Ultimate Cars - Racers - Ford GT40

" It's just absolutely stunning."

" I mean, it's like a music. I love it."

" It did absolutely murder the Ferraris."

" It's called the GT40. If you wanted to be pedantic, you could even call it the GT40.5. So let's not because the GT40 is the greatest racing car America has ever made, and it's all down to this 1 man, Enzo Ferrari. "

" Ford GT40 came into being because in 1963, Ford tried to buy Ferrari and Mr. Ferrari appeared very receptive to this idea. Ford P who went over to Ferrari. They actually conducted an inventory of all the factory supplies and then at the last moments, Mr. Ferrari slammed the door in Ford's face. Henry Ford was heard to say when he heard the news that Ferrari had walked away from negotiations. He was heard to say "Alright, we'll kick his ass then.""

" People say money can't buy you love and in some ways it can't buy you racing success either because despite pouring bucket loads of money into the project, when the GT40's arrived at Le Mans in 1964, it was a disaster. No one pass the finishing line and Ferrari came in first, second, and third. Not to be deprived of his promised butt kicking, Ford returned to Le Mans in '65 when every single GT40 retired from the race within 3 hours and Ferrari won, again. It was at this point Ford turned to who else? But Carol Shelby. Who? Yes, you've guessed it. Stocked an even bigger engine in the car, but it was more to Shelby's design with sticking the biggest engine he could find in the car."

" The secret of the GT40's success was that it never tried to be the most high-tech, sophisticated racing car out there. If you're racing a Formula One, then that's kind of important because you're absolutely at the cutting edge of what cars are capable of. However, a Formula One car and it has to last about an hour and a half. If you're racing for 24 hours, the design brief should be very, very different and whereas Ferrari particularly, had gone for very, very highly stressed beautiful little engines putting out very, very high and large amounts of power at high revs. Ford went completely the other way. They had big lazy American engines that would chuck out similar amounts of horsepower, but carried a lot less stress."

" This less-stress-is-more approach really pays off in a 24-hour race. The easiest way to think about it is the GT40's engine is like a marathon runner. It's built for endurance. The engine doesn't have to work as hard, which means there are less things to go wrong with it. With Shelby's adjustments now in place, the GT40 return to Le Mans in 1966, where as Henry Ford promised 3 years earlier, they kicked Ferrari's butt ferociously. First, second, and third, and they won again in '67, '68, and '69. Rockin'."