The Ford That Beat Ferrari

by Allen, John; Jones, Gordon; Ickx, Jacky

• ISBN13: 9781910505472
• ISBN10: 1910505471
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2019-12-03
• Publisher: Evro Pub

Summary

After Ford unsuccessfully attempted to buy Ferrari, in 1963, the American car giant instead embarked on its own racing programme in a bid to beat the famous Italian marque at the world’s most prestigious race, the Le Mans 24 Hours, as told in the forthcoming Hollywood movie Ford v. Ferrari. This updated edition of The Ford that Beat Ferrari tells the story of how that mission was eventually accomplished.

• Development of the GT40: how the prototype Ford GT emerged in 1964 from the previous year’s Lola GT programme.
• The works teams and the GT40: the car’s racing exploits in its earlier years, first with Ford Advanced Vehicles (1964), then Shelby American (1965) and Alan Mann Racing (1966).
• The big ones: this section of the book covers the GT40’s evolution into the 7-litre monsters that brought enormous success, including the first two Le Mans victories with the Mark II (1966) and Mark IV (1967), before becoming outlawed by new restrictions on engine size.
• The Gulf years: against all expectations, the venerable GT40, now back to 5-litre power, raced on with John Wyer’s crack JW Automotive Engineering outfit in the iconic blue and orange colours of Gulf, successes including two further Le Mans wins (1968 and 1969).
• The production line racer: the stories of the 68 privateers, big and small, who raced GT40s.
• Chassis and drivers: a data section giving resumés of type designations, chassis histories and all drivers who raced GT40s.
• The magic lives on: the book’s concluding sections show surviving cars at differing stages in their later life and bring the story up to date with developments since the 2005 edition.

Author Biography

John Allen was born in Leeds, Yorkshire, and is now retired to and living in rural France. He was educated at Leeds Grammar School, then trained as a Chartered Accountant, later running his own accountancy and audit practice, while moonlighting as a freelance photographer for magazines and books. John's daily drive is a Ford Mustang GT, and his hobbies and interests include anything to do with GT40s, sports racing cars, railways, model railways, and Luftwaffe aviation. Favourite colour? Ford blue, of course, but his Mustang is bright red (it was the choice of his wife, Jenny, but he now agrees she was right, and also right to stop him having boy-racer white stripes over the top).

Gordon J. Jones is a racing enthusiast with a passion for the Ford GT40 and other great cars from the golden era of endurance racing that inspired them when young. He is a writer who has contributed to many automotive magazines, in addition to writing Lola: The T70 and Can-Am Cars and co-authoring The Ford that Beat Ferrari with John S. Allen. He lives in France.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Jacky Ickx
Introduction
Part I The Development of the Ford GT40
Chapter 1: First Moves
Chapter 2: Arrival
Part II The Works Teams and the GT40
Chapter 3: Ford Advanced Vehicles
Chapter 4: Shelby American
Chapter 5: Alan Mann Racing
Part III The Big Ones
Chapter 6: Prototypes
Chapter 7: The Mark II
Chapter 8: From J-car to Mark IV
Chapter 9: Group 7 Racing
Part IV Gulf
Chapter 10: Mirage
Chapter 11: Return of the GT40
Part V The Production Line Racer
Chapter 12: Customer Support
Chapter 13: Private Teams
Part VI Chassis and Drivers
Chapter 14: Chassis
Chapter 15: Drivers
Part VII The Magic Lives On
Chapter 16: Old Racers Never Die
Chapter 17: Back to the Future
Part VIII And Still the Magic Lives On
Chapter 18: Latter-day GT40s
Chapter 19: Old Racers Still Never Die
Chapter 20: The Ford that Beat Ferrari...Again
Acknowledgements