WHAT IT’S LIKE TO DRIVE IT!

The famed driver, now 79, raced for the Holman & Moody team at Le Mans in 1966 and 1967. We talked to Andretti about his years with the GT40.

PM: What was it like joining the Ford team at Le Mans so early in your career?

MA: For me, the Le Mans effort couldn’t have come at a better time. Being a rookie, developing a close relationship with Ford played perfectly into my hands as far as developing some of my skills in road racing. I remember all of it with great fondness. PM: Ford was new to racing, but they went in big, didn’t they?

MA: They pulled out all the stops. In 1966, I think, we had cracking windshields. And they were buying seats in first class and flying replacements over the next day. We had our own medical unit. It was amazing. I remember we were at Daytona and Bandini [with Ferrari] came over and looked at the cockpit of the Ford with envy. He said, ‘It looks like an aeroplane in there.’

PM: When you were driving a GT40 down the Mulsanne Straight, did it occur to you that you were driving faster than anyone else on the planet?

MA: Not until afterwards, when they were telling us the speeds we were reaching. I loved doing that kink flat and using every inch of the road, going from grass to grass at 214 mph

(344 km/h). The cars were fast, amazingly fast.

PM: When you’re driving that hard for hours, is there room for fun, or is it all focus? MA: When you’re in a competitive machine with a great team and you know the car well, it is fun. You fall in love with the car.

PM: The GT40 was known for its brake problems. Did that change the way you drove the car?

MA: We were having brake issues with the rotors cracking, but we learned to live with them because there was no choice. Ford came up with a solution where they added beryllium to the rotors so there was no danger of them coming apart. You had to live with it until you got a brake change at the end of the stints.

PM: Have you been back in a GT40 again in the years since you raced it?

MA: I have no interest in vintage racing. You’re not supposed to push the limit. I survived that era, so I’d hate to kill myself in one of those cars now.