{"id":14441,"date":"2022-09-23T07:55:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-23T10:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/?page_id=14441"},"modified":"2022-09-19T10:15:26","modified_gmt":"2022-09-19T13:15:26","slug":"ford-gt-mk-ii-1-spark","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/ford-gt-mk-ii-1-spark\/","title":{"rendered":"Ford GT Mk. II #1 – Spark"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Mk.<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
1965 Ford GT Mk. II #1<\/strong> \nPilots: K. Miles, B. McLaren\nTeam: Shelby-American Inc.<\/em>\nRace: DNF (P +5.0 class) at Le Mans in 1965<\/strong>\nSpark - S4532 (resin)<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Published 09\/23\/22<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By mid-1963, the negotiations between Ford and Ferrari concluded. Old man Enzo Ferrari categorically rejected Ford\u2019s offer, and the deal was off. Some say he never wanted to sell to Ford in the first place. And with that, Henry Ford II blew a gasket and wanted revenge. He decided then and there to beat Ferrari in its own game. Costs be damned, he would build a car that could win Le Mans, hopefully humiliating Ferrari. So in 1964 what we now call the Ford vs Ferrari War<\/em> officially began. The weapon for Ford\u2019s revenge? A totally new car, built from the ground up, called the Ford GT<\/strong>. However, there was a little problem. Ford never built a GT car. Worse, the brand didn\u2019t even have a racing department. That being so, the solution was to outsource the whole project. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"Mk.
Race car with stability issues? As always, the first try to fix it is adding aerodynamic appendages.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
They hired Eric Broadley to design something in the lines of his groundbreaking Lola GT<\/a>. The new car, 2\u201d lower than the Lola GT\u2019s 42\u201d, was ready in April 1964*. Yet, despite the almost unlimited budget, upper management rushed the project. Ford wanted to make a world-class GT champion in just 10 months. And as expected, the Ford GT Mk. I had a lot of issues. The car was really fast, however bad aerodynamics made it a handful to drive. And worst of all, it wasn\u2019t reliable. At La Sarthe, in June, Ford lined up three GTs for the race. And all three were out in less than 12 hours, with mechanical issues. With the abysmal results at Le Mans and in other races, Ford had to reassess the whole project. With that, Carroll Shelby became head of operations and Roy Lunn chief engineer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
*:<\/strong> Officially, Ford called the car simply \u201cFord GT\u201d. The name GT40, because of the 40\u201d height, only came later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"Mk.
The first thing you notice on the car is the nose, I mean, front overhang.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
With input from Shelby\u2019s main test driver, Ken Miles, the car began to get better. To the point that, at the 1965 Daytona Continental in February, Ken Miles piloted a GT Mk. I to victory. However, at the Le Mans test trials in April, Ferrari dominated the field. Meanwhile, back at Dearborn, Roy Lunn had a new version of the car ready for testing, the Mk. II<\/strong>. While preserving the car\u2019s aerodynamics, Lunn managed to fit Ford\u2019s new 427 ci<\/a> (6997 cm\u00b3) V8 behind the pilot. Miles tested the car at Dearborn and was happy with it. Consequently, with just four weeks until Le Mans, the Shelby team prepared two cars with the new 427 V8. Nonetheless, there were four other GTs in the hands of privateers and the Ford Advanced Vehicles team. These, however, all used either the older 289 (4727 cm\u00b3) or the 325 (5300 cm\u00b3) engines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/
During the race, the passenger door got loose, and the pit crew used black tape<\/a> to secure it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Things looked good for the Shelby team, with the Mk. II setting a new lap record during practice. However, the optimism during practice evolved into despair during the race. In the rush to get the cars ready, small mistakes happened. The result was that none <\/em>of the Fords finished the race. The best result was Shelby\u2019s GT Mk.II #2 that lasted until lap 89. The sister car, Mk. II #1<\/a>, was out by the 45th lap, with a broken gearbox. The 1965 Le Mans race was an unmitigated disaster for Ford. And to add insult to injury, a Ferrari came in first place. Still, not throwing the towel, Ford came back the following year and then the story was different<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/
From 1965 to 1966 the GT40 evolved enough to finally win at Le Mans.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
This Ford GT Mk. II was not a successful car at La Sarthe, on the contrary. Nonetheless, without the lessons it brought to both Shelby and Ford, the 1966 victory would not have been possible. Therefore, it is an historically important car. And in scale, it is a true masterpiece. Once again Spark did an outstanding job on the model, and it looks fantastic. This is my second Ken Miles car, and it is a thing of beauty. So, for the GT40 fanboy this is a must buy. And for the Le Mans nut, you can say the same. After all, it was an important part of the Ford vs Ferrari War.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
1965 Ford GT Mk. II #1 Pilots: K. Miles, B. McLaren Team: Shelby-American Inc. Race: DNF (P +5.0 class) at Le Mans in 1965 Spark – S4532 (resin) Published 09\/23\/22 By mid-1963, the negotiations between Ford and Ferrari concluded. Old man Enzo Ferrari categorically rejected Ford\u2019s offer, and the deal was off. Some say he … Continue reading “Ford GT Mk. II #1 – Spark”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-14441","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14441"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14599,"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14441\/revisions\/14599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}