Tuesday 28th June 2016

Ford GT '66 Heritage Edition

Le Mans victories historic and contemporary celebrated in special edition GT

---

No secret of course the original Ford GT40's job was to beat Ferrari at its own game on the track, Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon leading the famous 1-2-3 victory at Le Mans in 1966 in the first of three Ford wins on the trot. And 50 years on the new GT managed just the same the other week, the #68 car prevailing in a tit-for-tat fight with the Ferrari 488 GTE that saw the cars separated by just a minute after 24 hours of hard, back and forth racing.

Now Ford seems keen to beat Ferrari at its own game again, namely by using historic racing victories as a means of convincing customers to part with more money for race-themed extras on their road cars. Meaning a set of silver on black stripes with stylised #2 graphics on a limited '66 Heritage Edition for the new Ford GT, evoking memories of the similarly liveried winner driven by McLaren and Amon. As such it gets a choice of Shadow Black paint (matt or gloss) with the 'exposed carbon fibre package' and a tasteful gold tint to the 20-inch forged wheels. Inside there's lots of Ebony leather on seats, dash and headlining with blue-webbed seat belts and - inevitably - a plaque confirming its limited edition status. OK, so it's cashing in shamelessly on a historic victory. But it carries the look rather well.

No surprise when you hear project figurehead and development boss Raj Nair on the subject. "Celebrating the anniversary of Ford's historic victories at Le Mans has always been a part of the return of the Ford GT," he says in the press release. "The 2017 Ford GT '66 Heritage Edition is a stunning tribute to the car that kicked off Ford's string of Le Mans victories in 1966." Note the 'kicked off' and expect plenty more stripe-themed celebratory special editions to come. If you can't wait for that you can build your own on the configurator. Share your chosen spec in the thread below!

See Ford's promo vid* here

 

*OK, it's basically the still images compiled in video form...

Archive photo: LAT

[shoestring7]

I congratulate Ford; winning Le Mans against GM, Ferrari and Porsche isn't easy.

However, I'm also a bit worried; the 488, RSR and Corvette are clearly racing versions of a road going GT car that anyone (with the money) can buy. I'm not sure the same thing can be said of the Ford, who have admitted designing the car to be primarily a racer - decisions which drove the choice of engine and aerodynamics.

The last time manufacturers started producing race optimised 'GT' cars only fit for the track prices rapidly escalated and within a few short years GT racing disappeared up its own chuff.

SS7