Eight were accepted for the race, with Shelby American running three cars. Together, the team won the race for the first time and Chassis P/1046 was retired from the race shortly after.Chassis P/1046 was passed through multiple owners who restored the vehicle, but the most notable was when it was bought by Rob Kauffman, owner of RK Motors, in 2014.
Lola was eventually chosen, partly because the Lola Mk 6 race car already made use of a Ford V8 engine.Lola donated two Mk 6 chassis from its factory in Slough, while Ford set about creating a team to develop and build its new race machine.The newly created Ford Advanced Vehicles team set about the development of a new racer, based at its own British factory.Early prototypes of the GT40 made use of a mid-mounted 255 cubic inch (4.2-litre) Ford V8, whilst later finished cars would feature a 289 cubic inch (4.7-litre) unit. It would repeat the same feat in 1969 with Jackie Ickx and Jackie Oliver driving, taking the total number of outright Le Mans wins for the GT40 to four in a row.Fast forward several decades and Ford found once again on the top step of the podium at Le Mans.Living up to the reputation of its GT40 predecessors, the new GT race car, ran by Chip Ganassi Racing, took an impressive victory at Le Mans in 2016 in the LMGTE Pro class. De "Ford GT40 Le Mans ’69 Revival " vond plaats in het prachtige kader van de Spa Six Hours. Recent victory on the Targa Florio showed the potential of the Porsche.Keen to beat Ferrari at its own game, Ford entered a total of 15 Mk II GT40s for Le Mans in 1966. Hij was de eerste persoon ooit die een race won in een Shelby Cobra. The start of the ordeal. Henry Ford II was adamant that the GT40 must win in 1966.However, the Shelby American team did continue as an official factory outfit, retaining Ken Miles as one of their drivers. Passie voor Shelby’s is dus aangeboren, zou je kunnen stellen.Om het helemaal af te maken, is de GT40 nog gesigneerd door Peter Miles en Charlie Agapiou – de zoon van Ken Miles en de baas van het team dat won in 1966. Specialist Carroll Shelby werd ingezet om de Ford GT40 te ontwikkelen, met de flegmatieke Ken Miles als testrijder. This would have placed the two brands in direct competition on track.As a result, the deal failed. Instead, the inaugural use of the car in anger would be at the first Le Mans test, less than three weeks after the cars were presented to the media.Making a race debut at the gruelling Nürburging 1,000km in 1964, the driver pairing of Phil Hill and Bruce McLaren managed to qualify second on the grid. All three of the Fords would retire with mechanical issues, while Ferrari clocked up another win.After the disappointment of 1964, Ford switched management of the GT40 to Carroll Shelby for 1965. In de 24 uur van Le Mans slaagde Ford erin om Ferrari te onttronen met de iconische Ford GT40 Mark II. This 1965 Ford GT40 is one of just five ever built, and one of just two still in existence today. This handed the McLaren/Amon car victory, with Fords filling the other podium places.In just three years Henry Ford II had achieved his goal of beating Ferrari at Le Mans. In 2014 kocht Rob Kauffman het chassis en onderging de wagen een restauratie van meer dan 4.000 uur bij Rare Drive in New Hampshire. Coming exactly 50 years after the first Le Mans win for the GT40, Ford was unsurprisingly ecstatic about the result.To mark the Le Mans wins 50th anniversary, Ford also announced a special edition of a car that hadn’t even actually started production yet.
Want die advertenties zorgen ervoor dat we deze website kunnen bekostigen. Only seven examples of the Mk III were built, with just three in right-hand drive.Despite the success of the Mk II GT40, Ford didn’t rest on its laurels and set about developing the car even further.
Na een mislukte poging om Ferrari over te kopen van Enzo Ferrari verklaarde Henry Ford II de oorlog aan de Italianen en bespaarde Ford kosten noch moeite om een wagen klaar te stomen voor de slopende uithoudingsrace. In came a 427 cubic inch (7.0-litre) Ford FE engine, with an exhaust system nicknamed ‘a bundle of snakes’ for its elaborate design.Kar-Kraft also modified the chassis from the original British-designed Mk I version, using higher strength steel.