The story begins in 1963, when Ford offered $12,000,000 to Enzo Ferrari to buy the entire Maranello-based company (capable at the time of winning seven victories at Le Mans 24h, nine of the first eleven sports-prototypes and six F1 titles). Enzo Ferrari wants to sell but at the same time to remain at the head of the racing department (Scuderia Ferrari) and have the maximum freedom of action. But after reading the contract he discovers that any overrun to the annual budget of 450,000,000 Italian lira (to understand us, it's equivalent to just over €5,000,000 today) must be approved by Ford, immediately blows the deal. So he takes his ever-present purple pen and writes on the contract "Non ci siamo!". He gets up, and he leaves the office.
Ford wants to buy the entire company with $12.000.000
THE BIRTH OF MK.I
Two days later, Henry Ford II, nephew of Henry Ford and CEO Ford, decides to do everything in his power to destroy the Modenese Horse of Modena on the track, more precisely at Le Mans. To make the car we all know today, Ford contacted the most important racing car manufacturers of the time (Eric Broadley, Colin Chapman and John Cooper) and chose the first one, which took a few months to set up the prototypes. On April 1st 1964 the Ford GT40 was officially born. Nothing is given to chance. The initials "GT" stand for Gran Turismo, and "40" are the inches above ground (equivalent to 1.02 meters) and equipped with a 4,200cc V8 engine. The French Jo Schlesser and the British Roy Salvadori, test it on a circuit and immediately notice serious problems of reliability and stability in the straights. Two months later three cars were lined up at the 24h Le Mans, but none of them managed to cross the finish line.
CARROLL SHELBY AND THE CREATION OF MK.II
After numerous disappointments in 1964 Carroll Shelby (former driver, winner at Le Mans in 1959, and well-known car manufacturer) was nominated by Ford as project leader of the GT40 and developed an evolution of the GT, the MK.II. It is characterized by numerous technical improvements and a powerful 7,000cc V8 engine. It immediately proved to be the car to beat in endurance racing and won the first race of the 2000 km Daytona, with the British Ken Miles (driver who contributed to the development of the vehicle) and the American Lloyd Ruby. At the 24h of Le Mans in 1965, Ford showed who was in charge by lining up six cars (among which: 2 MK.II; 2 with a 5.300cc V8 and 2 with a 4.700cc V8) and managed to get the pole position with the American Phil Hill and the New Zealander Chris Amon but also in this occasion no car managed to pass under the checkered flag.
The Mk.II was very similar in appearance, but the car had to be redesigned and modified by Shelby
FORD IN 1966
Ford started in 1966 with two victories in the 24h of Daytona (with an MK.II) and in the 12h of Sebring with an X-1, a sort of convertible variant of the GT40.
LE MANS 24H - THE RACE
Ford started the 1966 Le Mans 24-hour race with eight examples of the GT40 MK.II, two cars more than the previous year. They are equipped with a 7,000cc V8 engine with 482 hp. Three cars are managed by Shelby's team, three by the Holman & Moody team and two others by the English team Alan Mann.
Ferrari, unbeaten at the 24h of Le Mans since 1960, responds with the 330 P3 which is equipped with a 4,000cc V12 injection 426 hp engine, but the situation is tragic at Ferrari. John Surtees, falsely accused by the sports director Eugenio Dragoni of industrial espionage, publicly declares that the racing manager of the Prancing Horse would do everything to see an Italian driver win in F1. Enzo Ferrari can do nothing but chase the English driver away and put Ludovico Scarfiotti in his place. So there were three cars lined up at the start: two of them were managed by Ferrari, and one Spyder of the American NART team.
If Le Mans 24H had been a beauty pageant, she would have won all the prizes!!
In qualifying Ford dominated, placing four GT40s in the first four positions. Henry Ford II started the race that started well for Miles, who, however, was obliged to go to pits on the first lap to close the door after a lateral contact with a driver. After the first hour three GT40s were in the lead, while after four hours Miles' car took the lead of the race finishing ahead of his team mate's Ford and Ferrari. At the sixth hour it started raining and Ferrari conquered the top in front of the Ford but during the night the 330 P3s started to have overheating problems and two Ferraris were forced to abandon the race. Halfway through the race the Fords are literally dominating with four MK.IIs in the first four positions and with three others in fifth, sixth and eighth place. At the seventeenth hour the last Ferrari retired.
The Ford's team started talking about team orders and it was decided to assign the victory to the car that was in the lead at the last pit-stop. Miles/Hulme's car was the chosen one but McLaren and Henry Ford II proposed to make a parade finish with the three GT40s in order to take a picture that symbolized the superiority of the Blue Oval in the French territory. At the last bend Miles was the first to pass and was caught up by McLaren, followed by the third Ford GT40, but with 12 laps to go. Ken Miles arrived first by a few centimetres but the victory was assigned to Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon as - starting fourth instead of second - they covered more road in 24 hours.
Ken Miles, disappointed of the final result of the race, also because of all the work done in the development phase, continued working for Ford and disappeared two months later: on 17 August 1966, on the Riverside circuit in California, while he was testing the heir of the GT40 MK.II died in an accident due to a malfunction of the braking system.
The House of the Blue Oval will conquer the 24h of Le Mans also in the following three years closing with four consecutive triumphs. Ferrari, instead, after the hard defeat of 1966, will never win again the most famous endurance race in the world.
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