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Video: The Birth of the Ford GT, 1964


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#1 Magoo

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Posted 23 March 2014 - 16:41

Turn up the sound, take in the beauty. This rare film short shows the legendary Ford GT at speed in its original 1964 configuration...you know, before the aerodynamics people really got hold of it. Did they improve the look of the car, or ruin it? 


Video: The Birth of the Ford GT, 1964 | Mac's Motor City Garage.com 

 

 

 

xvro.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 



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#2 BRG

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Posted 23 March 2014 - 21:42

Fascinating!  I never knew that the original Ford GT used a six speed gearbox.  



#3 desmo

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Posted 24 March 2014 - 01:53

I'm voting for a later version in proper John Wyer livery:

https://upload.wikim...at_Goodwood.jpg

#4 Greg Locock

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Posted 24 March 2014 - 02:02

i think it one of the rare cases where the aero refinements make the car look better, if perhaps less aggressive.



#5 GreenMachine

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Posted 24 March 2014 - 02:23

I am with Greg, though perhaps its success has something to do with it.

Did anyone notice in the video what appeared to be speccies along Mulsanne, and the BIG trees they were standing/sheltering in? Crowd control anyone?

#6 phoenix101

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Posted 24 March 2014 - 04:57



#7 Greg Locock

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Posted 24 March 2014 - 10:35

As opposed to, fer example,the lovely Esprit as originally designed and the various Peter Stephens and Julian creations, which are aerodynamically smart, modern looking, but nowhere near as exciting visually as the papercut. I

d say the same about the Countach, it got aero-blanded.



#8 Magoo

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Posted 24 March 2014 - 12:05

I am with Greg, though perhaps its success has something to do with it.

Did anyone notice in the video what appeared to be speccies along Mulsanne, and the BIG trees they were standing/sheltering in? Crowd control anyone?

 

You can imagine what would happen to a race car going through those trees at 200 mph. Meat grinder. 

 

When he went to LeMans with the Ford GT program, NASCAR driver Dick Hutcherson saw those same trees. Horrified, he went to team veteran Dan Gurney. "&%@#, there are all those trees right next to the track. What happens if you go off there?" 

 

Gurney gave him a level gaze and said, "Don't go off there." 

 

The story goes that Phil Hill gave Gurney that same advice at the Nurburgring a few years earlier. 



#9 Magoo

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Posted 25 March 2014 - 01:00

i think it one of the rare cases where the aero refinements make the car look better, if perhaps less aggressive.

 

 

I'm sure a professional stylist can give me eight reasons I am totally wrong about this, but to me the best looking Ford GT is the final 1967 Mk IV version, in which the original aesthetic was totally subverted by aero considerations. 



#10 desmo

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Posted 25 March 2014 - 02:37

By the Mk. IV they'd turned the corner into a pure race car with the greenhouse narrowed to spec width and half doors and as such looked much like similar racing prototypes of the period. The original body form was not that far from a perfectly practical road car which I find a far more impressive set of constraints to overcome than designing a swoopy sexy race car. Nobody will mistake the car I linked to above with a Lola.

#11 BRG

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Posted 25 March 2014 - 12:24

Did anyone notice in the video what appeared to be speccies along Mulsanne, and the BIG trees they were standing/sheltering in? Crowd control anyone?

Those big trees are the ones that line the closed main road where the circuit joins the Mulsanne Straight at Tertre Rouge.  They are still there today, with a line of armco in front of them and were sadly the scene of the tragic death of Allan Simonsen in last year's race.  The video was of course from the early 60s when safety had not really been invented.

 

I watched the race from further along the Mulsanne one year in the early 70s.  You could drive up on of several small side roads that led up to the main road in normal times.  Bty then, they were closed off with armco but as long as you were discreet, you could watch the race.  If you made yourself too obvious one of the many gendarmes that lined the track would wander over and tell you to shove off.  I never understood why the Le Mans track needed to be policed so heavily - maybe they thought someone might try to steal a car.  I am sure it was nothing to do with getting a free (paid) day at the races for the lads in blue.



#12 Lee Nicolle

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Posted 31 March 2014 - 09:17

Turn up the sound, take in the beauty. This rare film short shows the legendary Ford GT at speed in its original 1964 configuration...you know, before the aerodynamics people really got hold of it. Did they improve the look of the car, or ruin it? 


Video: The Birth of the Ford GT, 1964 | Mac's Motor City Garage.com 

 

 

 

xvro.jpg

Wire wheels? What were they thinking. Look at the later pics with the wider, infinitly stronger alloy wheels. 

In that pic I am sure the wheel is flexing just like the tyre.



#13 Lee Nicolle

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Posted 31 March 2014 - 09:25

I'm voting for a later version in proper John Wyer livery:

https://upload.wikim...at_Goodwood.jpg

Me too, I like that styling and package. 

Though Gulf Western color scheme while distinctive has never done anything for me. Though if they come up with the money to run the car the color scheme is great!


Edited by Lee Nicolle, 31 March 2014 - 09:27.


#14 Alan Baker

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Posted 06 April 2014 - 13:28

I'm sure a professional stylist can give me eight reasons I am totally wrong about this, but to me the best looking Ford GT is the final 1967 Mk IV version, in which the original aesthetic was totally subverted by aero considerations. 

Please! The Ford Mk. IV was not a"Ford GT". The 1964 Ford GT developed in two ways, the 7 litre Ford GT Mk. II and the 4.7 litre production GT40 ( a Mk.II is NOT a GT40). The 1967 Mk.IV (Ford dropped all reference to "GT" in 1967, even for the Mk.II's) was developed from the 1966 "J" car, entirely developed in the USA and having nothing in common with the original Ford GT and zero input from FAV in Slough, it is not a "version" of the original car anymore than the 1967 Ferrari 330P4 is a version of the 1964 250LM.