“You’d better win.
Henry Ford II”
With this short note with the Le Mans decal on it, Henry Ford II sent a clear message to the Ford executives receiving it. There was no option other than success at Le Mans in 1966.
Henry Ford II, also known as “the Deuce,” inherited a company which had dominated the automobile industry. By the time he became the CEO, Ford was no longer in the driver’s seat in the highly competitive automobile industry.
He was also the president of the Automobile Manufacturers Association which, under pressure from the Federal Government in 1957, had agreed to the Safety Resolution under which the manufacturers promised not to advertise horsepower. While General Motors through their Pontiac and Chevrolet divisions were secretly funding NASCAR teams, Ford did not engage in this strategy. As a result, General Motors saw its sales boom. Fed up with the cheating, Henry Ford II decided to turn to auto racing and withdrew from the Safety Resolution in 1962. Ford returned to racing at the 1963 Daytona 500.
At the time, Ford was negotiating with Enzo Ferrari to purchase the Ferrari factory with the proviso that Enzo Ferrari would maintain control over his racing team. The final agreement was for the creation of two companies. Ford-Ferrari would manufacture cars with Ford owning 90% while Ferrari-Ford would be the racing team owned 90% by Enzo Ferrari. On the day the agreement was to be signed, Ferrari suddenly withdrew. Behind the scenes, Ferrari was negotiating selling his production car business to Fiat. Ford had been played and Henry Ford II was furious. His mission became to beat Ferrari at Le Mans regardless of the cost.
The first attempt at Le Mans was in 1964. Ford Advanced Vehicles, a specialized division to focus on the Le Mans race, was unveiled in July 1963. It was going to be a tall order. At the time, Ford couldn’t beat Chevrolet at the racetrack. How were they going to beat Ferrari, which in 1963 won its fifth consecutive Le Mans race?
The answer was to bring in Carroll Shelby whose Cobras were dominating the American sports car races. It was personal to Shelby, too. He had won at Le Mans in 1959 in an Aston Martin. He had been offered contracts by Ferrari to join the team but he felt it was too dangerous. A good friend, Luigi Musso, had died while piloting a Ferrari as well as others. Shelby was tasked with beating Ferrari in the GT class while Ford was going to build a prototype, the GT40, to win the race.
The GT40 was finally finished by April 1, 1964. Even though it didn’t have any of the essential development work, three weeks later Ford was at Le Mans for the first testing day. When the car arrived in France, it had been run a total of four hours, none at high speed. At 160 mph, the car crashed and the driver, Jo Schessler, was lucky to survive. The next day, Roy Salvadori crashed the other GT40.
Two months later, Ford team was at Le Mans with three GT40s which still needed development work. One GT40 was piloted by Phil Hill who had won Le Mans in a Ferrari in 1962. A second GT40 was piloted by Richie Ginther and a third by Masten Gregory. One of the GT40s caught fire about four hours into the race. Shortly after Gregory took the lead, his car suffered a transmission issue and was withdrawn. The third GT40 was withdrawn with gearbox problems a little after 5:20 a.m. The only bright spot was that Shelby’s team with drivers Dan Gurney and Bob Bondurant finished fourth.
Instead of developing the car, Ford entered the three GT40s in the French Grand Prix which was two weeks later. The results were predictable…all three cars had suffered mechanical failure before the halfway point.
It was back to the drawing board. Ford decided to use a 427 cubic inch engine in the Le Mans race. This engine had more than twice the power of the Ferrari which won Le Mans in 1964. The problem facing the Ford engineers was that the power of the 427 was too much for the lightweight cars. Specialized parts including brakes, transmission and gears needed to be developed if the cars had a prayer of winning. Ford entered Nassau Speed Week in December 1964. Phil Hill and Bruce McLaren both exited the race before the halfway point.
This was the impetus to take the cars out of development by committee and into the hands of a small team headed by Carroll Shelby which could react and make decisions quickly. Utilizing a specialty prepared Ford 289 engine, the team entered the Daytona Continental 2000. Shelby’s right-hand man, Ken Miles, and Lloyd Ruby won the race in a Ford GT40. Shelby prepared cars took the top four spots as well as sixth. Ferrari finished 7th in a privately owned car.
At Ford’s Kar Kraft facility, the 427 engine was put into another racer. With Ken Miles at the wheel, it went an amazing 201.5 mph on Ford’s test track. Ford entered two MKIIs at Le Mans. The Shelby team had one month to develop the car. The Shelby team prepared six Fords and five Cobras to compete with the ten Ferraris. The 1965 test weekend at Le Mans saw John Surtees, Ferrari’s number one driver, set a new speed record.
Bruce McLaren and Ken Miles were in one of the MKIIs while Phil Hill and Chris Amon were paired for the second. The two Ford cars led the field by 50 seconds when they made their first pitstop. About an hour later, the first signs of engine failure were visible. The three GT40s with a smaller 289 cubic inch engine experienced engine failure. The MK II didn’t fare any better. The first one dropped out after four hours. The second lasted until 11 p.m.—seven hours into the race. Ferrari went on to take the top three spots with an American-owned Ferrari finishing first. Surtees dropped out with a gearbox failure after 225 laps for a 17th place finish. The Cobra’s top finish was 8th.
At Ferrari, there was continuing friction between Surtees and Eugenio Dragoni, Ferrari’s team leader, who did not conceal his favoritism of the number two driver. In September Surtees was critically injured while testing a Lola. Although he had gotten permission from Enzo Ferrari to race with the Lola team, rumors spread by Dragoni that he was going tell Lola some of Ferrari’s secrets. Despite having broken his pelvis and spine as well as suffering internal injuries, Surtees was determined to be in a Ferrari for the 1966 Le Mans.
It was August 1965 when the leadership of Ford received the notecard from Henry Ford. The message was clear. There was no option but to win. Ken Miles did the majority of the testing for Shelby. Complicating things was that Ford was going to have two teams. Holman Moody was responsible for the second team. The team of Miles and Ruby won the 24-hours at Daytona. A second Shelby car finished second, and a Holman Moody car finished third. Mario Andretti was the top Ferrari driver in fourth. It was on to the race at Sebring where Miles and Ruby again won and a Shelby prepared Ford finished second despite its engine quitting just before the finish line.
After months of rehab, John Surtees returned to the Ferrari team and with Mike Parkes won the race at Monza. Less than a month before the Le Mans race, Surtees again clashed with Dragoni who had put Ferrari’s number two driver, Lorenzo Bandini, in the fastest Ferrari. Enzo Ferrari ordered that Surtees be fired immediately after the Belgium Grand Prix. When Surtees won, his firing was delayed. The day before the Le Mans race, Surtees saw his car which was supposed to have two names—his and co-driver Mike Parkes. To his amazement, Ludovico Scarfiotti’s name also appeared on the car. Dragoni told Surtees that Scarfiotti would take the first driving shift despite having settled on a strategy of Surtees setting a rapid pace in hope that the Fords would chase and experience mechanical failures. Surtees walked off.
Dan Gurney was the fastest qualifier for the Le Mans race followed by Ken Miles. The fastest Ferrari qualified fourth. Ford had eight teams: three Shelby American, three Holman Moody and two privately owned cars. Ferrari had seven factory prepared cars, five of which were private entries.
With two hours to go in the 1966 Le Mans race, the three Shelby American drivers were told to cross the finish line together. It would be a great photo op. It also set up one of the most controversial finishes in Le Mans history. Because Miles’ car had qualified first, his car had run less distance than Bruce McLaren’s car. By crossing the finish line together, the win was handed to Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon. Ken Miles and Denny Hulme finished second. The third car, piloted by Ronnie Bucknum and Dick Hutcherson, was two laps back.
This book was the basis for the film, Ford v. Ferrari. It provides details of the corporate intrigue in the Ford and Ferrari camps and into the major players in the story—Enzo Ferrari, Henry Ford II, Carroll Shelby, Ken Miles, and John Surtees. If you loved the movie, this book is a must read.