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And when H.F. spoke those words, it was like the walls of the Dearborn, Michigan H.Q. building were shaking. Relevant managers stumbled over eachother; it was utter pandemonium. H.F. even went so far saying that he wanted to make an attempt to buy Ferrari.
Negotiations started, but top brass people from Ford soon found out that Enzo "Il Commendatore" Ferrari was no push around, and the deal fell through. The determination of Ford to win at Le Mans grew even bigger.
So Ford decided to build their own car and made contact with Eric Broadley of Lola Cars Ltd at Bromley as well as with John Wyer, ex-team mananger from Aston Martin. Broadley had build the Lola GT car with a Ford V8; Ford bought two Lola chassis for further development.
Ford also approached Colin Chapman of Lotus, with whom they shared a lot of success at the Indianapolis 500, but they soon realised that Lotus lacked the capabilities needed for the Le Mans project.
The co-operation between Ford and Lola Cars came to a quick end, and instead Ford set up their own Ford Advanced Vehicles plant at Slough in the West Greater London area, involving technical staff from both the UK and the USA.
The Lola GT. Note: about 90% of center section of this car was transferred into the Ford GT40 design.
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In 1964 the Ford GT 40 MK I saw the light of day and in May of that year the car was debuted to race at the Nürburgring 1000 KM, driven by Phil Hill and Bruce McLaren. They abandoned the race after 15 laps. In June, Ford Motor Co. entered three GT 40's at the Le Mans 24 h. All three dropping out, although Ritchie Ginther, driving the #11 car was in the lead of the race from lap 2 until his first pit stop. The lousy Colotti transmission being the achilles heel of the GT40.
After a dismal 1964 season under John Wyer's supervision, the whole GT40 racing operation was transferred to Shelby American Inc., managed by Carroll Shelby. Slough remained active in building the GT 40 (MK III) road cars. Colotti was dumped and ZF Transmission became the new gear box supplier.
Right from the start in 1965, the Shelby squad was succesfull, winning first time out at the Daytona 2000. However success at Le Mans eluded them and Ferrari scored their 6th consecutive win.
In 1966 an armada of Ford GT 40's. MKI (4,2 ltr.) and MKII (7 ltr.) cars started the Le Mans race and this time Henry Ford witnessed a clean sweep by Ford, finishing first, second and third.
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The Ford GT 40 is a real classic and a favorite of many racing- and model car enthusiasts. The Lesney #41c Ford GT 40 is a replica of the original 1963/1964 car.
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