Ford GT40: what a great car this was

[Joe Fan]

I recently finished doing some research on the the Ford GT40 and I am truly surprised at what a great car this was, especially the All-American Mark IV version. The Mark IV had very little in common with the earlier Marks and was designed and built by Ford and Kar-Kraft (a Ford acquisition) which was four miles from the Dearborn plant. Shelby American and Holman and Moody tested, developed and helped prepare the cars. The Mark IV broke the lap record at Le Mans in 1967 that was orginally set in 1963 and also produced another Le Mans record of most distance covered 5,232KM(3251Mi) when Dan Gurney and A.J. Foyt brought the U.S. its first All-American Le Mans victory.

Although the GT40 was its own car, it took a few things from two cars through its evolution--a 1962 Mustang I prototype designed by Roy Lunn and Eric Broadley's Lola GT. Both of these men ended up working together at Ford Advanced Vehicles (FAV) at Slough, England on the GT40 project under John Wyer using Broadley's Lola shop in the interim until the FAV shop could be built.

The original GT40 had greater successes later with modifications as a Gulf sponsored Mirage. Ford wound up FAV in 1966 but encouraged John Wyer and John Willment to take over the Slough plant. Thus JW Automotive Engineering was created, Ford provided a modest subsidy and John Wyer ran the racing program as he envisioned for the GT40. In 1967 Gulf Oil came on board and underwrote JWA's whole operation. The highlight of their work was building a car that won two Le Mans 24 Hour races in a row. Car/chassis (GT40P 1075) was the same car to win both the 1968 and 1969 Le Mans 24Hr races plus this car also won six other races to boot.

The Mark II that won the first Le Mans race in 1966 was completed as a Mark II by Shelby American.



[This message has been edited by Joe Fan (edited 18 March 2000).]