The development of the new 2016 Ford GT competing in the company's return to Le Mans has been seen as a commemoration of their sweep of the overall podium 50 years ago. Back in 1966 with the GT40 Mark II (and 1967 with a GT40 Mark IV), Ford won overall as entrants in the prototype class (P+5.0, Group 6), but their new car is running in the GT class this year (GTLM in IMSA and GTE-Pro in FIA/ACO). This being so, it should be recognized that the Ford GT40 Mark I managed the overall win at Le Mans in 1968 and 1969 as a GT (S5.0, Group 4) competitor. The new car has more in common with the Group 4 GT40 Mark I of 1968-69 than the prototype GT40 Mark II/IV of 1966-67. The Mark I and the new 2016 GT are derived from road cars, unlike the Mark II and Mark IV of yesteryear.
As my own commemoration of these events I thought I would post a little geneology of the Ford GT40.
In the Beginning
In 1963 in the wake of the company's decision to compete in endurance sports-car racing and the failed effort to acquire Ferrari, Ford partnered with Eric Broadley's Lola Cars to develop their own Le Mans competitor. Based initally on the Lola Mark 6 (powered by Ford 289 cu. in. V8), the first GT40s ran at Le Mans in 1964. These first cars DNFed but showed great potential and set the fastest lap of the race (driven by Phil Hill). In that first Le Mans for Ford, the team was run by Ford Advanced Vehicles (FAV) managed by John Wyer. The next 3 years (1965-67), the team was managed by Carroll Shelby while the construction of the basic GT40 continued to be built by FAV under John Wyer. Much of the evolution of the of the GT40 into what became the Mark II took place at Ford's Kar Kraft facility in Dearborn Michigan and at Shelby American in Venice California. FAV was responsible for the GT40 Mark I road-car production as well as supplying cars to Shelby American.
The Coming of the Big Block.
The 1964 GT40s that ran at Le Mans were initially powered by the 1963 Ford Indianapolis engine, an all-aluminum pushrod 255 cu. in. (4.2L) V8 of 375 bhp, developed from the road-car "Fairlane" iron V8 engine introduced in 1962. The transaxle was the same 4-speed Collotti unit used in the Lola Mark 6. The gearbox was not up to the task and was eventually replaced with a 5-speed ZF unit. The Indy engine was replaced by the iron 289 cu. in. (4.7L) Ford V8 as used in the Shelby Cobra. The Cobra V8 in the road-car was tuned to deliver 306 bhp equipped with a single 4-bbl carburetor; in Le Mans trim and with 4 Weber carbs it produced 375 bhp. The front-running GT40s were still using the Collotti gearbox and didn't finish the race.
In 1965 the main Ford effort focused on the GT40 Mark II. The 4.7L small-block V8 was replaced by the 427 cu. in. (7.0L) Ford "side-oiler" V8 of approximately 500 bhp as used in NASCAR and drag racing. In order to handle the torque of this beast, the gearbox was replaced with a 4-speed prototype Ford Unit utilizing the gearset from the full-size Ford Galaxie. In addition there were some aerodynamic, brake and cooling improvements.
The 1965 Le Mans was pretty much a repeat of 1964: the cars were fast but not reliable, they DNF'ed. In the current era it's pretty much accepted that a 3-year development cycle is what it takes to produce a winner (or determine that it will never be a winner). The year 1966 was the year of Ford's third attempt at Le Mans and the car was a winner, fast and reliable, and the reason for Ford's 50th anniversary commemoration this year.
But the story of the GT40 doesn't end in 1966.
In 1967 Ford developed the GT40 Mark IV (the Mark III was a road car variant). Unlike previous GT40s, this was all-new, designed and built by Kar Kraft and developed and run by Shelby American. It built on the lessons learned on the previous models and shared the powertrain from the Mark II. The winning car was driven by Americans Dan Gurney and A.J. Foyt. There had been some snark about the 1966 car being built in Europe and driven by New Zealanders Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon; 1967 was an "All-American" victory. The ACO changed the rules for prototypes for 1968: maximum engine displacement would be 3.0L. This made the prototypes from Ford and Ferrari obsolete after Jan. 1st 1968. Ford withdrew from Le Mans competition.
On January 1, 1967, FAV was dissolved and it's assets in England were sold (at a 90% discount) to John Wyer Automotive Engineering LLC (JWAE), which continued to hold the contract to build the GT40 road cars as well as service customers and handle spares. The rules for competing in the GT class (Group 4) required that there be at least 50 cars produced and they would be limited to a maximum displacement of 5.0L. Those rules suited JWAE very well. The GT40 Mark I was no longer a prototype, but a GT car. JWAE teamed with Gulf Oil and Firestone Tire to form the Gulf-Wyer team and compete in endurance racing beginning with their GT40-derived "Mirage" in 1967.
For 1968 Gulf-Wyer entered 3 GT40 Mark I cars in Group 4. They ran the 302 cu.in. (5.0L) Ford V8s with the addition of the aluminum Gurney-Weslake cylinder heads producing 449 bhp. and utilizing the ZF 5-speed gearbox. Drivers Pedro Rodriguez and Lucian Bianchi won overall for Gulf-Wyer, defeating all the new prototypes.
For 1969 Gulf-Wyer entered 2 GT40 Mark I cars after their own new prototype 3.0L Cosworth DFV-powered Gulf-Mirage prototype proved too unreliable to compete in the 24 hour race. This time winning drivers Jacky Ickx and Jackie Oliver pulled out the overall win after the brand-new Porsche 917 GT (Group 4) cars dropped out, leaving only the older (and less powerful) 908 to finish a close second. Two interesting notes: the winning car was the same as the 1968 winner, chassis 1075. The rules for 1969 lowered the number of cars produced in order to qualify for Group 4 to 25 cars; Porsche took advantage of those rules to produce 25 pure prototype 917s equipped (initially) with 4.5L flat-12 racing engines and run them as GTs. In 1970 and 1971 the factory Porsche 917s were run by Gulf-Wyer.
In 2005 Ford produced a new "Ford GT" road car to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Ford Motor Company. The design of this new car was influenced by the earlier GT40, but was strictly a road car, Ford did not form a works team nor did they produce racing versions. In 2011 the privateer Robertson Racing team placed third in the GTE-Am class at Le Mans; husband and wife David and Andrea Robertson celebrated their wedding anniversary on the Le Mans podium, carried there by their Ford GT.
The "Ford Era" at Le Mans of the late '60s produced some other interesting milestones. In 1967 Dan Gurney sprayed Champagne on his colleagues and spectators from the podium, beginning a tradition now seen on nearly all motorsport podia. In 1969 Jacky Ickx protested the "Le Mans start" by walking across the track at the start of the race, meaning he started dead last yet still won the race (his good friend Willy Mairesse was badly injured in 1968 by not securely fastening his seatbelts in a crash at the start of the race); in 1970 that starting practice was abandoned. Often overlooked, in 1965 the World Championship of Makes was won by the Shelby American Cobra "Daytona Coupe" GTs, the first American marque to do so (Dan Gurney and Bob Bonduant drove theirs to 4th overall at Le Mans in 1965). The iconic "Gulf livery" of light blue and marigold (ICI P030-8013 and P030-3393) was first seen on the JWAE GT40-based "Mirage" of 1967.
The appearance of the Ford GT40 at Daytona in 1965 is my personal milestone. That appearance marked my first awareness of endurance sportscar racing. I was a 14 year old "Ford fan" in 1965, and the fact that the GT40 was so damn attractive (and a Ford) got me hooked when my friend Steve made me aware of it (that year I built a "slot-car" with a GT40 body). Prior to that I followed home-town racer Parnelli Jones' exploits at the Indy 500 (he won in 1963 and nearly did in 1967), but this sports-car thing was new to me. After 1965 I followed Can-Am and Trans-Am road racing (as well as a teenager could back then) until I finished college. I am looking forward to Ford's debut of their new GT this year. I have to keep in mind that this is only the first year of their program, I shouldn't expect too much right away, but I can pull for them anyway.
Further Reading
"Racing in the Rain" My Years with Brilliant Drivers, Legendary Sports Cars, and a Dedicated Team, by John Horseman, copyright 2006
"Go Like Hell" Ford, Ferrari, and their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans, by A.J. Baime, copyright 2009
"GT40" An Individual History and Race Record, by Ronnie Spain, copyright 1986
