Henry Ford II was on a racing
romp in the ‘60s! After being rejected by Enzo Ferrari in a
buy out offer, Henry was livid and vowed to win the World Manufacturing
Sports Car Championship. Probably no one is really sure of how much
Ford spent on racing in the ‘60s, but it was A LOT! . They
were into all kinds of racing with many cars for over ten years!
The
GT40 was an all-out assault of Ferrari’s dominance in sports
car racing. Using the full mite of Ford’s engineering team, a
platform for a raced was built that served the cause for over half a
decade. The original GT40 cars were powered by a variety of small-block
Ford engines. Later, the big 427 engines were used as things began to
get really tough with the big-block Chaparrals and others.
When
the car was finally retired after the end of the ‘69 season,
many were converted into street cars, Not only was it a daunting
mechanical task, it must have been a challenge just driving a car like
that on normal roads. Then, over 30 years later, rumors began floating
around that Ford was thinking about making GT40 cars again. Not a
“new version” of the old racing classic, but the
actual car, built the way it was in the beginning, plus whatever
upgrades are needed for legal road worthiness. Before you know it,
Chevy will start building and selling 1963 Grand Sport Corvettes,
finally!
Original
GT40 cars still surface at car shows and historic sports car races,
which are a blast to see if you ever can. Drivers soon forget that
they’re driving 30 to 50 year old racers, some of which are
worth millions. Some of the kit versions are very faithful to the
original design. A few GT40 cars are obviously old war horses - beaten,
patched, fixed, and rebuilt... but still the loud, fast, and beautiful.
