Cars
GT40, daughter of spite
This article discusses the history of the Ford GT40, a legendary race car that was developed by Ford in the 1960s.
The giant Ford didn’t like the fact that every Monday, newspapers the world across talked about Ferrari’s victories without him having to pay a single penny in advertising. Henry Ford II also look at all the money his brands had to invest for their own image. We are in the early 1960s and discreetly, through confidential contacts, Ford managed to establish contact with Enzo Ferrari with the intention of buying the Italian company and transforming it into its racing department.
The first version of the Ford GT40 presented in New York in April 1964 with its creators: in the centre the engineer Eric Broadley and the two designers who, among other things, made the bodywork out of fibreglass.
Ferrari was waiting for precisely this opportunity: he needed a powerful partner: keeping the racing and car divisions afloat had become too much and too expensive for one man. But he didn’t want to sell it to the Americans. In addition to the Modenese yellow, his brands had always flown the Italian flag. And so, with in his inimitable style, he set up a negotiation reminiscent of one of the great Italian comedy classics. Things appeared to be going very well indeed, everything was ready for the final signature when Ferrari, refusing to let go of his desire to retain complete control and freedom over the racing division, abruptly broke off all relationships in 1963.
