Ford vs Ferrari, the story of the Ford GT40 on "Behind the Headlights"

welcome to Otto Radhika on speed welcome to behind the headlights speed channels documentary series that tells the stories of some very special automobiles vehicles so unique that they changed history and affected the moods and attitudes of generations hello and welcome to a very appropriate venue for this episode of behind the headlights which features Ford's gt40 mark 4 this is the legendary road circuit at LeMond france site of the famed 24 hours where Dan Gurney and AJ Foyt's car became a racing legend the Ford Motor Company bid to buy Enzo Ferraris company in 1962 failed Ford president henry ford ii decided he would conquer the Italian racing King on the world's most prestigious automotive stage LeMond what resulted was the most determined and expensive motor racing campaign ever witnessed with a no excuse to lose philosophy in this episode of behind the headlights we'll take a closer look at the Ford gt40 and see how a combination of Yankee ingenuity British technology and Henry Ford's determination to win at all costs made the car an international and timeless sensation I think the thing that made it a great accomplishment an American company decided that it was going to go to Europe and win against all the European companies something that had never been done before nobody but Henry Ford can make that decision they called it the swinging 60s the British revolution had hit the Beatles and The Rolling Stones were driving teenagers wild flower power it means and the Summer of Love were replacing the beatnik of the previous decade in 1964 the first military action in Vietnam that controversial war in Southeast Asia on the road thanks to cheap gas and open highways America's torrid love affair with the automobile showed no sign of chilling during the mid-60s in America you had a lot of focus on kind of achieving things that hadn't been achieved breaking barriers breaking records and of course you had automobiles that were getting more and more powerful all the time Americans were looking for an affordable fun to drive personal car and Ford had the answer they introduced the Mustang and belted it out of the park homerun on America's sports car circuits Carroll Shelby's Ford powered Cobra was destroying Chevy's Corvette the 60s was a really great dive you know we had launched Mustang at 64 and a half we were in the process of developing a wonderful relationship with Carroll Shelby and we were making just very exciting products at that time Henry Ford and his management understood winning races sold cars when on Sunday sell on Monday was the company edict Ford was engulfed in a campaign called the Total Performance Program they wanted to go after this so-called yes market and what this led to was a advertising campaign known as Total Performance Ford's Total Performance program was working in the United States but Henry Ford desired victory on a much grander scale as luck would have it the most prominent company in racing was a for sale Rory Ferrari had been out there for years and years and years and they have raced they knew all about what it took to win a reliability challenge like the law and similar races Ford didn't after several months of extensive negotiations and reportedly striking a deal with four Enzo Ferrari pulled out and report was furious and wanted to beat Ferrari at his own game Racing and one of his successful dominions was the most demanding race in the world the 24 Hours of LeMans ford wanted to go and beat Ferrari in Europe the place to do that was at Lamar when you're talking about 210 miles an hour down the Strait of the mall you're talking about French country two-lane road when you're buying 210 it looks like it's about an inch wide this kind of speed goes on not just in the daytime sometimes it's going to be rain race net LeMond is like no other race it really goes beyond and you think that both cars and humans were officially meant to do there is no higher achievement in motorsports than a win at the 24 Hours of LeMans and before ii made it his personal mission to dethrone the reigning king Enzo Ferrari and before this extremely upset so a subset in fact that he called in his main racing program people and pulled them in his office and he essentially looked them all in the eye and said I don't care what it takes I want you to beat that son of a board initiated a blank check all-out assault to build his own sports car he put it in contracts similar to linking cities when President Kennedy said America's going to a movie in the world of Ford Motor Company the same sort of thing happened where henry ford ii so we're gonna win the moon there's things written to the tune that this was a hundred million dollar campaign so it was really there was really a vendetta if I could use that phrase on Henry for its part the result of his frustration with Ferrari would become the Ford GT an exceptional automobile that is one of the best-loved and most charismatic racing cars of all time guten Freunde the drive was a fantastic car simply because it was sorted out handled extremely wrong it was very comfortable very roomy and we were sensitive to have you stuff behind you in 1967 Ford's racing program attained its apex with the gt40 marked for its average speed at LeMond was an incredible 155 miles per hour over the 8.3 mile circuit the kind of stir at the mark for created as a super calm on its peers the Ford gt40 won the 24-hour French classic four times in a row ending Ferraris six-year run as champion it was the first time really in history where an American automobile company assaulted a European racer it was a huge flag waving kind of opportunity that was just a great thrill the winning amount four straight years is like winning the Olympics four times in a row and it's just a tremendous achievement and there'll never be another program like that cuz there never be another Henry Ford behind the headlights takes you back to the 1960s to explore this astounding war between two automotive icons poor father company was determined to win at lamothe and and and we didn't know how to do it any great but put the pedal to the metal first game CTS built in the top-ranked plant for initial quality and now comes the all-new STS lightning strikes twice break through the Netscape internet service lets me choose if I want to have their unlimited access for just 995 so doesn't it zero and Netscape lets me have web accelerator for free with their 995 plan net zero charges 14.95 for their service with web accelerator what do you get with MIT soon I'm a Netscape guy right now Netscape gives you free web accelerator to surf up to five times faster net zero charges 1495 that's over 50% more get Netscape for 995 now with free web accelerator these people are getting answers to the most important questions they'll ever ask questions and about their health they're finding those answers in a single place Web MD 20 million people come to WebMD every month they find vital information that used to be scattered in a hundred locations now all in one place the place of America comes for health care answers a place called WebMD chicken wings by Hooters things Christmas is near shop Christmas shopping shouldn't be hard give your friends are looters it's hard in chicken wings 5-footers things shop where it's cool right from your stool calendars and meters huh face lots of stuff with no price tags eat chicken wings fine mutters things Christmas is near gift cards are here letters everywhere now Wow [Music] following World War two Ford Motor Company was in dire straits sales had plummeted and the company needed new leadership a new direction only in his 20s henry ford ii was chosen to replace his aging uncle ed salt at the helm of one of the largest motor companies in the world young Henry proved to be the right man for the job he quickly revitalized the company and put it back on par with Chrysler and General Motors headed by election in Florida and he was the dictator benevolent by the way despite sales increases Ford was still known primarily as the old person's car company one wouldn't account says that in the early 60s Ford Motor Company's image was analogous to Maytag it was reliable not very exciting they wanted to capture the youth market get away from cars that were pointed at old ladies and racing of course is the the best way to do that they made a bigger commitment to auto racing than probably any other manufacturer in the world what Ford wanted to do henry ford ii particularly was have a representative at the international racing scene and to win specifically the 24-hour at Lamar Henry for took out his checkbook and looked for a likely acquisition Ford zeroed in on the most prestigious name in sports car racing Ferrari henry ford ii sent company vice president Don Frye to Italy for negotiations with Enzo Ferrari were very seriously looking at it spent a great deal of money evaluating it and curricular time and effort the price was eighteen million dollars eighteen million dollars to buy all Ferrari and here Ford probably spent two or three million dollars just sending people over the Ferrari to see what was going on and the whole thing turned into a giant fiasco when we for the second thought he had a deal but himself Ferrari is nothing if not mercurial and at the last minute he pulled out of the deal when Don Frye who had run that for Ford came back and reported him to henry ford ii always lovingly referred to as the deuce henry said don't worry man we'll kick their ass it was important for the corporate prestige that they get out there and they filled the car at a race such as the law and win the decision to create his own sports car was simple however the actual building of a Ferrari leader for the world sports car circuits was not all new cars have developmental problems come build something out of the box go to close position [Music] the 270 horsepower Acura TL with dvd-audio surround sound and 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in Sayreville the best hobby shop in New Jersey [Music] great holiday gifts right from home when Enzo Ferrari refused to sell his company Ford in ishi ated a relentless charge to racing glory with the development of a powerful American automobile what it led to was a massive almost military like campaign to unseat Ferraris dominance in European sports car racing the Ford Motor Company needed help to win on the world stage the British possessed more experience and expertise at european-style endurance racing so it was decided that the job could best be done in England repaired with a broadly of the role of car company he had a mid-engine four tire car incidentally that gave us a swing board to work from work began on the car and by the end of March 1964 in only seven months the first prototype was completed Bruce McLaren and I had done a lot of the testing on the car sorting out initial bugs and show great promise it was billed as the fastest board ever built they was in keeping with the times which was to take a find the chassis usually British and put a big honking American motor in the Indy engines 256 cubic inches put out 350 horsepower at 7,000 rpm that was considered to be powerful enough to send the GT down the straight at Lamar at over 200 miles per hour there was a complex network of ducts to take cool air to the disc brakes and the engine the gearbox was the colotti transaxle which Freud had been using and it was proven to be very successful like Ferrari at least of appeals would be learning from hooli and they proved to be not capable of withstanding the the torque of the Romans and Prabhu's at the time the car was simply known as the Ford GT somewhere along the line somebody decided that rather than simply calling it now Ford GT they would add that 40 on it that wasn't the 40th in the line or anything like that it was supposed to be based on simply how high the car is off the ground and when you think about it a car that's only 40 inches high is pretty low rarely had a cars arrival been so anxiously awaited as the gt40 s the cars first public appearance on the track was scheduled for April 1964 at the Lamont test days scores of reporters witnessed the new Ford racers anticipated coming-out party unfortunately its debut was discouraging to gt40s rolled out onto the Lamont track two gt40s crashed the car had aerodynamic problems that proved to be its undoing specifically the car had an alarming tendency to become airborne aerodynamic tests conducted showed the need for a spoiler under the front end of the car to combat the high lift generated by the body shape another spoiler was added to the rear if I were to have a problem that's a problem I would want to have as my cars were were so fast that aerodynamics came to be a real issue two months later on June 20th 1964 three Ford gt40 s entered the lamothe 24 hour race it looked like a good start by the second lap Richie Ginther 's Ford GT comfortably exceeded 200 miles an hour and was leading every Ferrari phil hill america's Formula one champion established a new lap record averaging more than 131 miles an hour Richard Atwood and Joe schlesser drove the third gt40 none of these cars would see the end of the race the car was driven by Phil Hill performed very impressively for about 14 laps of the drop down with suspension failure they also had a gearbox problem because there weren't gearboxes available in those days to take the kind of torque this big v8 put out the first round of Ford's assault on Ferrari at Lamar had failed two more losses followed that year the first at Reims in France where three gt40s failed to finish and again at Nassau in the Bahamas where both entries dropped out the deuce was losing patience in the fall of 1964 he would make one of the most important moves for the gt40 program and listing Carol Shelby to lead the charge carol was a was a can-do let's get it done kind of guy and very much like my father in Pearl had a very outgoing personality and I think that that my father's personality and pearls personality meshed reasonably well [Music] in a new era of combat a lone soldier collapse will become the ultimate whoa whoa miss number 28 the way to team the Netscape internet service lets me choose if I want to have their unlimited access for just 995 so doesn't it zero and Netscape lets me have web accelerator for free with their 995 plan net zero charges 14.95 for their service with web accelerator what do you get with MIT till I'm a Netscape guy right now Netscape gives you free web accelerator to surf up to five times faster net zero charges 1495 that's over 50 percent more debt Netscape 4 995 now with free web accelerator the Shelby American company based in Southern California had a five-year contract with Forge to develop racecars Carroll Shelby was setting the racing world on fire with this one upsetting Ferraris hold on the GT class in 1964 and LeMond he had fast European racing experience including a win at LaVon in 1959 as a driver for Aston Martin Shelby's expertise and knowledge were desperately needed at a time when the gt40 program was mired in failure I think bringing in Carroll Shelby was was in my opinion a key ingredient to the success of the whole gt40 program he had a SHOP full of talent that was unbelievable fellows it had been to Indianapolis time after time fellows that had been in stock cars fellows that had been in Formula one we had with headaches from New Zealand Japan Australia Italy France Germany England he had a fella by the name of Phil Remington who is certainly the greatest master automotive racing mechanic fabricator in the history of American motor racing yeah I know we had a lot of people and a lot of murex hot rodders and told people from all walks of life and it was a very cohesive group shelby american was a winning company we had a winning attitude and if you have the right mind frame they're not going to get beat Shelby's team was under the gun to get the gt40 ready for its first race at Daytona two months to transform the car from one that hadn't finished a race to one capable of crossing the finish line we first got the cars the first thing they did was take them to Riverside and Ken miles and Bob Bonner out were out there and they tested the car they both hated it completely so the car was completely ripped apart Shelby replaced the original exotic 256 cubic inch Indy engine with his own 289 Cobra powerplant it was more reliable with more power and more it was capable of speeds on the Mulsanne straight of 190 miles an hour in 1965 I mean that is remarkable the unreliable Khiladi gearbox was also replaced in substitute was a 5-speed ZF box from Germany shall be enlisted arrow neutronic Ford's aerospace company to diagnose the airflow problems of the car they found that the complex system of cooling ducts was not working as it should the way went up there and molded up went to exterior ducting to put on the tail of the car trying to get more air to the bell core and also the inlet to the carburetor they literally work 24 hours a day seven days a week on that car they change the engine they changed the suspension they changed the cooling they change the wheels they change the tires transmission the only thing it was the same on that car by the time we got de Toro was a body first up for Shelby's new modified gt40 was the Daytona Continental two thousand kilometer race a grueling 1243 mile test of man and machine the Shelby team was running two gt40s one driven by ten miles at lloyd ruby the other by Richie Ginther and Bob Entourage shall be proved to be the difference resoundingly beating for Lori's p2s driven by John Surtees and pedro rodriguez first race of the year was at Daytona they want it second race was at Sebring they took a second next race they took a third but this gearbox problem still persisted in Sicily at the demanding Targa Florio Road course the gt40 would compete with Ferraris 275 p2 on its own turf it was a 440 mile race consisting of 10 laps each 44 miles long with hundreds of tight corners there Ford straight-line speed advantage meant little through the islands twisty mountain roads la Blanca or were the drivers when Whitmore lost a wheel on the moon strafe an enthusiastic spectator tried to make a souvenir of the wheels knockoff spinner wasting precious minutes the gt40 sat on the side of the road before Whitmore eventually recovered the wheel nut from the crowd by now the p2 Ferrari of Nino vaccarella and Lorenzo Bandini had an unbeatable lead Bob Bondurant gt40 ended its race in a ditch at the side of the road two more devastating losses for the team follow at Sebring and then again at Lomov in 1965 towards lost their gearboxes Ferrari sweat for first six or seven places and Ford again was totally impressed corporately Shelby and the four team would have to go back to the drawing board if they wanted to catch Ferrari clearly this race in 66 when we went in full force was very important to my father a new Cadillac STS soon nothing you could drive this car for twenty years this one for a decade or this one even wanted and you'd still have guaranteed engine protection new peak global lifetime is the only antifreeze backed by a lifetime guarantee and the formula works on any make any model any time so no matter what you drive or how long your driver's with a complete flush and fill we guarantee it for light people the lifetime antifreeze flush it fill it and forget it the Netscape Internet service lets me choose if I want to have their unlimited access for just 995 so doesn't it zero and Netscape lets me have web accelerator for free with their 995 plan net zero charges 14.95 for their service with web accelerator what do you get with Mitsu I'm Netscape guy right now Netscape gives you free web accelerator to surf up to five times faster net zero charges 1495 that's over 50 percent more get Netscape for 995 now with free web accelerator there are Jassim Ali in January only on speed the wily Texan Carol Shelby and scores of other dedicated professionals at Ford worked long hours and hard days to make the gt40 program a success the car had begun to win in both the United States and abroad but the ultimate goal was a victory in the grueling 24 hour race here at Lamar in France as we'll see in June of 1966 the Ford gt40 not only won the 24 Hours it dominated after two failed runs at Lamar in 1964 and 65 1966 became a do-or-die situation for everyone involved with the gt40 program they said your role in next year I mean really gave us impression that they were serious about it Henry brought Leo BB Don Frye and I into his office and said well boys here's your name tag and our names were there and it said Ford wins Lamore and 66 Ford came out with an improved model in 1966 the gt40 Mark - it had the same chassis but a different engine a 427 cubic inch behemoth developed for NASCAR with an incredible 460 horsepower now you've got this 427 cubic inch motor in this tiny bullet-like coupe these things could go over 210 miles an hour on the straight in the mouth the mark ii was beefier and suspension a lot more strengthen the chassis shall be focused on on keeping the engine cool by using some some advanced duct work and they also had to improve the brakes because what they found during testing was that the brakes were not able to withstand the extreme speeds that the car could reach and then have to come back down from fill women to team up with a way to change the rotors in about a minute and a half therefore the guys could use the brakes as hard practically as they wanted to but we could change them up to that time the rotors are on the backside of the Drive flange so they put them out on the front side so that we could change rotors pretty rapidly just pull a caliper out hang it on the hook shelby's team also did something quite revolutionary they actually built a dyno at Ford Motor Company where they can run an engine and transmission for a full 24 hours like it was running at a mall and it was one of the earliest computer-controlled dinos it had an engine and a gearbox and had a robotic form of shifting and your eyes closed you could hear this car going down the mouse on straight you could hear a downshift for a turn you could hear it accelerate out of that turn and you follow it for a whole lap sitting there and Dearborne on the dyno Lemoine is the most grueling international automotive competition in the world and has been the Everest of auto racing since 1923 it is eight point three miles of rural roads most of which are normally used by the public usually only a small percentage of the cars that begin the race will finish it a full 24 hours later LeMond 1966 Ford was there in numbers Ford actually fielded six vehicles three of them were under the Shelby American Racing team two of them were under the Holmen and Moody racing bed and one of them was Alan van racing and what Henry Ford a second did he didn't pick the gt40 against the Europeans he pitted Shelby against home and Moody and they wanted to beat each other more than they wanted to win Lamar there was a lot of competition between them but that was good that made both that was better henry ford ii had been invited to be honorary president at the 1966 lamar race as president he would drop the french flag to start the event through the night the Shelby car driven by 10 miles and any home ran beautifully but the Chris Amon Bruce McLaren car suffered brake problems and they weren't the only ones Lamacq and punished cars in many ways by morning there were only 5 cars left with a chance at winning 3 gt40s and 2 Ferrari 330 p3 's 10 miles had the lead by several laps but the Ferraris both suffered engine failure and dropped out thus guaranteeing the Ford gt40 a 1-2-3 finish which sparked an interesting idea they tried this stage of Mickey Mouse the finish with all the Fords coming across the finish line together 10 miles driving a team Shelby gt40 was ordered to slow down and let teammate Bruce McLaren catch up with Ronnie Bucknam of the a movie team finishing third the one-two-three photo finish was one for the record works miles thought he had won and so did everyone else but Ford overlooked an important Lomov regulation that was a rule that none of them knew about the rule book that said whoever started the race further back at the starting grid had actually traveled a further distance so McLaren Bruce McLaren was actually the winner because he'd started further back on the starting grid than the other two cars and they blew it for them the way they the way the race was timed and judged the long title walk miles had won Daytona and Sebring in the gt40 and anyway been the only driver ever to win the three major races in one year and despite the controversy the Ford Motor Company had reached the pinnacle of racing success Henry Ford was ecstatic this win was tremendous could hear the cheering and give on as well as in France and before the second was his exuberance and kiss the drivers at the end of the 1966 race when we came in one two and three I remember staying around a little more for probably an hour or so after the race basking in the glow of the victory I would say but now Ford faced a bigger challenge trying to stay on top in order to keep them there they would unveil their greatest iteration of the gt40 yet the mark for this really was the cherry on top of the dessert form for Henry Ford because and his company through the learning experience of several years and then internally produced a car that was new absolute dominant car [Music] let's your horsepower six be an acura tsx identifies more than just convention your speed channel of yours to all of you who britain us for speed swag well good news speedy swag is back more shirts worn lids more jackets plain and simple more swag that's right speed swag is back available now at speed swag calm looking for a safe fun way to learn poker then go to Pacific poker at 888 calm the world's number-one online casino in poker school it's fun it's fast its secure burn Texas Hold'em Omaha and seven card stud big tournaments too at att.com the action is hot and the poker school is free so you can learn with friends or players around the world like no gunslingers Pacific poker at 88 calm down low the games now it's free a warning for arthritis patients taking Vioxx The Rock's manufacturer recently withdrew the arthritis medication from the worldwide market because an ongoing clinical trial confirmed Vioxx increases the risk of heart attack and strokes if you or a loved one took Vioxx and suffered a heart attack stroke or yes call 1-800 to nine one two eight six five that's one eight hundred to nine one two eight six five following it's one two three sweep at the 1966 lamar race ford's enthusiasm would be tempered by an unfortunate tragedy only two months later this was an all-out war there are casualties and although it's hard to believe today to achieve these great wins of them all Ford paid a tremendous price at a road test at Riverside Raceway in California a gt40 mark floor prototype went out of control ten miles one of the most respected drivers of the era was driving the car he's going down the backstraight going into turn nine and there are whales locked up from the skid marks and who ran out the right side of the course and there was quite a drop down to that infield and the car just disintegrated and then caught fire the purportedly strong honeycomb chassis was broken into sections throwing miles from the car and killing him instantly the racing world Henry Ford and especially Carol Shelby were stunned Fords GT program was temporarily suspended however two months later the new mark 4 was unveiled the Ford mark 4 it really wasn't an evolution of the gt40 it was part of the same program but it was in fact a completely new car there was a much cleaner design that had a better suspension that had better brakes the mark 4 became the pinnacle of the gt40 program it was a major upgrade over the mark 2 we had a different body shape on it and that penetrated the air better it went down the straightaway faster 50 miles an hour faster than the cars in 66 the mark 4 had bigger wheels and larger brakes and it retained its powerful 7 liter engine and sperry Torquay which means you get to run a long way and gear that you're in before you have to shift again if you left the pits and first gear and you know yes it finally and live it up to 6200 I think it's doing about 90 miles an hour and first if you can shift two or three times less per lap over a course of a 24-hour period is just that many times you just aren't wearing out mechanical things in the car the Ferrari engine is much smaller and revving much higher than it was working real hard this NASCAR engine was he was cruising toward incorporated another interesting attribute into the development of the mark for driver comfort the Ford GT mark 4 was sort of halfway between a passenger car from the street and a race car the vision was heavy and it was very reliable what made the cars that comfortable is the seating position you sit a little more upright they can sense and feel the car better if the seat in the way was designed it v the driver just perfectly at first the mark 4 wasn't so comfortable for Dan Gurney the six foot four inch driver couldn't sit in the mark four with his helmet on so Ford expanded the top of the roof to accommodate gurney the modification was called the gurney bubble in 1967 Sebring served as a testbed for the new mark 4 board captured the first two places with Bruce McLaren and Mario Andretti in the winning car and AJ Foyt and Lloyd Ruby finishing second Ford felt confident that the mark 4 was ready for the demanding 1967 lamothe the biggest question remained could Carroll Shelby's unusual pairing of two legendary drivers bring home another victory at L'Amour the analyst tells a story that he would love to put a bet with an English bookie on and when we made over an eraser or not because they were they were voted the most likely to lose this gift has no go this gift s go no go go give them gifts that go from your honda dealer with great deals like 6.9% fix APR financing and zero down payment for 60 months or use your on the car for a fixed APR and flexible payments plus get up to seven hundred dollars in bonus bucks on select models remember there's no goals and on the gifts that go stick some stamps on the top of my head imma gonna mail myself [Music] Oh am I gonna tiny in a little extra time to climb up into the mailbox and I'm gonna mail myself miss Holliday the entire US Postal Service is working for you [Music] sometimes one more is one too many know your limit credit-card bills late payments medical bills financial stress could happen to anyone if you're a homeowner and you need cash caller log on to detect calm and take the die tech challenge will guarantee you the lowest rate and fee and help you to consolidate debts and lower your payments even if your credit is less than perfect put us to the test and find out why so many other lenders are saying lost another loan to die tech log on or call one eight hundred eighty detect even though the gt40 had one the most renowned race in the world for Henry Ford in 1966 there was still an air of discontent emanating from the deuce who afford felt that the menorah is 66 as great as it was still wasn't all American so he very consciously set about developing an all-american team that included the drivers entered for condemned gurney and the car was the Ford GT mark for Ford entered both the mark 2 and Mark for Model gt40s at LeMond and they sent the fastest most on straightaway speeds in qualifying but the Ferrari p4 driven by Mike parks and ludovico scarfiotti achieved quicker lap times for the race itself Shelby American and Ullman and movie each entered three cars to mark fours and a single mark to the prospect of driving Ford's new gt40 mark 4 brought together two of the greatest drivers of their era dan gurney and AJ Foyt while both were fabulous drivers they're racing backgrounds were entirely different journeys experience was on the world sports car circuits and as a Formula One driver gurney was a veteran of the Lamar race having had several unsuccessful goes Boyd was an oval track driver and at just one the Indy 500 a month earlier at age eight point had no history in endurance racing he proven himself obviously at 8500 race but that was completely different type of race that very important would go out and lead the race we kind of set the pace and then break and somebody else would good news but they were not to pick up a letter I could say it that way of all the cars that were running that year for port Shelby's conservative strategy at the 67 Lama stood in sharp contrast to his drivers usual all-out aggressive style Dan Gurney by then had seen me win the law three times I don't know whether to take notice but you don't do it by going super fast no matter how fast your car is you can't drive it that fast for 24 hours all right I never ran a lap really hard I always had about a four second cushion on say and I did that purposely the race was only the last three hours you saved the car and then you had the last three hours I didn't expect us to be leading the race early in the race I thought this would come after attrition set in and everything else well by the end of the first hour other than believe journey and Boyd's mark for took the lead and kept expanding it nine hours into the race Ford held the first three places but still no sign of a smile from the deuce once again it's clear the Fords are faster but are they going to last the fries keep them in sight but they can't make any great progress then between 1:00 and 2:00 in the morning the Fords hit a bad batch Mario Andretti comes out after having his new brakes put on the new brakes act up Mario loses control crashes the car two other 14 cars are following very closely they also crashed trying to avoid Mario in a wink of an eye three Fords are gone you got now the one Ford Dan Gurney AJ Foyt in the lead by six laps but two Ferraris are pursuing following the unfortunate accidents Ford would now pin their 1967 llama holes on car number one gurney and voids gt40 mark 4 they turned out to be absolutely terrific they didn't have a big personality clash they work very well together they communicated well and they drove a brilliant race this Friday and Saturday only sales has the lowest prices of the season like this $4.99 half carat three stone diamond pendant now just $1.99 hurry quantities are limited at sales the diamond store this Friday and Saturday only sales has the lowest prices of the season like these to $99.99 half carat diamond earrings now just $1.99 hurry quantities are limited I'd sales the diamond store there are chastened coming in January only on speed is your business losing sale looking for a safe fun way to learn poker Lin go to Pacific poker at att.com world's number-one online casino in poker school it's fun it's fast its secure learn Texas Hold'em Omaha and seven card stud big tournaments too at att.com the action is hot and the poker school is free so you can learn with friends or players around the world but no gunslingers Pacific Poker at 888 calm down low the games now it's free a warning for arthritis patients taking Vioxx the varix manufacturer nascent mammoth drew the arthritis medication from the worldwide market because an ongoing clinical trial confirmed Vioxx increases the risk of heart attack and strokes if you or a loved one took Vioxx and suffered a heart attack stroke or yet call 1-800 to nine one two eight six five that's one eight hundred to nine one two eight six five as the 1967 mala 24-hours heated up Dan Gurney and co-driver AJ Foyt had their gt40 mark floor blame another title he was running first Ferrari was running second the Ferraris being driven by a man named Mike parks and it was clear the only way that we're gonna beat the Fords was if they could force them to point Mike parks is right up on me and then he's picking me conflicted with a little thing on on the lights you know in there and you're kind of in the mirror and just by them and he's flashing his lights and he's trying to get Bernie to hit the competition for anything adrenaline flowing it went on for at least four laps but he wouldn't try and pass he just wanted their harassment and Gary says at one point he actually pulled off the track what does Mike Parks do he pull off behind me and stopped his car right behind me and I sat there for at least 10 seconds maybe a little bit more and finally I guess he just decided ah this this isn't gonna work so he he pulled out went on and four or five laps later caught him and passed him and never saw him again by the morning that the Fords were first fifth and sixth with three Ferrari P fours between them one of those Ferraris driven by Gunther class and Peter Sutcliffe dropped out due to the loss of oil pressure Boyd and gurney who started the race at a blistering pace on there's the checkered flag the veterans and gurney from California are charging AJ point on Texas 3267 miles at an average speed about I was a prostitute and made my way through the mob back down to the pit they were certainly happy honored they were jubilant but they were also very very tired boy and Bernie did a sensational job and I'll never be able to thank them enough for holding off just enough to win a race and had never extending the car the two most unlikely guys of that whole campaign to come forward for AJ Foyt and Dan Gurney and they did it and they did it going away the board had convincingly demonstrated its initial victory was no fluke the win in 67 was an all-american effort that established the gt40 as a legend Dan Gurney rather spontaneously begun a tradition that is this mainstay today the crowd is ecstatic the Fords have done it again Henry the deuce is there Dan Gurney gets up on the podium they get this huge bottle of champagne and they're you know they're expected to take a swig of the champagne well dirty of course is ecstatic he's finding one of the mods and he's kind of a playful guy anyway and all of a sudden he just kind of shakes up the bottle it sprays everybody with it so got her going and just started spraying all henry ford ii and his new wife and from italy and just we managed to cover all bases practically and it was a fantastic moment following this monumental victory Henry Ford decided to rest on the company's laurels and let privateers take up the gauntlet I think we pull out of them off after the 67 race primarily because that was we had accomplished what we wanted to accomplish even an FIA rules change aimed at curtailing the mark force winning streak couldn't stop the gt40 s legacy from charging ahead as evidenced by the victories of the Gulf teams view and orange livery gt40s in 68 and 69 it was actually the exact same vehicle with the same serial number and everything that won in both 68 and 69 that may be the only time that's ever happened in history of the race so Ford ended up with four consecutive victories when they were really actually satisfied with the first two they put a cap on engine size at five liters that was the largest engines to be from that point on why did they change the rules from year to year if it's if it takes place in Europe they want to fix it's a European car can win decades later the car would re-emerge as a 21st century model Ford has decided that history is important they can come back and doing some retro stuff is good for marketing and the right the 260 horsepower supercharged Grand Prix comp G the new 275 horsepower GXP the 350 horsepower GTO [Music] the Netscape internet service lets me choose if I want to have their unlimited access for just 995 so doesn't it zero and Netscape lets me have web accelerator for free with their 995 plan net zero charges 14.95 for their service with web accelerator what do you get with net soon I'm a Netscape guy right now Netscape gives you free web accelerator to surf up to five times faster net zero charges 1495 that's over 50 percent more get Netscape for 995 now with free web accelerator all I want to do is raise the rate the guy with the fastest car is the one which uses two engines beatriz x3 with over five hours of Dale Earnhardt interviews and races to this collector's edition today Wednesday nights on speed the world's greatest auto shops from New York to Beijing the newest models and the coolest concept this show has more than just your average passenger car sexy exotic cutting-edge well you see the lardo world's greatest auto shows always a crowd-pleaser where sleek styling and rugged powers that side by side with the world's greatest auto shops Bologna Paris and Tokyo the Wednesday beginning 80s during the nine Pacific only on speed to commemorate the gt40s remarkable achievement and to celebrate their centennial in 2003 Ford Motor Company announced a new road going reincarnation of the sports racing car that captured America's heart and won the 24 Hours of LeMans four consecutive years it's a really nice melding of absolutely up-to-date technology and the body design that is 35 years old but is so good that it looks good today despite the 2005 model the original remains a valuable classic prices can reach well over a million dollars and one particular llama winning car is priceless the celebrated 1967 llama winning gt40 mark 4 now resides at the Ford Museum in Dearborn Michigan does a race car no car from any manufacturer little and Ford has accomplished what the for gently good it was an American win for Ford Motor Company and there was this great feeling of pride by God you know we can do that take that Enzo America can win this leads to as proof of just how difficult mama can be of the 44 gt40s that raced the 24 hours just nine went the full distance but of those nine finishes for were victories along with won second place two thirds one fourth and one sixth place one most remarkable achievements in the annals of motor racing I think the legacy is the only American wins at Lamar or by the Fords these are the great Fords of all time because there was no foreseeable end to its winning the gt40 was outlawed by further rules changes in 1969 the Ford gt40 will always be a reminder that when put to the test an American car company beat the best competition and emerged a winner in the world's toughest race not once but four times in a row the Ford Motor Company Carol Shelby tireless mechanics and brave racers gave American automobile enthusiasts a legacy that will never be forgotten for all those that were involved with one of the greatest times of our lives it was really thrilling to be in on it I want my legacy to be I want to make sure those people are recognized they were the pioneers the truth of the matter is I enjoyed every day I really look forward to going to work in the morning because I knew I was going to learn something new it's absolutely that good there was one terrific time could never repeat again then after we were I said I don't feel what happens now we've got it we put a mark up on the tree and there it is one of the most remarkable aspects of the gt40 program is the fact that it ever saw the light of day at all with unlimited funds but very limited time it's almost inconceivable that a specialty program was able to create the quintessential racing car it was because of Henry the doose's obsession with beating Ferrari here at lamothe that he opened his checkbook in a way few company president welcome to Otto Radhika on speed welcome to behind the headlights speed channels documentary series that tells the stories of some very special automobiles vehicles so unique that they changed history and affected the moods and attitudes of generations hello and welcome to a very appropriate venue for this episode of behind the headlights which features Ford's gt40 mark 4 this is the legendary road circuit at Lamond france site of the famed 24 hours where Dan Gurney and AJ Foyt's car became a racing legend the Ford Motor Company bid to buy Enzo Ferraris company in 1962 failed

Channel: Jim Cip

Views: 907,022

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Id: MTaNjOPv6OU

Length: 60min 0sec (3600 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 27 2016