There were those who speculated that Ferrari’s negotiation had actually been a tactic to put more pressure on Fiat, the Italian company that eventually bought Ferrari. Ford was hoping to beat Ferrari, the team and manufacturer that had won the race every year since 1960.Įnzo Ferrari, the team’s owner and director, had embarrassed Henry Ford II in 1963 by pulling out of a deal in which the American constructor would buy out the Italian brand and the two would race together as Ford-Ferrari or Ferrari-Ford, depending on where the racing was being done.
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To start with, there was Ford’s multimillion-dollar investment in the race, with its eight GT40 Mark II cars at three Ford teams - plus five of its cars used by several private teams - meaning that 13 of the 55 cars entered in the 1966 race were Fords. The sweep of the top three places by Ford at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1966 was a considerable achievement by the manufacturer, teams and drivers, involving a multilayered web of drama that even a Hollywood scenarist might not be able to concoct.
Few auto racing victories are likely to be as thrilling on so many levels as was the first triumph of an American car manufacturer 50 years ago at the world’s most famous 24-hour endurance race.