In an era when manufacturers are prepared to spend barely credible sums of money participating in motorsport to promote their products, it’s hard to believe that back in the late ’50s and early ’60s car makers in the US had no official involvement in such activities at all. It’s not that they didn’t want to go racing, but following a number of high-profile racing accidents, not least the catastrophic incident at Le Mans in 1955 in which 82 spectators were killed, America’s Automobile Manufacturers Association had banned any manufacturer involvement in motorsport in an attempt to protect the industry from a government keen to impose restrictions.

Ford was one of the most reluctant to sign up to the agreement in 1957, so it was no great surprise that, five years later, it would also be the first to announce its withdrawal, Henry Ford II sending a letter to the AMA stating the rule ‘no longer has either purpose or effect’. The company wasn’t shy about its return to competition, either: under the slogan ‘Total Performance’ it would mount a massive assault on all forms of motorsport, from NASCAR to drag racing. But to establish the idea of reliable performance in potential customers’ minds, Henry Ford II was especially keen for Ford to compete in endurance racing, and in particular at Le Mans.

With no experience in this field, Ford needed outside help. By May 1963 a collaboration with Ferrari seemed on the cards, but the $18m deal fell through at the last minute when Enzo Ferrari withdrew, apparently unable to face the prospect of no longer having full control over his company.

So Ford formed a subsidiary, Ford Advanced Vehicles, to build a car to beat Ferrari. Leading FAV would be John Wyer, poached from his long-held post as technical director at Aston Martin. Joining him was Roy Lunn, who, having worked on the 1962 Mustang 1 concept, was one of the few engineers at Ford with experience of a mid-engined car. Meanwhile, to kick-start the project, Eric Broadley, owner and chief designer of Lola Cars, was persuaded to join the team on a 12-month contract. A Ford V8 could be found in Lola’s recently introduced Mk6, a mid-engined coupe race car that was showing great promise, and Broadley would bring a pair of Mk6s with him to FAV…

Work on developing that car into Ford’s new endurance racer would begin in August 1963 at FAV’s base in Slough, England. The chassis was stiffened, the 4.2-litre Ford Fairlane engine upgraded to the lighter, 350bhp ‘Indianapolis’ version from the Lotus 29. Test sessions, mostly with Bruce McLaren at the wheel, would see the suspension (double wishbones at the front, transverse links and radius arms at the rear) fine-tuned, while wind-tunnel tests of a 3/8ths scale model would result in the glassfibre body being modified for improved aerodynamics – up to 125mph, anyway, that being the highest relative speed the wind-tunnel could replicate…

The first prototype GT40 would be shown to journalists, in Slough, on April 1, 1964, before being flown overnight to its public debut at the New York motor show. Just a couple of weeks later Jo Schlesser drove the very same car at the Le Mans trials and experienced first-hand the limitations of the earlier wind-tunnel testing. While travelling at 150mph along the Mulsanne Straight the back end went light, resulting in a massive accident. Schlesser lived to tell the tale, but the car was written off.

It was nothing the addition of a rear spoiler wouldn’t fix for subsequent GT40s, although reliability problems meant there would be no racing success in 1964. Matters would improve the following year. With Carroll Shelby now in charge of the racing programme, and the tried and tested 380bhp 4.7-litre Ford V8 from the Shelby American Cobras providing the power, the GT40 would take its first race win at the Daytona 2000km in February ’65.

It wouldn’t be until 1966, however – with the cars now running 485bhp 7-litre V8s – that Henry Ford II would get the Le Mans win he craved. But with GT40s coming home 1st, 2nd and 3rd, he no doubt considered it worth the wait.