GT40 STORY
The legendary GT40 was a world-beater, but there’s a lot more to the story than its Le Mans victories. We dig a little deeper to bring you the entire epic tale...
We get the lowdown on Ford’s iconic racecar.
Perhaps it’s time to tell the unvarnished and glorious truth about Ford’s GT40 programme, which started over 50 years ago back in 1963. Criticised at the time for being too big, too heavy, and too simply engineered, the GT40 would in fact become one of the most successful Ford-badged race cars that was ever produced.
Too heavy? Because in most cases a steel tub was used. So what? Too crude? Because standard Ford-USA iron block engines were used? So what? Too simply engineered? Those Detroit-developed V8 engines again? So what? And in the majority of cases, these were actually British-built machines anyway...
These days if you get into a pub-quiz argument, you can sum up the GT40’s successes very simply. In five years, no fewer than 130 cars of all types were built, and only truly dedicated racecar builders such as Porsche could beat that. Neither Jaguar nor Aston Martin could match it either. From 1966 to 1969 inclusive, Ford GTs won the Le Mans 24 Hour race four times in succession. Jaguar couldn’t match that – it was only Ferrari or later, Porsche, who could get on terms with this feat.
British design It all began in 1963, when Ford-USA was developing its new ‘Total Performance’ image, when money seemed to be no object and when the company attempted to buy Ferrari. Although the Italian concern was interested at first, enthusiasm evaporated when the first Ford accountants came on to the scene. Ferrari pulled out of the deal and Ford (particularly Henry Ford II himself) was incandescent with rage, and the urge to beat Ferrari at their own game took shape.
Meanwhile, a new division called Ford Special Vehicles had been established in the USA, with Yorkshire-born Roy Lunn (ex-Jowett) in charge. When Ford speedily forged links with Lola of the UK (a tiny company based in Bromley, which had just built a mid Ford V8-engined racing sports car), Lola boss Eric Broadley found himself working with this team. What would soon become known as Ford Advanced Vehicles, a company run by ex-Aston Martin manager John Wyer, soon moved in to new premises in Slough (close to Heathrow Airport), and the very first mid-engined Ford GT prototypes were unveiled in April 1964. The plan was to start racing them as soon as possible, and Henry Ford himself had high hopes of winning the Le Mans race at once!
The first cars used 4195cc V8 engines, with overhead-valve gear, and aluminium cylinder blocks (as used by Lotus in its 1963 Indianapolis race cars), and Italian Colotti four-speed transmissions. Both those features would shortly be abandoned, but the basic steel chassis tubs, and GRP body shells (and the style) would not. The cars were so low that the door openings were swept over
into the roof, which was almost exactly 40in from the ground – which explains where the ‘GT40’ label eventually (but not at first) came from.
Growing pains
Because this was a project where time was always the enemy – and where there was a constant (and growing) clash of personalities between the British and American factions – it took time to settle the specification, and for the first results to flow. In 1964 there were eight race starts (three cars started at Le Mans for instance), but not a single car finished an event. The aerodynamic handling problems were serious, while engines and transmissions both gave trouble too.
Much was changed, therefore, for 1965 with management responsibility (and preparation of race cars) moving to Shelby American in the USA: this operation, which also included the assembly of AC Cobra sports cars, was based in a suburb of Los Angeles in California. In the meantime the Slough facility prepared to start building the 50 cars which were needed to gain Group 4 sporting homologation: in the end, nearly twice that number would be produced. These cars looked the same as the originals, but would have 4.7-litre engines with cast iron cylinder blocks, and would use five-speed ZF transmissions. They would be available with right-hand or left-hand steering, most would be pure racing cars, though a proportion would be made more suitable for road use.
Along the way, Ford-USA had decided that their own ‘works’ cars should have massive 7-litre V8 engines (similar to those used in the Galaxies seen in NASCAR, and in British saloon car racing), which would be matched to a new Ford-designed four-speed gearbox. That derivative, which became known as the MkII, was purely for ‘works’ racing use, and was never made available to normal buying customers. To tackle all this, and to oversee what was still to come, Ford-USA set up Kar Kraft, in Detroit, which Roy Lunn was to run, while Leo Beebe oversaw the entire race programme from Detroit. Eric Broadley’s Lola links came to an end in the summer of 1965 after two rather unhappy years, this therefore is the point at which Lola’s name fades out of this story.
“The MkIV was a direct development of the J-car”
It is easy, therefore, to see how this project could have collapsed because of its complexity – with V8 race engines being built in Detroit, ZF transmissions coming from Germany, along with chassis tubs (from Abbey Panels) and body shells from Britain. In the meantime the design/development programme was based in Detroit, the ‘works’ race cars with 7-litre engines evolved in California, and other special lightweight machines were built by Alan Mann Racing near Brooklands in south-
west London!
Race victories, at last
By mid-1965 (and before delivery of cars to private owners could begin), twelve original cars had been built, of which three became 7-litre engined MkIIs, while at Ford-UK’s request Alan Mann Racing eventually produced five lightweight versions of its own. This was the expansive period in which cars were also built with open-top versions of the style, with light-alloy chassis tubs, and even with automatic transmission –
none of which came to fruition.
The race team, however, finally got its first successes in 1965, notably in two important USA events (victory in the Daytona 2000km and second in the Sebring 12-Hour races), both of them with 4.7-litre cars. By this time, though, the team was fixated on 7.0-litre MkIIs, racing them for the first time at Le Mans in 1965 where they broke the lap record and lead the event for some time, though neither car made it to the finish.
1966 – Le Mans success, at last!
By this time the GT40 programme was in full swing. Not only had Shelby turned the 7-litre MkII into a reliable race-winning machine, but Ford-USA/ Kar Kraft completed the first two 7-litre J-Cars, which featured an aluminiumhoney-comb chassis tub and re-styled bodywork, all hiding versions of the GT40/MkII engine, transmission, suspension and chassis components.
In addition, deliveries of customer cars had begun in earnest – race victories now started to mount up all round Europe – but John Wyer’s FAV concern began the design of a sleeker, further-developed, version of the 4.7-litre car which they called the ‘Mirage’.
This was the season when the USAbuilt ‘works’ MkIIs not only won the 1966 Le Mans 24 Hours (they finished 1st, 2nd, 3rd), but when they also won the prestigious endurance races at Daytona and Sebring too. As far as Ford’s top bosses were concerned, it had taken a long
time to reach these pinnacles, but it had all been justified in the end. In 1967, however, there was one more truly major success to record – this being yet another Le Mans victory against the massed might of Ferrari. With John Wyer/FAV sidelined in the UK, reduced to building production cars and developing their own Gulf Oil-sponsored racing team, the massive ‘works’ effort was now administered from the USA. Not only did another new model, the MkIV, make its bow, but it won the only two races it ever contested – the Sebring 12 Hour, and the Le Mans 24 Hour race!
This was quite remarkable, and tells us a lot about the ‘can-do’ engineering spirit of Shelby, of Kar Kraft, and of the bunch of Ford enthusiasts who made it all happen. The MkIV, in fact, was a direct development/descendant of the J-Car (which never tackled a major race), using the same honeycomb chassis, the same engine and running gear (from which well over 500bhp was easily available), but with a restyled and more voluptuous body style.
Rushed through in time to dominate the Sebring 12 Hour in March, the MkIV was then entered in numbers for Le Mans – no fewer than four of the ‘works’ fleet of twelve MkIVs took the start. Competitive from the very start, the fastest of the MkIVs reached an impressive 205mph on the Mulsanne straight during the
“The GT40 won at Le Mans with an
average speed of 135.49mph! ”
pre-race test weekend, and during the race itself the existing lap record was broken time and time again. Even though two of the cars were eliminated by crashing into each other at the Esses, a MkIV was always in the lead, and that (appropriately carrying No.1, and driven by Dan Gurney and A.J. Foyt) finally won at the stupendous average speed of 135.49mph.
Ford, ruthlessly logical to the last, decided that this should be the culmination of their ‘works’ effort and immediately put all the sleek (and in some cases, unused/unraced) new MkIVs into retirement. The Le Mans organisers, for their part, were so perturbed by the way that Ford GTs and GT40s had reduced the circuit lap record by 30 seconds in just four years, that they made haste to redesign parts of the circuit to slow
it down for future generations!
1967-69, The ‘Gulf years’
It’s altogether ironic, therefore, that the GT40’s most successful years then followed after Ford-USA had effectively washed their hands of the entire programme. With the FAV factory at Slough closing down, and with no intention to allow MkIVs to be run by any semi-private teams, Ford was quite happy to hand over the plant and what remained of a World Championship programme to John Wyer and his generous backers, Gulf Oil.
In 1967, the first year of this project, that effort was sometimes obscured or made more complex, by JW’s attempts to turn the Mirage (really a slimmed down GT40) into a winning combination, and by the fact that Ford threw megabucks into winning at Le Mans with the ultra-modern, and entirely different MkIV model.
However, this was the year in which a variety of different versions of the V8 engine were employed, including a muscular 5.7-litre type produced by Holman & Moody. Weslake also produced a long-stroke 5.0-litre version of the 4.7-litre engine – this soon being joined by what became the legendary ‘Gurney-Weslake’ cylinder heads. And when helped along by wider wheels and flared wheelarches, these cars proved to be capable of 205mph.
The Mirage (Wyer’s pet project) was good enough to win three major races; the Spa 1000km, the Paris 1000km, and the Kyalami 1000km – but for 1968 a major re-think was needed as the FIA was bringing in a number of sweeping homologations changes.
Because the Mirage could not be homologated (only three cars had been produced), the team had to revert to the ageing GT40s, and because the budget was severely restricted, JW Automotive found themselves with only three cars with which to tackle the entire World Championship programme and face up to the might of Porsche’s 908s.
In 1968, the team habitually ran just two cars (occasionally three, but there was only one old, and overweight, spare car), and won the BOAC 500, Monza 1000km, the Spa 1000km, the Watkins Glen Six Hours, the Le Mans 24 Hours and the Kyalami 9 Hour races.
“The GT40s had reduced the Le Mans circuit lap record
by over 30-seconds in just four years”
This, and other back-up performances, secured Ford the World Championship for that year, which was against everyone’s earlier expectations.
It was asking a lot for JW/Gulf to repeat the trick in 1969, particularly as they were obliged to use the same trio of old, well-used, though admittedly magnificently maintained machines. In fact, there would only be two significant outright victories – but since these were to be at Sebring, in the 12 Hours in Florida, and once again in the Le Mans 24 Hour race, the publicity rewards were enormous.
At Le Mans, for instance, driver Jacky Ickx made many headlines by refusing to run across the road to leap into his car for the start, but instead walked leisurely into place and belted himself in before even firing up the engine! At the end of the 24 hours the very same driver/car combination fought a ‘works’ Porsche 908 for the outright victory, eventually taking the win by just over 100 yards...
This was the point at which the JW/ Gulf programme realised that the end was nigh, and the cars were gracefully retired at the end of the 1969 season.
True road cars - the MkIIs
Long after the race reputation of the GT40 had reached its peak, and when Ford-USA was looking to close down the cramped little production plant in Slough, the company finally launched what it said (with bland innocence) was a true ‘road car’: this was the MkIII, which made its debut at the New York Motor Show in April 1967.
If the truth be told, this, the final derivative, was a complete flop. Originally priced at $18,500 (there was no UK price) at first it was claimed that two prototypes and twenty production cars would be built, but in the end only seven cars, in total, were ever constructed before the end of 1967.
To make it more civilised for road use, the engine was detuned to 306bhp, by reverting to a single Holley carburettor, the gear change was moved to the centre tunnel, and 25 gallon alloy fuel tanks replaced the original type of rubber bag tanks. Seats were adjustable, inertia reel safety belts were fitted, softer springs and dampers were specified, and there was extra sound insulation and padding in the cockpit. Not only that, but the front end was lengthened and re-styled, with four headlamps, while the tail was slightly lengthened so that two ‘luggage boxes’ could be accommodated on each side of the exhaust silencers.
A ‘road car’? Well, that’s what Ford stated - but potential customers were clearly not as impressed, for the only three truly private customers were Daily Express tycoon Sir Max Aitken, J.Candler (in the USA), and a German orchestral conductor Herbert von Karajan!
This, though, is where the creation of genuinely new GT40s came to an end, for after the factory at Slough was closed down (JW Automotive took it over for the maintenance of their extremely successful Gulfsponsored race cars in 1968 and 1969), the GT40 became effectively homeless and was completely forgotten (by Ford-USA at least).
But not quite, for the revival of the car, first as a continuation series arranged by John Willment, then (along with Peter Thorp) as the ‘Safir’ model, kept the GT40 spirit alive, but that’s a story for another day...