Of course, Ferrari protested, but Ford won on a technicality, and the famed swap became the stuff of legend. The Ford mechanical team trotted out a complete brake system swap. Ford had to pit with its brakes showing fire. Though they were disc brakes, the metallurgy of the time couldn't stand up to the heat generated by the MK II during the 24 Hours of LeMans. There was a problem, though, with the brakes. The GT40 MK II clocked 218 mph at 8,000 rpm at one point. Its engine and transmission easily eclipsed the more delicate driveline of the Ferrari. Perhaps the biggest takeaways from the 2019 movie included the apocryphal story of the disappearing stopwatches from the Ferrari team that mysteriously ended up doing lap times for the Ford team and the famous wrench that was heaved at Carroll Shelby by Miles that ended up with Miles' family.Īnother exciting story involved the GT40's brakes. At the same time, Christian Bale did a masterful job handling the role of Miles, died while testing an updated version of the Ford entry. Playing Carroll Shelby in the film, Matt Damon was understatedly spectacular in the role. The competition began with the 24 Hours of Daytona and flipped over to the 24 Hours of LeMans that the Ford entry won but was knocked back by a technicality allowing McLaren to post the victory. The film showed the keen competition between Shelby's friend, driver, and car-tester Ken Miles and Ferrari's driver Bandini. The movie underscored the battle between Ford's GT40 MK I and MK II as Carroll Shelby's Shelby America, the creator of the vehicles, and the Ferrari, gained a new lease on life because of the competition. Ostensibly, it presented the 1960s competition between Ford and the Italian carmaker during the hyper-partisan car wars of that era. A couple of years ago, the powerful film Ford versus Ferrari set all kinds of records at the box office.

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