Anybody here like Ford GT40s?
I know that not everybody is totally giddy with glee about the way Ford won its class at Le Mans this year, but that does nothing to undo anything that the near mythical sports-racer has achieved.
Fittingly, this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed played host to more GT40s in a single location than I have ever experienced, or indeed thought possible, before.


This Gulf-coloured car was a static exhibit and run in anger over the weekend. Its iconic livery made it an absolute magnet for camera-phone weilding GT40 enthusiasts and grabbing a clear shot wasn’t a walk in the park.

It was nestled in the paddock next to this.

This Ford GT LM GTE was built in 2006 and finished third in the GTE-Am category at Le Mans in 2011. This car did make an appearance on the hillclimb this year.

As did this, a GT40 Mk III road car from 1968, civilised for the street with hinged windows and a place for luggage.

It’s an interesting thought that, when Ford brought the GT back in the last decade they chose to stylistically derive it from the race car rather than the road car. I totally understand why – because racecar, amirite? But how unbelievably awesome would it have been if they did both?

How about the MKIV, the real Ferrari Slayer?

This is the actual car that AJ Foyt and Dan Gurney won at Le Mans. Clearly evolved somewhat from the aesthetic of the GT40 that the majority of people tend to think about, but no more appealing for that. This car didn’t have a go on the hillclimb this year, as there isn’t enough money in the world to replace it if it bent.

This is probably the snout that we all think of when that famous name is mentioned.

It’s one of the 7.0 litre Mk II’s. It’s interesting to compare all of the above with its progenitor, the GT40 Prototype, which was also here at the show.

You can see the GT40 that we all recognise from the front doors backwards, but the nose treatment is totally different and nowhere near as distinctive as the eventual ‘production’ car.
I wonder if the GT40 would have become so iconic if its looks didn’t change from this?

Naturally, Marino Franchitti was on hand to drive the very latest generation of the Ford GT lineage, still wearing dirt from LeMans a few weeks ago.
This one, car #66 came fourth in class and was of Ford’s  historic 1,3,4 finish.

There was a fairly awesome Lego representation of the same car over on the Ford showcase.
I want. Very.

Then, all of a sudden, I became deaf. The world became an extremely noisy place when many of the above and more besides exploded into life and threaded their way out of the paddock, ready to rumble their way evocatively up the hillclimb.
Sure beats a museum.
(All images copyright Chris Haining / Hooniverse 2016)