Ford GT40 MKII

The 1966 Ford GT40 MKII is a high performance American-British endurance racing car, built and designed in England. The GT40 was originally produced to win long-distance sports car races against Ferrari (who won at Le Mans six times in a row from 1960 to 1965). In 1966, the Mk.II began dominating the world famous 24 Hours of Le Mans race in France. With Henry Ford II himself in attendance at Le Mans, the Mk II GT40 provided Ford with the first overall Le Mans victory for an American manufacturer. The Mk.II took Europe by surprise and beat Ferrari to finish 1-2-3 in the standings.The Mk.II used the 7.0 litre FE (427 ci) engine from the Ford Galaxie, which was an engine used in NASCAR at the time--but the engine was modified for road course use. The car's chassis was more or less the same as the British-built Mk.I chassis, but it and other parts of the car had to be re-designed and modified by Carroll Shelby's organization in order to accommodate the larger and heavier 427 engine. A new Kar Kraft-built 4 speed gearbox (same as the one described above) was built to handle the more powerful engine, replacing the ZF 5-speed used in the Mk I.