In 2016 Ford celebrates 50 yearsthousand the anniversary of his legendary victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1966, introducing the second generation GT. Like its predecessor, it is obviously closely inspired by their 1966 ancestor, the GT40, which won the Sart event fifty years ago and even achieved the double. However, with a more assertive modernity seen in the aerodynamics and taillight design in particular, there is less ‘copy and paste’ from the original model than the GT of the 2000s.
However, this model was not originally planned, according to Jim Farley, CEO of Ford, and therefore should never have seen the light of day.
Mustang at Le Mans
first indeed, it was planned that the Mustang would take part in Le Mans in 2016, in order to achieve victory, to celebrate the anniversary as it should. But everything did not go as planned. The American manufacturer did win the event that year in the LM GTE Pro category, but the Bourdais-Muller-Hand team ran well… the GT. So what happened?
Jim Farley explains
“When we decided to sell the Mustang globally in the previous generation (in 2013, editor’s note), we knew that the 50th anniversary of the Le Mans victory was coming up,” explained Jim Farley in an interview with Top Gear during Ford GTD presentation. . “And we started talking about the idea of winning Le Mans 2016 with a Mustang. Larry Holt and Multimatic were an easy choice for us. And we talked to homologation bodies like IMSA about what it takes for a Mustang to win. Multimatic started doing a lot of simulations, and it became clear that we would not win with the Mustang silhouette. We would be too dependent on ACOs and French regulators. At this point we decided to take a complete left turn with Multimatic and technical direction from Larry. And we developed the Ford GT,” says Farley.
Successful
And even if the original idea was not to have a new GT. The model is very successful and will especially impress the minds of the public. ” We are very satisfied with the car. It sold well. But maybe you remember we raced the car before we sold the car. Which was a feat in itself says Mr. Farley.
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Source: Auto Plus
Robert is an experienced journalist who has been covering the automobile industry for over a decade. He has a deep understanding of the latest technologies and trends in the industry and is known for his thorough and in-depth reporting.