In 1966, Henry Ford II accomplished what he promised he’d do when Enzo Ferrari spurned his offer to buy his eponymous car company. Ford built the GT 40, a car that not only beat Ferrari at the legendary 24 Heures du Mans, but dominated the race finishing first, second and third, 21 laps ahead of the fourth place Porsche and 50 laps ahead of the first Ferrari.
50 years on, Ford will be back at Le Mans in 2016 with a new GT based on the fabulous GT street car we saw in Detroit this January.
At an announcement before the start of this year’s Le Mans, executive chairman Bill Ford said, “We are still extremely proud of having won this iconic race four times in a row, and that same spirit that drove the innovation behind the first Ford GT still drives us today.”
In addition to Le Mans, the GT will run the full 2016 schedules of the FIA World Endurance Championship and TUDOR United SportsCar Championship, making its competition debut in January 2016 in the Rolex 24 At Daytona, Florida. The two Ford teams will be operated by Chip Ganassi Racing which currently fields successful teams in both the IndyCar and NASCAR series.
It’s great to see Ford back at the biggest endurance race in the world. We’ll see if Bill Ford has the same success his uncle Hank had 50 years ago.
