Ford vs Ferrari – A Rivalry Born Of Hatred At The Le Mans 24 Hours

The Meeting That Fueled Henry Ford II’s Revenge To Take Down Enzo Ferrari In The 1960’s

In the early 1960’s, Ford decided they should improve the image of the brand by becoming better at the race track. This would in effect, increase the sale of cars for the company. Ford was aware that there was one race and only one race that will give them the reputation they craved. That race is the 24 hours of Le Mans in France, the most dangerous, brutal, and skillful race on the planet. But there was a minor problem affecting the car industry’s Titan at the time, it simply did not know how to make a great sports car and didn’t know where to begin. Luckily for them, on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, there was a man in Italy who could help. Enzo Ferrari’s company Ferrari had run into financial difficulty during the 60’s, however, they absolutely dominated motorsport at the time. They had just won three consecutive Le Mans championships in three straight years. It seemed like a perfect match, Henry Ford II offered Enzo Ferrari $16 million for the company and Enzo agreed to sell it.

In May of 1963, Henry Ford II arrived in Maranello, Italy, with an army of Ford executives in suits eager to sign the deal to acquire Ferrari. To their surprise, Enzo Ferrari attended the meeting with just himself and the local town lawyer. The meeting was going well for both sides and seemed as if both parties would strike a day before day’s end. However while reading the contract, Enzo Ferrari became angered and argued that there was a clause that he absolutely did not agree with. Mr. Ferrari did not want to give up the motorsport side of his business to Ford, which was the very thing that Henry Ford II was eagerly trying to take back to Detriot. After a much-heated debate in which multiple Italian curse words were exchanged, Ferrari advised his lawyer that he wanted to go eat, and both men got up and left the executives at Ford at the table sitting. The deal was dead, Ferrari would not be sold to Ford. Henry Ford II could not attain the means to establishing a winner at Le Mans on that particular day.

Ford Gives R&D Blank Check To Defeat Ferrari

While back in Detriot, Michigan, Henry Ford II was full of rage not commonly seen in American CEO’s who will typically run a large corporation with calm & cool. Henry Ford II gathered his entire team of executives at Ford into an urgent meeting. Here he outlined the company’s most important priority with utmost urgency. He said the famous words “Build me a car that will crush Ferrari at Le Mans.” Mr. Ford wanted to beat Ferrari so badly that he acquired a small British motorsport company and set up shop in a town just outside of London, England. The demands seemed simple but were enormous tasks that required major feats of engineering to accomplish. Ford needed a car that achieves speeds of 200 MPH (which had not been done before at this time) but also reliable enough to survive the grueling 24 hours of Le Mans. The daunting challenge of building a car that fast yet reliable enough to switch gears over 9,000 times and drive 3,000 miles flat out seemed nearly impossible, but to make matters worst, they only had ten months to accomplish the order.

The team came up with their answer to face Ferrari. They built what would now be known as the Ford GT. A car with a very sleek shape and standing just 40 inches tall, this car would cut through wind resistance like a Katana sword slicing through hot butter. The 4.2L V8 engine made the far-fetched dream of getting to 200 MPH a bit more attainable. The concept of this sports car was finished, it was now time to test it on the track. At the first Le Mans practice session, Ford found a very disturbing problem. Although the Ford GT was as fast as they had hoped, it had a major problem. The car was terrifyingly unstable at those high speeds. The car would even peel out on the straights, even at times of 170 MPH the wheels would spin out. Ford was never able to discover if the issue was aerodynamics or suspension because later that day, their Ford GT crashed at 160 MPH. The very next day, Ford brought along their other spare GT for the second day of practice. That GT was also crashed and destroyed. This was disastrous as the Le Mans race was only two months away.

The Ford GT40 & Broken Dreams At Le Mans

Against all the odds, Ford was able to get their act together on time for the 1964 Le Mans Race in France. They raced a total of three cars in the race that day in hopes of uncrowning the champion Ferrari who had won the previous three years. To the angst of Henry Ford II, all three cars either crashed or caught on fire this day…leaving Ferrari to take a one-two-three victory at Le Mans for the fourth time in four years. Back home, Henry Ford II vowed that they would be back next year. To ramp up the campaign efforts to dethrone Ferrari, he turned to an American motorsport hero, Carroll Shelby. The infamous chicken farmer had won multiple races as a driver, and team owner for many famous races, but now he faced a tougher challenge. He needed to turn the Ford GT into a winner. His first decision was to put his top man on the job, Ken Miles, one of the best sports car drivers in America. Ken Miles was a former WWII tank commander who became a famous driver and was known for developing performance cars. Ken Miles would take the Ford GT out for a few laps, and after he was done, he hit Shelby and the Ford executives with a truth they did not want to hear, that” The car was extremely awful.”

Ken Miles got to work right away working on the Ford GT40, improving the brakes, engine, aerodynamics, the handling, and was able to stabilize the car at high speeds being the biggest problem it faced. Even with all this advancement, it did not seem they could be properly ready for the 1965 Le Mans. Ken Miles and his entire team would take amphetamines to work through the entire night, giving it their best shot. The Ford GT40 was a lot faster, but in the 1965 Le Mans race, they raced six different GT40’s and none of them finished the race. The Italians had humiliated Ford once again, now winning their 5th Le Mans in five years. After millions of dollars had been pumped into the GT40 project, not a single GT40 had even finished the race at Le Mans after two years, let alone win it. Accountants at Ford urged Henry Ford II to please throw in the towel and abandon his chase of dethroning Enzo Ferrari at Le Mans. Mr. Ford would print multiple business cards, and hand them out to his Le Mans racing team with a simple statement, “You’d Better Win.”

The GT40 Is Vastly Improved But Ferrari Releases the P3

Prior to the 1966 Le Mans race, many believed that Henry Ford II had gone crazy not to quit his foolish mission. He had funded even more money into the Ford GT40 project. However, after thousands of test hours, Ken Miles was confident that this Ford GT40 would be different. The car would now feel smooth even at top speeds of 210 MPH, a much different tale than that of the 1964 and 1965 Ford GT. All this was made possible because Ken Miles had the backing of Ford’s huge R&D department, which decided to focus on the car’s reliability. The engine and transmission were run on a computerized test rig that simulated the whole of Le Mans 24 hour race. This is standard practice today for Formula One, but back in 1966 this was completely unheard of and deemed insane. Ford was feeling confident about their chances, but then Ferrari announced they would be racing a brand new model at Le Mans. They unveiled the Ferrari P3, a car much sleeker than the GT40 and sitting at 37.4 inches tall which is shorter than Ford’s 40 inches. The P3 would max out at 190 MPH but had precision & grip in corners that was true art to behold. Enzo Ferrari was willing to trade outright speed for gains everywhere else. The P3 was lighter, more agile, and more efficient which meant it didn’t have to stop for fuel as often as the Ford GT40. Ford knew it had to throw everything it had at Ferrari if it wanted to stand a chance.

The Heroics Of Ken Miles & Ford GT40 Makes American History at Le Mans

The day of the 1966 Le Mans race, Ford arrived with an armada. Ford brought eight cars, 20 tons of spare tires, and a squad of world class drivers including Ken Miles himself. On the other hand, Ferrari just brought three of their P3’s to the race. But more importantly, Enzo Ferrari had an ace that few could match, Formula One World Champion John Surtees, the fastest man on the planet. Enzo Ferrari was not too worried but advised Surtees to make sure he beats the Fords. Surtees was confident he could drive fast enough, and long enough, to break the Ford drivers. As the race approached, things looked up for Ford. Due to political reasons between Ferrari and John Surtees, he was advised that he was replaced by another driver. Surtees would go straight to Enzo Ferrari and the two had a major falling out, with Surtees quitting team Ferrari. This would end up being a major mistake by Ferrari.

As zero hour approached, Henry Ford II himself was the man responsible for dropping the flag and starting the Le Mans race in France. He was hopeful that this was the year he could exact his revenge on Ferrari. Once the race began, Ford stormed into a large lead. But after a few hours, it was starting to look a lot like the depressing repeat of 1964 and 1965. Due to superior agility and fuel efficiency, Ferrari was leading the race one-two as nighttime fell. Four out of the eight GT40’s were out of the race altogether. To make matters worst, Ford drivers were under strict orders not to go all out, out of fear of breaking the car, they were to finish the race. But there was one man behind the wheel of one of the GT40’s that was ignoring the order, that man was Ken Miles himself. The former tank commander put the hammer down, set blistering lap times, and retook the lead for Ford when it seemed they were out of it. Ferrari had no response for this crushing pace, and by the time the sunset in the morning, they had either broken down or crashed. By the time the afternoon arrived, Henry Ford II was able to watch his Ford team finish a spectacular one-two-three at the finish line. History was made, it was the first time an American team won at Le Mans.

Henry Ford II’s dream did not die here, he would go on to build a dynasty. The Ford GT40 would go on to win the next four Le Mans races, completely shutting out Ferrari from the glory and limelight. But the man that had contributed so much to the cause could not see the full rewards of his efforts. Two months after winning the 1966 Le Mans, Ken Miles was killed testing the latest GT40. We will never know how much money Henry Ford II spent in his three campaign to break Ferrari, with experts thinking it could have been at the very least half a billion dollars. That is an astronomical bill to pay just to win a dispute with an Italian, but plenty good came from it. This year marks the 50th anniversary since the Ford GT40 won the Le Mans race, establishing itself as an American icon and one of the world’s greatest sports cars of all time. This very story is symbolic of what has made America so great, the willingness to win against great odds and adversity. A fight that from within that never dies out. The belief that we can conquer anything, and the confidence to execute. Let this inspirational story remind you that persistence is king, never give up on your dreams and hopes.