 |
 |
 |
The overall height of the car is 40 inches and thus spurned a name that would live in sports car history forever as the Ford GT40. Winner at Le Mans four times consecutively from 1966 to 1969. The Ford GT40 was produced from 1964 to 1969. In that span only 134 of the machines were produced. Also of importance is the fact that the winning GT40 (chassis no. 1075) from 1968, driven by Rodriguez and Bianchi, was the exact car to win again in '69 at the hands of Ickx and Oliver. The first ever repeat victor by the same exact car. The only other time the feat has been accomplished was in 1996-'97 by the Joest-Porsche Team when they ran Porsche-powered spyders to consecutive victories. The winning car from 1966 (the first Ford victory for the GT40 in three attempts) was driven by the duo of Amon and McLaren. The win of 1967 was captured by the fierce American legends of Dan Gurney and AJ Foyt. Both the '66 and '67 winners were powered by the 7L version of the Ford push-rod, big block V8. The following two GT40 victories were fitted with detuned to 5L V8s to fit new rules for smaller engines to decrease speeds as the 7L big blocks were tipping 230mph on the Mulsanne Straight! The 6,982cc displacement of the 1967 winner was the largest displacement engine ever to win overall at Le Mans until Jaguar won in 1988 and 1990 with 6,999cc V12s. In contrast, the smallest displacement engine ever to capture an overall win at Le Mans was the 1,995cc, 12-cylinder unit the Ferrari 166 MM driven by Luigi Chinetti and Lord Selsdon (owner) carried in 1949. |