Nine things you may not have known about the Ford GT

▪ The Ford GT40 designation came about only in early 1965 after 12 cars designated as Ford GTS had been built.

▪ The GT40 name refers to the car’s overall height of just 40 inches.

▪ All 134 original GT40S (including the first 12 GTS) were built in Slough, England.

▪ Ford GTS won Le Mans four times: in 1966, ’67, ’68 and ’69. The first victory went to a Mk II 7,0-litre version, the ’67 victory went to a Mk IV, while the wins in ’68 and ’69 were in revised Mk IVS with a 4,7-litre V8 engine.

▪ The GT40 trademark was sold to an English company, Safir Engineering, which then sold the trademark to an American company, called Safir GT40 Spares. This is why the modern cars are no longer called GT40S.

▪ The Hi-tech GT40 in this feature is ratified by Safir GT40 Spares as a GT40 continuation series car. This means it is logged on the global register of GT40S.

▪ A total of 4 038 modern Ford GTS were produced in the US between 2004 and 2006. The cars were built primarily as road-going machines and Ford never carried out a comprehensive racing programme.

▪ The second-generation modern Ford GT was built with express intent to compete in the 2016 Le Mans 24 Hour race, 50 years after Ford’s first victory.

▪ The Ford GT racecars were run by Chip Ganassi Racing with factory backing and won the LM GTE Pro class in 2016 and thus capped a wonderful 50-year celebration. In December 2016, the second-generation GT went into production in road car form. Production will end this year after a planned run of 1 350 cars.