Driving the Ford GT40, arguably the world’s first supercar – car pictures of the week
In the issue 346 of evo, we trace the origins of the supercar and drive what could be argued as the first ever – the Ford GT40. These are our favourite shots
Everyone knows the legend of the Ford GT40. The story of Ford’s rivalry with Ferrari at the world’s greatest race, Le Mans, is an immortalised motorsport tale that will be told for decades to come, and gave rise to one of the most iconic race cars in history. Commissioned by Henry Ford with input from Caroll Shelby, the GT40 beat Ferrari at its own game and achieved Le Mans dominance in the 1960s, and did plenty for road cars too. Customers could order the GT40 in road-legal spec at the time, and it can thus lay claim to being one of the world’s first supercars.
In issue 346 of evo, we get behind the wheel of the MkIII version of the GT40 as part of our supercar Eras series, in which we trace the origins of the supercar and how it has developed until the present day. To read the full feature, which also includes drives in the Bentley Blower, Mercedes 300 SL and Lamborghini Miura, you can order a copy of evo 346 via our online shop.
The prospect of driving a GT40 is intimidating for a number of reasons. There’s the value, for one (somewhere between £8-10million), plus the fact that this is a purely analogue race car in every sense of the term, with a thumping 5-litre V8 behind your head, a sub-ton kerb weight and an old-school H-pattern gearbox. It’s also not a car made for everyone, with a cramped cockpit that will have tall drivers craning their necks to squeeze inside in its 40 inch high body.
Once in, though, it’s an utter joy. The road-spec MkIII we drove is detuned to 306bhp but that still gives it a better power-to-weight ratio than a Porsche Cayman GT4, and as well as being impressively quick, it’s a surprisingly tractable and easy car to drive. It handles neatly too, progressive and always on your side, as our man James Taylor found out.
‘Carry a gentle dollop of speed into the corner, lift the throttle and the nose tucks inwards like a modern mid-engined car, and then you can slowly feed in that long throttle pedal and allow the V8’s lovely wave of torque to carry you out of the corner. Everything happens in slow motion, the narrow but grippy tyres sending you all the information you need.’
To read the full feature, visit our online shop to order a copy of evo 346.
