Next year marks the anniversary of Ford’s 1-2-3 at the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans race. Ferrari obviously isn’t too fond of that, since the Blue Oval went on to beat the Italians in 1967, 1968 and 1969. So what does Ford do in response? Not only have they prepared a Le Mans return with the GT racecar, but they’re also trolling Maranello in the presentation video.
The clip shows us the GT racecar running around on French public roads, with the CGI involved being cool enough on its own. Nevertheless, everything quickly goes from Blue Oval to Sacrebleu at the 1:40 mark, when the racer makes a black horse prance around for no good reason on its way to the Circuit de la Sarthe.
The two brands couldn’t be further apart in terms of a Le Mans return
Nonetheless, the live hedge separating the racer from the horse is but a metaphor portraying the real world situation. There’s quite a distance between the two companies’ endurance racing intentions these days.
With Porsche having made its comeback and promising to go for the 1-2-3 any minute now, deciding to return to Le Mans means Ford is just as serious about this as Dave Pericak, the head of the Ford Performance division, was when he told us the Mustang Shelby GT350R is better than a 911 GT3.
On the other hand, Ferrari is currently busy sorting out its Formula One game, as well as reorganizing its internal affairs, from leadership to the expected stock market debut. And while the red assault on Le Mans has been a long time rumor, we don’t have any solid clues yet.
By the way, there’s still time to place your bets for this year’s race.
In his quest to bring you the most impressive automotive creations, Andrei relies on learning as a superpower. There's quite a bit of room in the garage that is this aficionado's heart, so factory-condition classics and widebody contraptions with turbos poking through the hood can peacefully coexist. Full profile
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