was declining as others adopted the rear-mid engine layout. The Lola proposal was chosen because Lola had used a Ford V8 engine in its mid-engined Lola Mk6 (also called Lola GT). That car was one of the most advanced racing cars of its time and performed well at Le Mans in 1963, though it did not finish due to low gearing and slow revving on the Mulsanne Straight. Lola's owner and chief designer, Eric Broadley, agreed to a short-term personal contribution to the project without involving Lola Cars directly.

The deal with Broadley included a one-year collaboration and the sale of two Lola Mk 6 chassis to Ford. Ford also hired ex-Aston Martin team manager John Wyer. Ford engineer Roy Lunn was sent to England; he had designed the mid-engined Mustang I concept car, making him the only Dearborn engineer with experience in that layout. Overseen by Harley Copp, the team of Broadley, Lunn, and Wyer started work on the new car at the Lola factory in Bromley. At the end of 1963, they moved to Slough near Heathrow Airport. Ford then set up Ford Advanced Vehicles (FAV) Ltd, a new subsidiary run by Wyer, to manage the project.

The first chassis, built by Abbey Panels of Coventry, was delivered on 16 March 1964, with fiberglass parts made by Fibre Glass Engineering Ltd of Farnham. The first "Ford GT," GT/101, was unveiled in England on 1 April and soon after shown in New York. The purchase price for a competition-ready car was £5,200. It used the 4.7 L HiPo (K-code) 289 cubic inch Fairlane engine with a Colotti transaxle. An aluminum block DOHC version, known as the Ford Indy V8 engine, won the 1965 Indianapolis 500.