Ford GT40 Mk II – 1966

Although Henry Ford II's desire for revenge was successfully realised in a venture carried out with lavish American-style expenditure, the GT40 was more British than American in origin. Following his failed attempt to acquire Ferrari, which was winning races everywhere and had dominated Le Mans since 1960, Ford decided to beat Ferrari where it was strongest and launched an expensive programme to create a car capable of winning. Looking for the perfect option, they ended up in England, where Ford Advanced Vehicles had just been set up looking to work with small manufacturers like Cooper, Lotus, and Lola. The proposal from Lola, who built a car based on their Mk 6 GT powered by a Ford V8 engine, won them over.

Called the GT40 and equipped with an engine derived from the 4.2-litre series, the car made its debut in 1964. From its very first races, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans, problems with reliability and aerodynamics became apparent, leading to a series of withdrawals. Carroll Shelby, winner of the French race in 1959 with the Aston Martin DBR 1 and owner of the Shelby American team, which in 1964 won three GT class victories in the World Sportscar Championship with the Ford-powered Cobra Daytona and finished fourth at Le Mans behind three Ferraris, was then brought on board with the project. With Shelby in charge, the GT 40 began to enjoy some success in 1965, including the 2,000 km of Daytona with Ken Miles and Lloyd Ruby. However, at Le Mans, none of the GT40s finished, including the first prototypes of the soon-to-be Mk II with a 7-litre engine, whose transmission proved to be seriously problematic.

Fine-tuned for 1966, the GT40 Mk II, now with an engine producing nearly 500 hp and a more reliable transmission, achieved success early in the year with another victory at Daytona, again with the Miles/Ruby team. At the 24 Hours of Le Mans, personally flagged off by Henry Ford II, there were eight Mk IIs. Three were entered by Shelby American and the others by the British teams Holman & Moody and Alan Mann. The agile and powerful American cars dominated the race, pushing their rivals to an unsustainable pace which, after numerous breakdowns and accidents, put even the Ferraris out of action. Ken Miles, teamed up with Denny Hulme, solidly took the lead, but at the very end of the race, he was asked by his team to slow down and hold back for the cars driven by Bruce McLaren/Chris Amon and Ronnie Bucknum/Dick Hutcherson in order to give Ford a triumphant group finish. He paid a heavy price for this: he was passed by McLaren just before the finish line and the latter was declared the winner because, according to the rules, having started a few metres behind, he had covered a slightly greater distance than Miles in the same time.