Ford GT40 at Revival | PH Shotgun!
How does Goodwood look from the passenger seat of a £5m one-of-seven GT40?
The sheer range of machinery competing at Goodwood Revival means that few genuinely stand out, but the Ford GT40s definitely provide some of the greatest entertainment, with the thunderous V8 racers among the very fastest and loudest on track. Each one of these Le Mans legends - one of which hosts Adrian Newey in the driver's seat this weekend - oversteers under braking and just about everywhere else as V8 output meets tarmac. No apologies for thinking them the most dramatic of the lot.
Climbing aboard one certainly feels pretty special. The car PH has blagged a passenger ride in is a 1969 5.0-litre model originally owned by the late Walter Hayes, who was a friend of Henry Ford's and a former Ford of Europe chairman. Its red paint wears stone chips, the dash looks tired and the softness of the seat cushioning suggests these chairs have carried many backsides at pace. Len, the Ford Heritage man responsible for driving us around the Goodwood circuit for the demonstration, says "it's lived a hard life".
The car is number seven of seven built to commemorate Ford's four consecutive victories at Le Mans in the sixties, was bought by Hayes for £7,500 in '69. Today, it's valued at around £5 million, or, as Len puts it, "much more to the right buyer". It's not for sale - this right-hand drive GT40 has been part of Ford's heritage collection since Hayes passed away in 2000 - but Len is a keen driver and as soon as that glorious eight-cylinder is up to temp and sending vibrations through the chassis as first is selected, we're hammering down the straight.
First thing to note is the noise. It's simply not possible to compare the sound of a carb-fed V8 with anything modern. This GT40 is a road car so it has silencers - and it's considerably quieter than the racers from the outside. But inside, with the rev-counter needle spinning past 5,000rpm, you're overwhelmed by the explosion of noise, not to mention vibrations pulsing through your rib cage as each next cog of the five-speed dogleg box is selected. Think the Aventador SV's single-clutch auto is savage? Try the intermediary punch between shifts of a 50-year-old 400hp V8. No competition.
The chassis feels more prototype than sports car. There's roll on turn in, but it feels like tyre flex rather than spring compression. Len's not pushing too hard - for obvious reasons - but the dominance of the car's front end is clear; the reaction to his steering inputs is so positive that you can just imagine how nice and early that V8 would beckon you to open its carburettor butterflies. As shown by the racers, this is a car you can have rotating on the brakes before turn in, allowing you to drift around the corners with a throttle chased before the apex. Sadly these are just demo laps between the proper sessions.
You might assume that a car which blends such an eager chassis with the sort of grunt that can cause wheelspin in third around St Mary's would be scary to drive, but the GT40 does not seem like a spikey racing car from the wrong seat. It moves with fluidity, reacting so precisely to each steering and throttle input that drivers can dance this sixties monster between Goodwood's curves as though at half speed. There's no doubt the likes of Dan Gurney and Bruce McLaren had to be tough, brave drivers to survive - let alone win at - Le Mans back in the day. But like many great Le Mans racers (Jag D-Type included), this feels like a car that works for you, rather than against you. What a lovely, lovely thing. And what an honour to have experienced it at Goodwood.
Still, if I had £5m to spare...
Essential for any dashing owner/driver of the era, along with string-back driving gloves and gold F1 style sunglasses...
Again, if I had £5m I’d have one but I’d happily have a Superformance version for 1/50 of the price!
Spa 6 Hours 2012: winning GT40 racer in the hands of Voyazides & Hadfield.
Spa 6 hours 2012: epic run for the Roger Wills & Brendon Hartley GT40 . . . shame it had to retire coming from P1 after 5 hours and 45 mins.
Spa 6 Hours 2011: Targa Florio GT40 Roadster - sounds like nothing else: raw! Chopping of the roof seems like a great idea.
Spa 6 Hours 2006: finetuning the 289 of a GTD. Usually around 450 brake.
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Hayes being a petrolhead, may well have had 48IDA's fitted though at some point after he obtained it?
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