The three-spoke wheel was nearly vertical, within easy reach. So which is toughest, Le Mans 1966 or Le Mans 2016? On the driving-difficulty scale, I'd rate this track legend comparable to a modern Mustang GT. The doors cut into the roof, so I parachuted vertically into the seat, although I still had to fold my lower limbs to get over the wide, fuel-filled sill and clear of the steering wheel and shifter. It’s been said that I was an unlucky F1 driver because I should have won a lot of races but the fact is many of my contemporaries were killed in F1 so I think I’m lucky to still be around. Another thing was the cars back then chucked out quite a lot of oil so as the race went on, and the rain came down, it got very slippery. It was also the seventh round of the 1966 World Sportscar Championship season.This was the first overall win at Le Mans for the Ford GT40 as well as the first overall win for an American constructor. There was a raised step to brace my left foot, and the brake and accelerator pedals were situated for never-miss heel-and-toe operation. It is, of course, the Mulsanne Straight, a stretch of track that remains at the heart of the mystique of Le Mans 30 years on from its adulteration with a pair of chicanes. Henry was on the podium and I believe his wife was also there. Archived. The Mulsanne Straight (Ligne Droite des Hunaudières in French) is the name used in English for a formerly 6 km (3.7 mi) long straight of the Circuit de la Sarthe around which the 24 Hours of Le Mans auto race takes place.
The tall shifter mounted just inside the sill clicked smartly into gear, a handy blocker guarding against accidental reverse engagement.The torque-rich V-8 played nicely with the wide-ratio, fully synchronized Toploader four-speed transaxle. The year was 1966, the race was the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the car was the Ford GT40.Not long ago in Gardena, California, a rare occurrence took place when members of Shelby American and the.Thankfully, HOT ROD was on hand to not only capture some video but also talk with a few of the legends who more than 50 years ago helped to cement the name Shelby into the history books.Make sure to check out the video above, then head over to our gallery for exclusive photos of the event!Watch! Following yet another restoration, this time by the Rare Drive shop in New Hampshire, P/1046 will be shipped to France to commemorate the golden anniversary of its win.Imagine slithering into this cockpit in haste at the start of Le Mans. Close.

I found mild understeer turning into tight bends and predictable neutrality with liberal doses of throttle on exit. We decided to set a pace for ourselves, which would keep us in touch with the lead and then go for it later in the race. Lost footage from the 1966 Ford v Ferrari duel,Damon, Bale to star in Ford vs. Ferrari movie,Live: Follow the Le Mans 24 Hours as it happens,DTM future secured with support from Audi and BMW,The 2020 Le Mans 24 Hours entry list in full,Misano MotoGP: Vinales scores second straight pole,The races that could fit Red Bull's 'invitational' GP idea,What McLaren's factory sale means for the future of the F1 team,Gasly: AlphaTauri has "big ambitions" to match Red Bull,Le Mans 24h, H1: Conway's Toyota leads, early drama in LMP2,Le Mans 24h, H4: Toyota strengthens 1-2 lead,United Autosports “not favourites” despite record LMP2 pace,24 Hours of Le Mans: Start of a legendary race,2020 24 Hours of Le Mans Highlights: 2 hours,2020 24 Hours of Le Mans Highlights: Starting Grid formation,24 Hours of Le Mans: Three Ferraris in first Le Mans Hyperpole. In the hands of Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon, it qualified fourth in the 55-car field, two seconds behind the pole-winning GT40 driven by Dan Gurney and Jerry Grant.Before the race was half over, all 14 Ferraris were parked. The car could reach 210 mph down the Mulsanne straight and qualified almost ten seconds faster than any Ferrari.
We may earn a commission through links on our site.In January 1966, Shelby American's California shop took delivery of a bare chassis identified as P/1046—the 47th GT40 from Ford Advanced Vehicles' 87-car production run. Following stints as a test mule, it ran in the 1967 Daytona 24-hour race but dropped out, along with four other Ford entries. I found mild understeer turning into tight bends and predictable neutrality with liberal doses of throttle on exit. “The Mulsanne Straight at night – In the distance a 7-Litre Ford GT40 prototype is heard at 210 miles an hour as it roars past on its … We weren’t sure who had won initially.Back in those days the top speed of the GT40 was 100mph more than some of the other cars on the track so it could be quite hairy especially at night in the rain with mist hanging in the air, bearing down on these cars when you couldn’t see much. I took over from Bruce and he spoke to Firestone and they generously said we could switch to the Goodyears the other GT40s were running. The Shelby crew completed this car to campaign it at the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans. Bruce drove the first stints.

Bruce and I were both contracted to Firestone so it was a difficult thing for Bruce to negotiate a switch to Goodyear. It was subsequently sold, then handed down through three owners, one of whom had P/1046 prepped for street service with a closed-circuit rearview camera, air-conditioning, and a metal-flake gold paint job with black trim.In 1983, Wisconsin collector George Stauffer was shopping for vintage Rolls-Royces when he discovered P/1046 stored in a crate in Ghent, Belgium. Stauffer sold P/1046 to New Yorker Aaron Hsu in 2010 for more than $10 million. We had both driven the first two 7-litre cars at Le Mans the previous year: Bruce with Ken Miles and myself with Phil Hill. When I was called in to change tyres I think Bruce's frustration had reached boiling point, he put his head through the car door and said 'Go like hell'.The idea was that the leading GT40s would cross the line together but in practise it wasn’t possible to have a dead heat.