A great man, a great auto

---- Ford Gt40 "History"----

The GT40 has been a famous sporting car had produced by the Ford since 1964 to 1969. Thought as rival of the Ferrari of the competitions of duration, it won for four times following, from 1966 to 1969, the 24 hours of Her Mans. The Ford GT has been a homage to this car.


Henry Ford II wanted a car able to win the 24 Hours since the beginnings of the years '60. In a first time the Ford tried to purchase the Ferrari but, after the interruption of the negotiation happened in 1963, you/he/she was decided to produce an own car. For this purpose a small was created subsidiary in Great Britain, the Ford Advanced Vehicles, with center to Slough. You also started to treat with the Cooper, the Lola and the Lotus. The Cooper had not matured experiences in the runs Gran Tourism and in the realization of prototypes. Besides in that period his performances in Formula 1 were lowering. The Lotus proposed his project Europe. At the end the proposal of the Lola was chosen. The veterans of the American runs were to effect the tests Carroll Smith and Carroll Shelby that they preferred in project of Eric Broadley that it aimed V8 to the adoption of a motor.





The Ford started to work to narrow contact with the Lola and at the end he resulted a car that GT was denominated 40 of it. The acronym "GT", in how much thought for the new Gran Tourism, although then he will never be confirmed for this category and the number "40" equal to the thumbs of height of the measured car to the windscreen (1,02 ms), as required by the rule. To motorize the auto they were available many motors with capacities that went from 4,7 Ls up to 7 Ls.The new sporting of the Ford was introduced to the "Auto Show" of 1964 New York, while to the Lola the job was fervent for the two cars to line up to the "1000 km of the Nürburgring", then courses to three for her "24 hours of Her Mans"; in both the occasions without success.With the experience also acquired during the following year in 1966 the GT40 Mk II it dominated the competition and it conquered all and three the steps of the platform. The following year participated in the competition the version Mk. IV. This version represented a new project with loom and body shop different in comparison to the preceding cars.





To the competition they participated, besides 4 Mks IV, also 3 MKs II and 3 MKs I. In 1968 a change in the rule limited the capacity of the cars Sport to 5 Ls asking for the construction than at least 50 samples. In 1968 it participated, and it won, to the 24 hours a Mk. The motorized one with a motor from 4,7 Ls of capacity that competed against the autos of the category prototypes that however they were revealed fragile. The following year the challenge renewed him between the GT40s and the prototypes. The motor 12 cylinders employed by these last ones it still revealed however him few reliable for which it was awarded once more the GT40, for few second, the victory with the crew Ickx / Olivier. In the following edition, dominated by the Porsche 917 the car it showed him by now obsolete.

The GT40, version MK II also participated in the 1967 Daytona competition with the mark Mercury, another house checked by the Ford, and endowed with the motor from 7 Ls. For the rest it didn't differ, if not in the aesthetics, from the other GT40s of the same version.