Henry Ford II had wanted a Ford at Le Mans since the early 1960s. In early 1963, Ford entered negotiations to purchase Ferrari. After spending several million dollars in audits and legal negotiations, Enzo Ferrari unilaterally cut off talks due to disputes about control of Ferrari's motorsport division, including the inability to race at the Indianapolis 500. Enraged, Henry Ford II directed his racing division to build a Ferrari-beater.
Ford evaluated proposals from Lotus, Lola, and Cooper. The Lola proposal was chosen because the Lola Mk6 already used a Ford V8 engine and had performed notably at Le Mans in 1963. Eric Broadley, Lola's owner and chief designer, agreed to a short-term personal collaboration without formally involving Lola Cars. Ford also hired former Aston Martin team manager John Wyer and sent Ford engineer Roy Lunn — the only Dearborn engineer with mid-engined experience — to England.
The team of Broadley, Lunn, and Wyer began work at the Lola factory in Bromley. At the end of 1963 they moved to Slough, near Heathrow Airport, where Ford established Ford Advanced Vehicles (FAV) Ltd under Wyer's direction. The first chassis, built by Abbey Panels of Coventry, was delivered on 16 March 1964. The first "Ford GT" was unveiled in England on 1 April 1964.
The GT40 was first raced at the 1964 Nürburgring 1000 km, where it retired with suspension failure after holding second place. At the 1964 24 Hours of Le Mans, all three entries retired. Following a season-long series of poor results, the programme was handed to Carroll Shelby after the 1964 Nassau race.
Shelby's first victory with the Ford programme came at the Daytona 2000 km in February 1965, driven by Ken Miles and Lloyd Ruby. One month later, Miles and Bruce McLaren finished first in prototype class at the 12 Hours of Sebring. Le Mans 1965 was again a failure. However, more than fifty Mk I cars were built during 1965, which allowed the FIA to homologate the car as a Group 4 Sportscar from 1966 to 1971.
At Daytona in February 1966, Mk IIs finished first, second, and third. At the 12 Hours of Sebring in March, GT40s again took all three top finishes. At the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans, the GT40 achieved its first Le Mans victory with a 1–2–3 result, making Ford the first American manufacturer to win a major European race since Jimmy Murphy's Duesenberg at the 1921 French Grand Prix.
The 1966 Le Mans finish was controversial. The No. 1 car of Ken Miles and Denny Hulme held a four-lap lead but was forced into an unscheduled pit stop after incorrect brake rotors were fitted — the correct rotors having been taken by the No. 2 crew. Ford arranged for the McLaren/Amon and Miles/Hulme cars to cross the finish line together. The ACO then informed Ford that because McLaren's car had started roughly 60 feet further back, it would be judged to have covered more distance in a tie finish, making the Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon car the winner. Ken Miles, who had dedicated enormously to the programme, was denied the victory.
Ken Miles died two months later, in August 1966, testing the Ford "J-car" at Riverside Raceway. The J-car was a GT40 prototype featuring an aluminium-honeycomb chassis and a "bread-van" body designed around Kammback aerodynamic theories. The fatal accident was attributed partly to the unproven aerodynamics creating excess lift, and partly to the experimental chassis having no roll cage.
A complete redesign produced the Mk IV. Thanks to its streamlined body, the Mk IV achieved 213 mph on the Mulsanne Straight during the 1967 Le Mans. Dan Gurney and A.J. Foyt won the 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans in the Mk IV — the only Le Mans victory by an all-American combination of drivers, team (Shelby-American), chassis constructor (Ford), engine manufacturer (Ford), and tyres (Goodyear). The Mk IV remains the only car designed and built entirely in the United States to win Le Mans overall. Mario Andretti and Bruce McLaren won the 1967 12 Hours of Sebring in the Mk IV. The roll cage installed after Miles's accident was credited with saving Andretti's life when he crashed violently at the Esses during the 1967 Le Mans.
The high speeds at Le Mans 1967 prompted the FIA to limit prototypes to 3.0 litres from 1968, banning the 7.0 L Mk II and Mk IV engines, as well as the 4.0 L Ferrari 330 P4 V12.
With prototypes limited to 3.0 litres, the JW Automotive "Gulf Oil" team ran the older Mk I chassis, bored to 4.9 litres, in the Group 4 sportscar class. The JW team won the 1968 24 Hours of Le Mans with Pedro Rodríguez and Lucien Bianchi, holding a clear lead over the best Porsche 907. This result, combined with four other round wins, gave Ford the 1968 International Championship for Makes.
For 1969, Jacky Ickx and Jackie Oliver won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the same chassis — GT40P/1075 — that had won in 1968, beating a Porsche 908 by only a few seconds. Ickx famously protested the then-traditional Le Mans running start by walking to his car and properly fastening his seatbelts before setting off, giving other cars a significant head start. Ickx's relaxed pace early in the race, combined with decisive efforts at critical moments, proved decisive against the Porsche which chose not to replace wearing brake pads in the final stages. It was the last Le Mans victory for the GT40.
Mk I: Both the first and last GT40 type raced competitively, from 1964 to 1969. Initial prototypes used a 4.2 L alloy V8; production models used a 4.7 L (289 cu in) engine. Thirty-one Mk I cars were built at the Slough factory in road trim.
X-1 Roadster: A one-off open-top car built for the 1965 North American Pro Series, entered by the Bruce McLaren racing team and driven by Chris Amon. The X-1 later won the 1966 12 Hours of Sebring.
Mk II: Used the 7.0 L (427 cu in) "big block" Ford FE engine from the Ford Galaxie NASCAR programme, fitted with a Kar Kraft four-speed gearbox. In 1966, Mk II cars of Chris Amon and Bruce McLaren, Denny Hulme and Ken Miles, and Dick Hutcherson and Ronnie Bucknum dominated Le Mans, finishing 1–2–3.
Mk III: A street-legal version of the Mk I with the 4.7 L engine detuned to 306 hp. Only seven were built, four with right-hand drive.
Mk IV: Built around a reinforced J-car chassis powered by the 7.0 L engine. Unlike earlier GT40s, the Mk IV was constructed entirely in the United States by Kar Kraft. A NASCAR-style steel-tube roll cage was added following Ken Miles's fatal accident. The Mk IV ran in only two races — the 1967 12 Hours of Sebring and the 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans — winning both.
Mk V: A continuation series produced by Safir Engineering in the 1980s under an agreement with JW Engineering. Safir upgraded the design with zinc-coated steel, CV joints replacing the vulnerable drive donuts, and aluminium replacing leak-prone rubber fuel tanks.
In addition to four consecutive Le Mans victories, the GT40 secured four FIA international titles:
1966 International Manufacturers Championship — sports prototype category (over 2000 cc)
1966 International Championship for Sports Cars — Grand Touring category (over 2000 cc)
1967 International Championship for Sports Cars — Grand Touring category (over 2000 cc)
1968 International Championship for Makes — sports prototype category
A Mk I painted silver appeared in the 1965 episode From Venus with Love of the British television series The Avengers. The 2019 film Ford v Ferrari depicts the GT40's development and its 1966 Le Mans victory.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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