So, Too, could the Ford GT
Shortly thereafter, he would bow out of the project and build the remarkable T70 racer on his own, and the GT would be an all-Ford show via an English subsidiary, bangkok garden condo for sale Ford Advanced Vehicles. The Ford GT’s debut at the 1964 Le Mans test days was short and not especially sweet. French driver Jo Schlesser was the first to be bitten by the new Ford, losing one of the two cars in a big way on the long Mulsanne straight. GTs would be run by Shelby American starting in 1965, FAV would become JW (John Wyer) Automotive that same year, and a host of private entrants would race Ford GTs at Le Mans and elsewhere. But we’re getting ahead of the story.
In a memorable back-to-back run against a 289 GT, the 427, with Tom Payne driving, was able to pull away easily from Ken Miles in the standard car. But Le Mans turned out to be another dismal episode for the team, with the sole bright spot being another fastest race lap, set by Phil Hill (again) in a Mark II. Power (485 bhp when the engines were tuned to run on low-octane French fuel) was plentiful, if not quite enough to break the 250-mph barrier, but there were some engine problems, more of the expected failures of over-stressed gearboxes (now ZF instead of Colotti), and brake woes. While development work on the Mark II 427 progressed, a Ford GT won the 1965 24-hour race at Daytona; another finished second in the Sebring 12-hour event.
Almost everyone is familiar with the shorthand history of the 1964-1967 Ford GT as it has been presented so many times since then. Basically, it goes like this: Having been rebuffed by Enzo Ferrari in their attempts to purchase his company and the glory attending it, Henry Ford II and his minions decided to add big-time sports-car racing to their competition plate — already crowded with participation in NASCAR, Formula 1, the Indianapolis 500, and international rallying — by buying up another established builder of racing machinery, one that wouldn’t balk at being associated with the Ford name. Le Mans-ready mid-engine coupe, providentially fitted with an American Ford V-8 engine. Over in England, Eric Broadley’s Lola Cars, Ltd.
Ford, looking for the shortest distance between idea and success, bought up Mr. Broadley’s little shop, dressed up the Lola Mark 6 GT a bit, and, lo and behold, a mere 10-figure cash expenditure later, was able to steamroller its way to victory at Le Mans. A first indication that the popular fable may not be the real, a complete story of the GT can be found in the spring 1964 issue of Automobile Quarterly. There, in a piece curiously titled “America Goes Grand Prix,” Ford’s Roy Lunn lays out some of the thinking behind the GT’s development. It’s all very general, of course, and slightly disjointed in places, as if edited down from a much larger story.
At Le Mans, the final results were equally disappointing, but a Ford driven by Richie Ginther did lead the opening lap and another, with Phil Hill at the wheel, set fastest race lap of the year. Other fundamental problems with the 1964-1967 Ford GT were coming to light that sent all and sundry back to the proverbial drawing boards. For more information on the the 1964-1967 Ford GT classic car, continue on to the next page. The Colotti gearbox used so far was, in Negstad’s words, “junk.” It simply could not deal with the torque of the Ford engine, and was failing regularly.
So, too, could the Ford GT. Haunted by visions of Ford GTs launching themselves into the hordes of spectators lining the track at Le Mans, the top brass in Dearborn ultimately decided to finish the 1964 race commitments with the cars listed as FAV entries and then hand the cars over to Carroll Shelby for the following season, not only because of his racing expertise, but also to have a front man for the effort in case of catastrophe. This spooked the drivers. Worse, it spooked the FoMoCo executives who were supporting the program.
