Gregson Mathe
50 years ago, Ford dominated the 24 Hours of LeMans by sweeping the podium with their GT40 race car. As the story goes, this was a direct slap to the face of Ferrari. As Ford tried to buy Ferrari back in the 1960s, it was all but assured the deal would go through. There then was an argument over who would manage and run the racing team. Ferrari wanted to keep it in house, Ford said they wanted to run it, a verbal spat ensued, and Ford walked out of the meeting with the mantra of, “Let’s beat their ass.” And thus begins the story of the GT40.
Ford then went on to win in a 1, 2, 3 fashion in 1966 and it was huge. They didn’t only defeat Ferrari, they beat everyone and put Ford racing on the map to stay for good. Because of this tremendous feat, Ford is now announcing some cars to commemorate the occasion with spec’ed versions of the Focus ST, Fiesta ST, Focus RS, and Mustang.
According to Ford, only 50 of each car will be made for a total of 200 LeMans examples. The black mica paint with grey stripes is standard across all cars as a tribute to the GT40 MKII driven by Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon.
And of course, with a special car comes special goodies which include: a plaque in the cabin, the Fiesta ST version adds the performance and parking packs with 17-inch wheels, the Focus ST upgrades to the Styling Pack with 18-inch wheels, the Focus RS gets the city and premium packs, and the Mustang dons the premium pack with 19-inch wheels and leather.
All this will set you back around $30,500 for the Fiesta all the way up to $52,500 for the Mustang GT. And the best part, if you buy one, you’ll be entered in a drawing to win a trip to the 24 Hours!
Who’s buying?
Leave a reply