How Carroll Shelby Beat Enzo Ferrari -- /ROAD TESTAMENT
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- Опубликовано: 16 май 2012
- Road Testament digs into the amazing story of how the late Carroll Shelby helped Ford unseat Enzo Ferrari as the king of sports-car racing during the mid-1960s. With special guest A.J. Baime, author of "Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari and Their Battle For Speed and Glory at Le Mans."
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"The Ford GT40 is a high performance American-British endurance racing car, built and designed in England (Mk I, Mk II, and Mk III) and in the United States (Mk IV), and powered by a series of American-built engines", Mr Shelby was a great salesman but some credit to the engineers please.
+Burlats de Montaigne Like Holman-Moody who took the British failure and made it into a winning concept, just like they did with the AC Cobra
Failure? How so?
+Burlats de Montaigne Please do a bit of homework, homeboy. The GT40 program was a mess until Shelby and Wyer took it by the neck and shook it, twice. First Shelby getting what FAV did wrong right and making it WIN, which was the bloody idea. Then Wyer took the already improved car and kept it winning. But the Brits had their chance and blew it, perhaps
by listening a bit too much to the Ford "engineers" and not enough to the hot rodders. Just as a single example: a forward opening hood: dumbassed idea, and Shelby's boys knew it. Look at the '67 race and you'll see what I mean...
caribman10 I don't trade banter with hill-billies. Back to you banjo son!
+Burlats de Montaigne Wholly aside from the fact that you obviously have nothing to "trade" nor do you understand the concept of "banter", your puerile atttempt to criticize the facts show you to be a mountebank of the first order. Congratulations! Oh, and by the way: I am the very furthest thing from a "hillbilly", as are you from being a gentleman...but then again,since you have no facts to offer nor contest what I said, I guess your best act is to insult - a tactic at which you yet again fail. So "Back to you banjo" to you, child.
Toured the Shelby plant at LAX in 1966 when on leave from the Army. Very neat. Owned a Boss 302 Mustang and was a member of the Shelby American Auto Club for many years. In the 90's won a couple of laps at Portland International Raceway with Carroll Shelby in one on his continuation Cobras. This was after he had a heart transplant. Thrill of a life time.
2098elk congratulations,... grew up in West Los Angeles bicycle out to Santa Monica all the time but I never knew about the facility... *NOW YOU TELLING ME* 😭
Very good discussion in the video. The book does a great job of telling a wonderful story. Every racing fan should read it.
I just saw the trailer for this movie!
Me too
This was so much fun to watch. Thanks for doing it Drive.
how can anyone dislike this?!?!? this is racing history at its best. Thank You DRIVE
I'm fortunate the be born in such a generation where I can appreciate the old school racing world and the amazing new age racing. RIP Carroll Shelby, you're one of my inspirations.
Things get weird when you look this up! Thank you, for this video!
I am A Chevy guy. Putting A 20 year old Cobra replace kit together . And having A ball doing it. I am using all Ford running gear and finding out how cool the little 302 is. but I had to make it A 304. And the top loader 4 speed with a 3.50 to 1 diff. and going with A melty spark ign system. and 1 big Holly. Ill see how this balance works out.
Anthony Zarlenga how you liking it mate?
I am liken it lots. but had to put the binders on the project for a bit. tax time came and left me a little flat. i changed the tranny idea to a borg wanner super t10. out of a 3erd gen camaro. with a 3 to 1 first gear. be like a sling shoot. .
+Anthony Zarlenga A Cobra? Damn. You know those SOBs had over 600 horsepower and a top speed in the 170s, right? Not bad for an old car.
WOW! that's cool. I did not know that. My car is not a real Cobra. It's a kit car. I'm lucky if I get 360 H P out of it. the G V W is almost 1800 lbs. it should go. O. K. fast. . but no 170. Thank's for your input. Anthony.
Drive,
From all your fans with brains and attention spans, thank you for this episode. It's a very interesting history lesson and I'm going to buy that book off Amazon. Don't let the dislikes discourage you from making more episodes like this. Those of us that actually have some maturity enjoy this kind of stuff.
Awesome interview! I'll be picking that book up now!
Carrol Shelby and Ken Miles won with hard work, long hours, persistence, and seasoned with brilliance. Without both men that 1,2,3 win would have never happened.
There is a Ford GT 40 in the Enumclaw car museum that has 40 thousand developmental TRACK miles on just that one car!
FORTY THOUSAND TRACK MILES ON JUST THAT ONE CAR, and many cars were used.
Ford II spent a large fortune on the development of those cars and his wins!
Thanks for the reply, and great show(s) every week!
Amazing episode! So much great information and commentary of this part of automotive history. These thumbs down are from people with A.D.D. or something. Well done Drive.
Even more impressive than Carol Shelby's achievement at Le Mans, is Bruce Mclaren's achievements in Formula 1. No other driver in history ever designed, built and raced his own Formula 1 cars, and he won a lot of races in them.
Bruce was the original "Complete Racer"; understanding absolutely every aspect of design and construction, and racing too.
And let's not forget that Mclaren's cars totally dominated Can-Am racing in the states, too.
New Zealander's involved in this..
I thought the comments about John Wyer were inaccurate and a bit nasty. John Wyer was taken out of the racing program by Ford, I suspect as part of Henry11's anxiety about the lack of instant success and also the fact that Shelby had just won the 65 sports car series with the Cobra, so he was seen as a winner while John Wyer's last win was in 1959 with Shelby in the Aston Martin. While all credit should go to Carroll Shelby's team for the stunning 66 67 wins in 7 litre Mk2 GT40s. However, Shelby did benefit from the 2 years of development work done by John Wyer in 1964 and 65. Remember that it took Carroll Shelby two years to turn the Cobra into a winner. You conveniently managed to forget that John Wyer then continued to run the GT40 road car program and started JW Automotive. John Wyer and JW Automotive won Le Mans again in 1968 and 1969 with Gulf 5 litre Mk1 GT40s and he didn't even rate a mention. He won it again with his own developed Mirage Cosworth Ford in 1975. Ken Miles was placed second because Le Mans is won by completing the most laps in 24 hours and does not accommodate a dead heat. Hank the Deuce had asked for a form finish for PR purposes but the organisers calculated that Ken Miles and Denny Hulme car had traveled 60 feet less than the car driven by Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon because of starting grid positions.
Don't forget Shelby was not shy in saying he owed everything to John Wyer!! He said Wyer was the greatest team boss he had ever crossed paths with and every big decision was run past Wyer first, it was even Wyer that convinced Eric Broadley to sell the Lola Mk6GT to Ford to base the GT40 on to cut development time down considerably....... I think Shelby would have been VERY upset at how Wyer was portrayed....... After all the most famous Gt40 (the Gulf car) never even toughed American soil until after 69.
Shelby said the two biggest regrets he had in his life was ordering the three Gt40's to finish side by side robbing Miles of his Trinity of wins (He had won at Sebring and daytona that year) and agreeing to build the Mk4 j car (Ford's "All American" Race car) which ultimately killed Ken Miles in development...... Those two things meant Shelby retired from racing and mover to Africa in 67.
AJ authored a terrific book. A must read.
Go like Hell is a great read. Read it a few months back. Got to the end and wanted more!
Great episode guys . Keep it coming !
one of your better episodes.
That was awesome, thanks a lot guys. A.J. just sold a book :D
Keep up the fantastic work.
A.J. Baime was really awesome in this episode. Great Interview guys!!
i dont know if somebody already said this but shelby was the only or one of the only people to win races as a driver, owner and builder
Very very interesting, I learned some great things, thanks guys !
Please do not forget that it was john wyer who put the mirage gt 40 in first in two lemans in a row which is a MK1
I cant wait for the documentaries to start coming out for shelby.
can't really say nothing bad about a living legend, any of us who are gear heads and have a love for cars and racing we all know what it takes to get there
"Hey AJ how's it going"
"The thing with Shelby is-"
Don't understand all the dislikes. Great video guys.
This truly is a great book, easy to read, extremely informative and best of all puts the reader right in the middle of this wonderful story.
Carroll Shelby won a battle, Enzo Ferrari won the war. Much respect for both. R.I.P
What war? Ferrari has not won Le Mans since 1965. Ford Won 4 years in a row (two with Shelby and two with JW Automotive). Ferrari in F1 is the winiest team but the last championship won were without Italians. They are back with Spaghetti mentality even expending more money than anyone else.
Great episode.
i hope Ford and Shelby Finish Carroll Shelby's wish to bring back the GT with the capablility of going 250+
Being a racing geek. I read the book twice. It is a very fast read that does have some things that I did not know before. My only complaint is that it did not delve into the mechanics of. Although that may have turned away some people who are more casual readers.
there is some cool Shelby memorabilia on eBay , just type in " Carroll Shelby personal collection of mine up for sale rare art and die casts" and it will come up
A couple of points missed; Ken Miles was a Brit, the reason the early GT had aero problems was that Roy Lunn insisted on using a similar nose shape as his Mustang 1 against the advice of Broadly. And while the early GT programme hit a lot of problems, John Wyer won Le Mans in '68 and '69 for Ford and again in '75 with a Ford engine.
Shelby got credit for surrounding the right people in the program including Ken Miles to test and get the stability of the car inline that Wyler struggled embarrassingly with......which lead to some body modifications to aero package the car better.......he got credit for shoving those Ford blocks in the cars and managed to design the stability of their performance through cooling elements...........he in essence took a failed designed program and hot rodded the program to success. (continued)
Wouldn't Bruce McLaren be considered in that lot? He won LeMans with the GT40 and then his car won in the 90's after he had passed but it still won.
Carroll Shelby said himself that he wasn't an engineer, because he believed that would narrow his thinking. He was self described as more of a hot rodder than an engineer. But in the 1960s when he started making the Cobras and Shelby Mustangs, his reputation as a retired race car driver certainly helped out.
The best description for Shelby Con Man. He won Le Mans has a driver and manufacturer thanks to John Wyer. Shelby gave FAV to J.W. to run. Also the amount money that Ford spend in winning Le Mans was incredible. building the MK-IV in the US with american drivers was Ford biggest achievement.
The engines were Ford 427-CID V-8s built by Holman and Moody, Ford's USA-based NASCAR shop in the 1960s. H-M deserves some credit for the LeMans sweep too. The Brits built the body, the Yanks the power train. A joint venture that worked well for everyone. Nuf ced.
WTF how could anyone dislike this?!?! This is the best road testament yet period. And is a great story about the man carol shelby. Fu-" you if u didn't like it
Ford /Shelby got to build the Cobra. GM got the Cheetah, a tragic little car, A Corvette distilled, a car that lived up to it's name, that has it's admirers to day. I can only to imagine the stories that would have abound, if the Cheetah had made it to production. Shelby's response might have been absolutely epic.
when U.S. and Euro companies come together usually something great is born. First Corvette had heavy Jaguar influence, later they had help from Ferrari.
Going Like Hell ...needs to be a movie...When it says Powered by Ford...you're riding with a winner
Bizzarrini, Jensen Interceptors, Facel Vega...prime classic examles as well.
And we lose ANOTHER Icon. R.I.P. Carroll Shelby.
This is what I understand the story to be:
Ford wanted to win at Le Mans since around 1960. In 1963 after the whole Ferrari acquisition failure, Ford was desperate to stick it to Ferrari. In a quick move, he hired British Lola to make him a body based off of the "Lola Gt" which already used a Ford V8. In 1963, it was a failure. Changes were made, but it still lost in 1964 until Ford moved all of production to America where Shelby and his crew basically built a new car for the 1-2-3 Le Mans win.
I like this idea. I really just mentioned miata because it does so well on the track. However a new collab chassis would be amazing. It'd probably be taken as mazda's response to the BR-Z really.
Without Pete Brock, Ken Miles and Phil Remington Shelby would have been another Bocar or Devlin, these brilliant engineers / fabricators developed the 289 COBRA, the Daytona Coupe, the 427, the Shelby Mustang and made the GT-40 MK II / J Car Le Mans winners, he was in the right place at THE right time and did have a very good original concept for the COBRA.
interesting episode, thanks
Yep!...American V8's, but only the MKIV GT40 can be considered all-American...Of the 4 outright wins at LeMans between 1966 and 1969, 3 of the wins were by the BRITISH DESIGNED AND BUILT MKI and MKII GT40's. The AC Cobra and GT40 are great examples of what can be achieved when our countries get together...Give us Brits some credit!
The book came out in June of 09 and was featured in the playboy withe lisa renna.
Someone thumbs up this guy.
To answer your question, Jean Rondeau won Le Mans as a constructor and a driver in 1980, with the very sexy Rondeau M379B
Although the Le Mans rivalry makes a great story, it is hard to call Shelby an underdog given that he had the support of Ford, a huge company compared to Ferrari, and used an engine that was much larger, 7 litres versus 4 litres.
+kebulei It was legal right? So who's smarter here, The Americans or The Italians? No brainer here!! + We had the great drivers in 1966-69 and teams! Phil Hill 1 of my all time favs!
Smarter? Ford's Budget was 500 times bigger than Ferrari's. There's no smart in that. Just easy maths. Still took Ford 3 tries to beat them. And the Cobra's only won in 1965 after Ferrari withdrew it's works team after beating Shelby for 3 years in a row. All Shelby beat were 3 year old private Ferrari's that year. If Ferrari had even a quarter of Ford's budget then Ford would never have won. plus Ferrari's budget was split across Grand Prix racing too, not just sportscars. so they had even less money to spend on it that they could have.
Viewer 210,761!!
Waiting On The Movie "Ford Verses Ferrari" Release 11/15/2019.
Tremendous Amount Of Great Information, Enjoyed Immensely !!!
Thank You !!
R.I.P Master Carroll Shelby.
Good story, But it was two kiwi drivers that won the 1966 race in the No2 GT40. = Chris Amon, - who went on to be a Farrari factory driver,in F1 & Sports cars. Bruce McLaren,who went on to build his own F1 team & Sports cars in Canam with the other Kiwi Denny Hume ,, The difference betwen the Kiwi car and the american drivers is that they ran Firestone tyres and the yanks ran GoodYear,.The car was also painted Black, the same as our world champion ,All Black Rugby Team
i believe the man is pretty spot on with the Mk II. The mark II was the first to gain victories and was based largely off the MK I. The MKIV was built to prove exactly what you stated. That Americans can still win without european help, but let's be serious here. Engineering something from scratch then modifying it to perform better are just to separate things here.
YES!. I guessed Rondeau and / or Pescarolo + they cut it in the edit! It's good to be old + remember shit. Viva Le Point! [wasn't that the sponsor of the M379B?]
How Carroll Shelby Payed The Brits To Beat Enzo Ferrari -- /ROAD TESTAMENT
interesting + good episode
The only GT40 that was built in the USA was the MKIV, although the floorpan was still very close to the MKI design, with a few added tweaks, all design work was done in Slough by John Wyers team, the MKII was built in the UK and shipped to the States where the engines were fitted, Roy Lunn was one of the major engineers alongside Broadley
Shelby's biggest involvement was suggesting to Ford that John Wyer was the best guy to look after this project
7:25 something... What movie is this guy talking about?
GREAT BOOK!!!!!
I'm completely against U.S. and Great Britain rivalry. However, there are some people that need to get their facts straight about the Ford GT. The cars that WON Le Mans were all American. It did start as a European car, but that MK I was a piece of garbage that couldn't even make it to the finish line. Shelby was the man who actually made the thing what it's known for today. Please read the books about these cars before posting wrong information.
Haven't even watched this yet but know the story well! My fav part of it is "in the aftermath Henry Ford asked Enzo if he'd like to just sell him Ferrari and go home and call it a day!!!" Enzo didn't say a word, turned his back on him and left in embarrassment!! LMAO!! Today a new Ford GT for $200k or a Ferrari for, what, $1.6 Million?? What a joke that is!! I'll take the 8 FORD GT's!
2016 LeMans GTE Winners
aha lol not a fanboy of Ferrari or Ford but you're a dumbass if you compare the price of supercars, those who can afford them don't care much and Ferraris value increase by time
+Hirok Akhand True, but the New Ford GT will increase overtime, and the MKII is $10Mil. The 275GTB is also in the $15Mil range, so they are both great choices. Personally, I'd chose the GT because that noise and the look, but Ferrari is a great brand aswell. My favorite Classics: Ford. Favorite current day sports car: corvette. Favorite track weapon: dodge. fav supercars: ferrari
+Hirok Akhand the only Ferraris that ever go up in value are the V12 RME ones. All the others depreciate once a successor to them comes out
R.I.P. Carroll Shelby
I like the story of the gt40 because Ford went in there to prove a point that they could make a good car. Some may argue it was cowardly of them to leave but they just wanted to show the Europeans they weren't chumps, they didn't want to start a whole company commitment to racing cars. Ultimately they made Ferrari pick up their game and both the companies went off in their happy ways.
Road Testaments intro feels like a loading screen from a racing game!
Shelby haters? Not saying he was a saint all the time [and who is?], but he accomplished what he did and that's the point, right?
Read "Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans" A.J. Baime to get the full story.
i am glad that ford and ferrari didnt merge.
How can anybody this young write a book about something that happened before he was born, it cant be taken seriously.
No you are correct...The MKI had many teething problems in its early races as most race cars do out of the box with many non finishes. Lightweight parts were one issue (not up the the job). But by 1966 they were all sorted.
The 66 LeMans win was with a MKII run by the Shelby team (so I'm pretty certain Carroll would have added his own tweaks) 67 win was an all-American effort and the 68 and 69 LeMans wins were MKI's run by British teams.
Man Henry Ford the 2ND was so cool
So does that mean that in 1964 and 1965 they lost with the GT40, but then won in 1966?
if so what were the key differences in the year models that gave them the victory?
Oh i see, they were using the cobra in 1964 and 1965. very interesting.
No. the Cobra competed in GT class (vs. the old Ferrari GTO) in 1964 and 1965. The various iterations of GT40 competed in prototype class, vs the Ferrari P-cars, from 1964 to 1967.
Thanks for using my tweet there ;)
Wrong on one point. In 1980, Le Mans local Jean Rondeau is the only man in the history of Le Mans to build his own car and drive it to victory in the same race.
Carroll Shelby will be missed never forgotten, my gt-40 would not be in my garage if it weren't for him, thanks Carroll
Anyone know if the film based on the book was completed?
THANKS!
It's about time Ford creates a modern world class super car.
All the Shelby Cobras was built by Holman-Moody LA USA as well as the race Ford Gt40`s. Holman-Moody made the chassies as well as the enegines.
do some research.. holman & moody did indeed prepare the NASCAR 427's for the MK II's, and they did prepare race cars for various drivers/various races (particular the Ford's for NASCAR)--they did not "build all Shelby cars and GT40's"... want me to suggest a couple of books?.. perhaps a link or two?
Shoehorning? Holman-Moody built a complete new wider race-chassie for both cars. You are just wrong kid, check up something called history
With the movie coming out and my love going back to my misspent youth and muscle cars, I always loved the AC Cobra and the movie Le Mans.......great to hear the backstory. One question WTF with the closed captioning on RUclips.........terribly distracting from an otherwise good documentary on the Ford vs Ferrari competition.
62 dislikes? Damn, this is an awesome episode.
I would of rather listened to Leo and his knowledge of racing than the author. If you know about Carroll Shelby, you know most of what he took 20 minutes trying to explain. The 1-2-3 win at Le Mans in 66 was incredible, but take a closer look at his team building the Cobra Daytona Coupe by hand. Back in the 90's, there used to be a great magazine about Cobras and all the racing history, I read everyone many times and had many parts of this video as 4-5 page articles.
I don't understand why there is a debate on the subject of the British, Americans and Ferrari. I am British and though the original was engineered in the UK the later mks were USA made, the importance of this story is that Ford defeated Ferrari when most thought it was impossible. besides this is a eulogy for Carroll not a pissing match over UK vs USA. However I look forward to seeing the recognition Renault get for defeating Ferrari in the 2005 and 2006 F1 season.
Your missing the historical significance here. This isn't about rubbing Ferrari's nose in the loss, this is celebrating the guy that stopped the most dominate force in racing at the time. Ferrari had won 9 Le Mans (still the 3rd most for any manufacturer) races up until Shelby and Ford set out to beat them. It would be like if Honda told everyone they were going to Le Mans next year, and proceeded to kick Audi's ass for the next 4. It would go down as one of the best stories in racing history.
Are you so full of pride that you have forgotten that without Carroll Shelby none of this would matter? It's a tribute to the man, not the cars or nations responsible. Besides @5:52 it is clearly noted that Shelby worked in conjunction with the British.
Leo is the MAN.
RIP Carroll Shelby....
But the tragic unsung hero was Ken Miles whose testing and feedback on design lead to the success............Miles work on testing the J car is where he lost his life which lead to a modifications ending up as the Ford Mark IV that Gurney and Foyt blew everyone away in 1967..........that win was as much due to Miles as anyone....
Please explain how the victory for Ken was "Taken away"? Thank you
Ken Miles was placed second because Le Mans is won by completing the most laps in 24 hours and does not accommodate a dead heat. Hank the Deuce had asked for a form finish for PR purposes but the organisers calculated that Ken Miles and Denny Hulme car had traveled 60 feet less than the car driven by Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon because of starting grid positions.
It depends on who you ask. Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon version is that Amon was ahead when it arrived the order to slow down, he did, but Miles didn't, so, when Amon stopped for the last pit-stop and Bruce McLaren replaced him, Miles took the lead. At that point Mclaren, on fresh tyres and only few seconds behind, started to push to overtake him, and would have easily done it, but they were risking too much (the GT40 was notoriously unreliable. The three MK-II in the first three positions were the last surviving of 13 GT40 that started the race) so Ford arranged the "parade" arrival, even if he was told that, that way, McLaren would have won , due to the more distance traveled in 24H (but that had not been told to Miles, that wanted to win the triple crown).
FYI - /DRIVE studio. Where FLD films.
Ya know i just thought of something. If ford owns Mazda, couldn't they do something with the miata chassis? They could make something of a tribute to the british sports car dedicated to the memory of Shelby, something that could be a seriously fast, modern super car perhaps.
they were ferrari fans. (:
Dunno- the '12 Mustang Boss 302 can corner like a sumbitch using a solid axle. All the auto journalists are sining the praise of the engineering Ford put into it while also scratching their collective heads on how they pulled it off. The '15 Mustang is promising to be even better. All cars have their negatives, no matter their origins. Also have their attributes as well, just depends
The two journalists should know what they talk about...
Shelby is the only man to win Le Mans as a driver and as a manufacturer...
At least, at least Henry Pescarolo did that too...
for a brz competetor the miata chassis would be better. a lightly boosted renesis/na 16x (around 300hp) would be perfect for that. and on the ford side of things the focus rs ecoboost engine would work well also. leave the larger stouter chassis for something of a corvette/gtr classed competetor. a 16x derived 3 rotor boosted to around 500-700hp and use the gt500 engine for the ford version. its about time mazda made a supercar like the FD was.
Yes they were built in Britain, but the cars were tested and tuned more in California by Shelby.
Good on you Leo! I was going to ask about John Wyer's role in all this?
+vince33x John Wyer went on with the Porsche factory team 917 to take the world championship from Ford by literally blowing it away with porsche917s until 1972 when it was bannned. The 917 made the ford gt 40 obsolete overnight.
+Mike Turner Mike, I was watching a program on the old 'SPEED Channel' years ago on the Top Ten greatest race cars ever...#2 was the Ford GT40; #1 was the Porsche 917. In any event, that's [sic] "fast" company!