We hit the track and take a high-speed run in the historic 1966 Ford GT40 Mark II that won the 24 Hours of Le Mans and beat Ferrari! #GT40 #FordvFerrari #Ford #FordGT #LeMans #FordVsFerrari Originally filmed in 1996. S01E07
Bought his first gt40 in 1982, then bought a four pack of gt40s because that’s the only way the “group of investors” would sell them. Damn I wish I had this guys problems.
@@jackrussell19a The design was started in 1961 under Lee Iaccoca and called the T-5. Then renamed the Mustang I. Its similarities to the GT40 MkI are obvious. The project was outsourced to Eric Broadley to build the car to Fords specifications. Thats what Broadley did , he would custom build vehicles to a customers specifications. FAV (Ford Advanced Vehicles) had not been created yet. Broadley worked on the GT project under the direction of Ford engineers (see Iacoccas memo of Dec. 2 1963 to Henry Ford II). ALL manufacturers outsource special projects at one time. Ferrari did it with Pinafarina, Chevy outsourced the Chaparral just to name a few. Ford would later collaborate with Carroll Shelby (GT 350- MKII-MkIV) Kar Kraft (Boss 429) , Detroit Steel and Tubing (Thunderbolt) etc. etc. The Ford GT project was conceived and germinated in Michigan by Americans. A talented British citizen would be hired to do some work on it in the early stages , however that does not make it British. If you are British I can understand why you would want to lay claim to such a successful icon. But please read history before making such a ridiculous statement.
@@claraengl9471 No he never Ford seen Broadleys work and wanted in In fact he tried to have him under contract and not work on his own designs No matter how you swing IT the MKI and MkII were British Body and Chassis copied in part from Lola ,Mk6 GT
Awesome race car. Looks beautiful today, will be beautiful 100 from now. Awesome sound and a real manual gearbox. Cool to see it in use on a track , not roped off in a museum. Very cool
In the early 90s I would sometimes bring my Porsche to a shop in northern San Diego called AJ-USA and there was a GT 40 on display in the showroom. Every time I went there I would spend time walking around the car, scrutinizing every detail and imagining what it would be like to drive one.
All I can say is wow! That is the envy of many! Just to see the car that won in 1966 and ride in it! I'm glad the new owner actually drives these instead of leaving them stacked in a warehouse somewhere😀
I saw one in 1966. It was at a Ford dealership and I was able to look inside. It was the best looking car that I have ever seen. I would have loved to drive it.
theyve got one at beaulieu in the uk, saw it last year, theyve got some amazing cars there, schumachers f1 car, a first gen mercedes benz , but the gt40 was the star of the day for me,
I believe the fuel bladders, were originally designed to be used within a helicopter, but the bubble on the drivers door, is called the 'gurney bubble' as Dan Gurney was over 6' tall and struggled with the original doors on the GT40. Bet you, Dan and Stirling Moss catching up with each other and trying to chat up Marilyn Monroe. Race the heavens guys.
Blackhawk farms. I recognize the turn at 6:10. I went off the track with my father in law in my svt cobra. Bunch of good scratches in the car. We got lucky! 160 on that track is way fast!
amazing, congratulations on your work !!! I started watching the channel's videos and I don't regret it, it's truly incredible. Strong hug. I'm from Brazil !!!
If I had a choice between this and the Mark 4 that won in 68 and 69 I would take the number 6 Mark 4. We are talking about the only car I believe to win two LeMans in a row.
@@stevejohnson2108 - Sorry mate, you appear to be a bit confused (I'm being nice here). The only win for the MKIV Ford GT was in 1967. The '68 and '69 winners were modified Ford GT40 MK1s, and yes, the same car won both years, but Porsche also had back to back victories in the same car some years later. 😁😉
As a Kiwi I'm glad this piece of our racing history has been fully restored and that Roll bar removed. Also that it now has the original silver fern and NZ painted on the side as it did on race day...
My grandfather was Herbert LeVoy Schryer and he was a clay modeler that worked for Raymond Lowey on the Studebaker Silverhawk, Goldenhawk and Avanti. Grandpa told me that he claymodeled the complete interior of the Avanti, and the Ford Pinto and Ford Mustang. He was recovering from a hernia operation when Studebaker went under like Enron in 1964. My grandfather told me he got a job at Ford and worked on the Ford Mustang and Pinto. But one of his assignments was to, in his words " clay model the seats for the race car drivers of the GT 40 to fit them exactly" It did not dawn on me until the Movie came out how involved that project was and there were 2 drivers - not one. Whether my grandfather clay modeled anything else on the GT 40, I do not know. I know he was capable though. The Studebaker Silverhawk, Goldenhawk had one of a kind prototypes that Raymond Lowey had my grandparents personally deliver to Raymond Lowey's mistresses. He showed the ladies a few things about the car and turned the keys over as instructed. One of those deliveries involved my grandparents coming back on a train to get home. It is nice to know that the car is known as the GT40 that beat Ferrari and not as the movie portrays. Fantastic !
Rob Kaufman owns this GT40 now it went through a painstaking restoration by Mark Allin in NH . Rob also owns the Sunoco Penske 917 30 driven by Mark Donahue.
Grew up and lived in Mount Horeb, WI, a few miles from Stauffer's. My Grandfather was a cheese maker, as was George's father. Used to see this car parked on the street in town. George has owned many very special cars, but this was my favorite.
Great old video - Hats off to George and Ronnie Spain for finding and saving this piece of history GT40/P#1046. Proudly restored and residing at RK Motors Charlotte currently.
Miles and Hulme had a lap lead on McLaren as they had an over 4 minute lead and laps at LeMans were in the 3:30's and 3:40's range at racing speeds, Miles slowed down for the Ford photo op and McLaren only caught up to miles he did not pass Miles and run around another lap to catch back up again which would have put McLaren on the same lap, so the truth is Miles and Hulme were screwed out of the LeMans win by LeMans and Ford.
Oh wow Dennis. I have to admit to getting misty-eyed when you said it was a dream come true. What a car to aspire to have a ride in. What is it about lumps of metal and motion that get to us right in the feels? An absolute blinder of a video, even though I feel a touch of jealousy. Neil :-)
@@torytronrud2413 Is there a point to that .... Italians are masters of design aesthetically, no doubt . Think of getting bested by a first year domestic attempt as an Enzo Ferrari. America had design chops .... It shows a superiority if you can understand what that means , is telling and a huge embarrassment for Ferrari He got his nuts clipped in a first year attempt by an American company . It's a staggering reality check . They got dominated by ford , bent over and railed , it was a message by American industrial might of the era . Please on your weak comment , Shelby did it for nothing , with no money He would break Enzo Ferrari in half with his program well funded .
@@dednside5229 we Italians actually love American cars. The Ford GT is an icon, the best rival Ferrari has ever faced. Massive respect to Carrol Shelby for building this beauty.
@@axycore - Shelby helped for sure in the development and improvement of the car, but he did not build it. It was designed by a former Brit turned American, Don Frey and his crew who first constructed initially in the UK, then it received much more American involvement through Kar-Kraft, Holman Moody and Ford.
Imagine having the balls to actually drive the original Lemans winning car that hard lol. I'm all about driving cars and not letting them set but this thing is an irreplaceable icon. I'll bet it was a rush!
Dennis, Powell Guy here, I have a racing photo album you should see. It belonged to race driver Skip Scott and was assembled by his mother '64-'67. There is a photo of Skip with #1 GT40, caption reads something like "First GT40 into the US, NY Airport".
I feel bad when this car won at le mans instead of the no. 1 gt40 The reason why i liked the no.1 gt40 its because its the only car that drove harder,faster,quicker than the other ford gt40s because its driven by *ken miles*
I bought a pantera from George Stauffer nearly 30 years ago and at that time he had the best of the best of ford race cars including this car, the 1967 MK IV Sebring winne, two of the original daytona coups, probably a dozen cobras and numerous other performance cars. I wonder if that collection is still together?
@Beagle76 - I'll go you one better. I have one of the few Exoto 1:10 scale GT40s made, and it happens to be the ken Miles #1 car. I bought it new close to 20 years back for $700. To see an asking price of $4,000-$6,000 on ebay, when they rarely come up for sale, is pretty standard.
This car was on display at the Cleveland auto show when the new GT 40 was introduced. It is a pretty rough body up-close. When the presentation of the new car and all the hoopla was going on I walked over and stretched past the ropes and touched it, palm flat on the rear quarter. I knew the chance would never come again.
How did it feel to touch excalibur stuck in the stone?.. That's pretty much what it would equate to, touching such automotive royalty. Never wash that hand sir.
porticojunction wow, that’s an incredible show of disrespect. The ropes are there to keep dolts like you from touching the cars. I bet you’d flip if someone touched your car in a grocery store parking lot. If that had been my car, and I’d seen that, I would have had security throw your ass out.
I can't believe how good George is looking these days. George was responsible for importing the 27 Pantera GT5-S's into the US, you should do a show with him on that Dennis.
@@MyClassicCarTV Oh my God, do I feel like a idiot. I questioned myself but I thought I am lucky enough to have not aged so I assumed George was lucky as well, I now realize I haven't seen him for many years now. Kind of sad to think how time is flying bye.
Wouldn't surprise me if Enzo had something to do with the car "getting lost". I bet he still gets the shivers in the great beyond every time it starts up. XD
Now why isn't there the Silver Fern with NZ letters low down on Right-hand side wheel arch that McLaren & Amon had on the car in 1966 to make it look truly restored. Both McLaren & Amon were both proud Kiwis and missing out on this detail is very strange to me. Also let's not forget how the British Lola car played a major part in the development of the GT40!
@The Lone Ranger - I agree completely with your first 2 sentences! However, though it's a relative term, I can't agree that Lola played a "major" part in the GT40s creation. It was used as a study as well as an inspiration in making the GT40, but no Lola components were used in it. F.A.V. in Slough, UK took over from the early input of Eric Broadley, owner of Lola Cars, who Ford contracted with. Broadley had his own ideas (that he was unwilling to alter) and just couldn't adapt to the way massive corporations like Ford did business. That is when Ford moved the operation from Broadley's "garage" to The Ford Advanced Vehicle facility in Slough. Ford also involved Kar-Kraft, an American company in Detroit, to do much rebuilding and modifying of the works that was done previously in Broadley's little, outdated and cramped facility - hence the term garage used to describe it. Then with the help of Shelby American and Holman Moody the car became reliable and a winner! 🤠 🏁 🏆
Wow, at your age seems all dreams now are fulfilled Dennis!!!!! You know to be honest I would rather have an old school vehicle that's is a manual transmission, no ABS, etc. and where you actually DRIVE the car instead of having PDK, stability control and all the other stuff on new vehicles, sure all that lowers track time but takes the fun away, those headers facing forward drives me crazy, glad he keeps them alive and uses them
Thomas barnard : Jaguar had beaten Ferrari in 51 53 55 56 57 Merc in 52 Talbot in 50 and Aston in 59 [ With Shelby as one of the drivers] So Ford was not that unique
@@sleekf1503 No I am not.It is you fan boys who have missed the fact that while good it was beaten.Like Porsche were beaten by Audi and so on And I find it amusing that because Ford is involved it must be an American Car, when it was actually half British
Thr 1964 Holman-Moody Ford Falcons won every speed-stage at Rally Monte Carlo and was allready winners saturday night, but the jury decided to "invent" a new rule and gave the Falcons a "too big engine-penalty" to let the british Mini win instead. About the same that happened when Ford`s 7.0litre was "forbidden" at LeMans
mk1 designed and built in slough England based on a lola chassis, with a 289cu.in SBF fitted, mk 2 built from mk1, additional plates added cooling for shelby 427 engine, then mk 1 rebuilt with 302 for further lemans wins.... uk car, US engine. Anglo American joint effort
Lola chassis??? Oh please! The ford GT MK1 had no Lola parts in it at all. The Lola was used only as a template to study and get ideas that would work, as well as those that wouldn't! It took moving the early work on this car out of Eric Broadley's "garage" into the far more spacious and up to date Ford Advanced Vehicles facility in Slough, to make any real progress. Ford then got Shelby American Corp., as well as Kar-Kraft of Detroit involved to rework the car to the point that it was 1. Reliable 2. Ready to win! 🤠🏆🏁
Only the winner of the 1966 Le Mans because FORD wanted a Photo finish. Because they made the #1 GT40 car slow down for the Photo Finish cost Ken Miles the Win
That's what sports cars should sound like. I'm talking to you Ford and Chevrolet. Coyote Mustangs and LS Camaros would mess their pants just hearing this thing start.
I want one of each of the different Ford powered classic Shelby cars. I know I can't have originals but replicas would work. Now I need to win the lottery. Lol
@@earlgumban yeah I looked before and they were pretty pricey. I have a 1952 COE truck, 1964 Mercury Comet and a 1983 Mercury Capri that are first in line for restoration. The others are after. I am thinking about getting parts from Dyacorn and build a 1969/1970 Mustang. I like the side scoops of the 69 but love the nose of the 70. I also want to use the convertible pan for extra bracing. I also want to get the 69 shell and graft a 1971 front end on it to make a 1969 Shelby clone. Not sure I have enough years left in my life for all this. Lol
Dennis Gage, do you have a vlog about the classic cars of Mr. Miyage from "Karate Kid" movie from the 80's? which I believe now, is also shown in the RU-vid Original Series entitled "Cobra Kai". I'd really love if you could feature those beautiful classic cars. Thanks Dennis!
Nothing like losing sight of the fact the Cobra was a British car powered by an American engine and The Mk I, Mk II, and Mk III variants were designed and built in the UK based upon the Lola Mk6. It was a tool purchased by Ford.
I mean, I guess it's pretty ok... I mean, I never had a Ford but this looks nice, haha. IT's sounds good on that start up but not quite as good as my old 1983 FireBird with the 500HP 383 stroker motor in those old 1996 VHS's man... it was debt but not lifetime debt!
The very fact that you try to draw any analogy at all from these 2 completely different vehicles just tells me you're a street car guy, and not an endurance racing fan. That's OK, each to his own.
Yes they started with the Lola chassis but after wind tunnel and driver testing it evolved into a different car. Kudos to both the Brits and the Yanks for creating such an amazing car for the time. The 485 HP rating was at the maximum race rpm which was around 6000 rpm and I've read that would result in 212 mph. The engine would rev to 7K and that supposedly produced 238 mph when a driver was trying to group up at the end of a race.
@John Daniel - You really need to get into a rehab unit as your grey matter is completely twisted!! The designer of the Ford GT was a British expatriate who worked for Ford and eventually moved to America and became a U.S. Citizen. His name was Roy Lunn, and he and his group of designers at Ford designed the GT40 using Eric Broadley's Lola MK6 as nothing more than a template to study for ideas, as Ford had never built anything with a mid engine design. Broadley couldn't bring himself to work well with the Ford corporate types, so he left and went back to Lola in less than a year. That is when Ford had the operations moved from the Lola "garage", as that is about all that it was, to Ford Advanced Vehicles in Slough, a much more spacious and technically better equipped facility. The next step was to get Shelby American, Kar-Kraft of Detroit, and Holman Moody involved. These American companies did more to make the GT40 reliable and successful than any work done by Lola. It began in England, but was ultimately made a success when American companies got more involved.
