Ford vs. Ferrari

[Rosco5000]

As requested:-

That my friend is my dream garage.  I love the GT40 in Gulf livery.  One day, not sure if they let the Superformance continuation series into Canada, the owner had a huge legal battle with Canadian safety authorities back in the day.

Ross

[4129R]

I left the cinema with a mixture of emotions:-

Pride that I can share in the ownership of a piece of motorsport history.

Sadness about what happened to Ken Miles

Anger that a big corporation can treat someone like that.

Happiness that the GT40 won so convincingly.

Sadness that the real winner did not get his just reward.

Disappointment that my red line is 6500 and I only have 5.6 litres and my car is geared to only 176mph

I thought that Ken, Carroll and Molly were played very well.

Good entertainment and kept me interested for the whole 2h30m.

[BDA]

From what I understand Ken Miles was finished second purely by accident and not from anything nefarious. Did the movie suggest otherwise? I agree that it was very sad that he didn't get credit for the win as he really was the winner. It was even sadder that he died in the J-Car.

We're going to see it this evening. I'll post my impressions.

[4129R]

From what I understand Ken Miles was finished second purely by accident and not from anything nefarious. Did the movie suggest otherwise?

No, but the French had a habit of interpreting rules to deny Englishment victory in motorsports events.

"The British cars were disqualified because they used non-dipping single filament quartz iodine bulbs in their headlamps, in place of the standard double filament dipping glass bulbs, which are fitted to the series production version of each model sold to the public."

That was Monte Carlo Rally, 1966, same year as Le Mans, also the same year we won the World Cup for soccer.

[BDA]

Just got back from the movie. It was entertaining. There was a lot of things that I wish were included but I really prefer documentaries about things like this. For example, the Ford J-car that Miles was killed in did not look at all like a GT40 like in the movie. It would be difficult to show all the contributions of fabrication and design made by Phil Remington in a dramatic movie. The characters were pretty well done and I was surprised at how well I though Damon did at portraying Shelby. The racing scenes were pure Hollywood and were a really negative aspect of the movie to me. I mean, singing while racing; looking over at the driver in the next car; and when you REALLY need to pass somebody, just push on the gas pedal more; etc. I thought the corporate politics and the practitioners thereof were really the bad guys. I don't know the truth of that. I don't remember that in The 24 Hour War or Shelby American but on the other hand, it wouldn't surprise me.

Beyond that, I largely agree with 4129R's assessment.

[Certified Lotus]

Going to see the movie again today with my two sons. Here is the video I shot at the Simeone Museum of some of the cars running during demo day.  Sorry for the shaky camera, I was using my small Sony RX100 VI still camera for photos and switched to video mode when the cars were running.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYas7Uh7Jvs

[BDA]

Nice video, Certified (regardless of any camera shaking)! Beautiful cars!

[Certified Lotus]

If you haven’t seen this interview you might find it interesting. At 55 minutes he starts talking about the GT40 development program (Carroll repeats himself a lot, but it’s still an interesting insight).

Carroll Shelby - The Lost Interview

https://youtu.be/Rzq4DeTjZ1A

And then a Ford produced film on “Carroll Shelby Goes Racing”

https://youtu.be/Ynl2dJSpEYo

[Certified Lotus]

Just to keep everyone fully engaged......

Ford GT: The Return to Le Mans (Full Documentary) | Ford

https://youtu.be/vYlEI46g2vU

[Certified Lotus]

My son knows someone who worked on the movie set in Savannah. Check out the Blue Screen shots compared to the actual shot shown in the movie.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B5fWMmWnrXc/?igshid=1eui8am32sjfl

[BDA]

Very interesting! I would think it would be hard enough pretending you're someone you're not with a complete set but to have a lot of the set added after the scene is cut... That seems even more difficult!

[Certified Lotus]

Another interesting short video about the GT40 that Ken Miles drove at LeMans. Did not know the teams had to take the spare tire out during pit stops!

https://youtu.be/nZgXDSJjY8g

[BDA]

The car also had to have luggage capacity for an FIA suitcase (suitcase of specific dimensions dictated by the FIA). I'm not sure where the GT would have been able to stow one though.

[4129R]

The car also had to have luggage capacity for an FIA suitcase (suitcase of specific dimensions dictated by the FIA). I'm not sure where the GT would have been able to stow one though.

They extended the rear clam backwards to fit the regulation box by the rear left wheel on MkIIs.

No room in my MkI even for my spare Europa ashtray !

[BDA]

Yes! I remember the boxes in the rear and wondered what they were for. There were some interesting methods of satisfying that rule. The Chaparral 2D just had a box attached to the back of the car - not very pretty and probably not great for aero. The Chaparral 2F had compartments under the front headlights and in front of the front wheels. I thought that was pretty clever.