Ford versus Ferrari by John Starkey

Author:John Starkey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sports & recreation / Motor sports
Publisher: Veloce Publishing Ltd
Published: 2019-09-22T16:00:00+00:00

The winning Ferrari 275LM of Masten Gregory and Jochen Rindt at Le Mans in 1965. (Courtesy Maranello-Literature.com)

The American Ford and Shelby crew flew home, exhausted, but soon rallied to begin planning next year’s assault on Le Mans. However, the shock waves of the bad result spread to FAV, where production of GT40s for private entries was cancelled again. Luckily, John Wyer had now got used to Ford management, and simply carried on with the program. Sure enough, within two weeks, he received a communication to tell him to carry on.

Finally, the engine and foundry division at Ford’s factory at Dearborn was instructed to investigate the head gasket problems of the 289in3 engine, and in the autumn of 1965, FAV took a GT40 to Monza. In two separate tests, the modified engines performed well, all except for one, which broke a con rod after several hours’ running: a rarity in the 289 engine. A total of 43 hours was run, although not all in one go, as the track was only open eight hours a day.

At the same tests, the ZF 5DS25/1 gearbox was used, which had been made by ZF to cure the second gear breakage problems one had suffered at Le Mans. It passed the tests with flying colors.

A new crossover fuel system was also tested and passed, allowing one fueler instead of the previous two.

By the end of 1965, FAV had delivered 25 production cars; 15 went to Shelby American, or the Ford factory, whilst seven went to customers. One went to Ford in England, whilst FAV kept one for testing, and also had the prototype street car.

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