2016 was the year of the Ford GT and the Ford GT40 as the company and the motorsports world remembered and celebrated one of the great racing feats of all time in Ford’s conquering of Ferrari during the 1966 24 Hours of LeMans. Admittedly I went looking for GT40 video here but I did not expect to make out this well. The video you’ll see below features a restored GT40 that actually competed in the 1966 event and was running in 5th place up to the 17th hour when it was retired with mechanical problems. Ford celebrates its 1-2-3 finish at the event but imagine if they had managed four out of the five spots!
This car happens to be a 289 powered small block machine and it totally rules. The scream of the small block and the manner that it drives are all fascinating to watch. The man wheeling this machine really knows his stuff as he’s smooth and precise, working the car but not beating the thing like a mule. Our favorite part? When he turns the Tetre Rouge corner onto the Mulsanne Straight and all the throats on top of that 289 open and the car just starts chewing up the Earth like it does not care. You will see the chicane that the driver has to negotiate. That (and another) were added in 1990 because race speeds on the (then) uninterrupted 3.7 mile straight were hitting 250+ mph. Even back in the 1960s when the 427 powered GT40 arrived, it was running unheard of speeds of 210-220mph depending on who you listen to. They were just dominating cars like Porsches that could only run 175 and event the Ferraris did not have the cheese to hang with that thundering 427 FE big block and in this case a pissed off 289 small block!
This is one of those videos that you can watch a lap or two and then leave it running while you do other stuff and just listen to the engine work. Plus you can always play the fun game of trying to identify what corner the car is in without watching the video. Is it wrong that we have the names of them all memorized?
