Ford v Ferrari

A very well made film I thought. It definitely was more of a story about Carroll Shelby and Ken Miles than it was about the Ford GT40 vs Ferrari P3/4 battles at Le Mans, which gives it universal appeal outside of the car fanatic genre.

 

Everything was top notch as far as dialogue, acting, driving action, cinematography, pacing, scenes in Italian, etc. You'd figure with Maaaaatttt Daaaaamuuun and Christian Bale you'd get a quality product, but no guarantees in this business. 

 

The movie uncovers the little known fact that Ferrari was willing to consider the buyout from Ford but balked at the idea of giving up full control of his racing program, which was more important to him than actually building street cars. Despite this, it still parrots the idea that Ferrari rebuffed Ford out of arrogance. 

 

What was cool is hearing all of the names being mentioned that if you've followed racing from the old days you'd recognize. Even to hear Bob Bondurant get talked about as a racer is wild...….you forget he raced Le Mans and is still alive!

 

Would definitely recommend to anyone, esp. anyone on here. 

 

The Fords and Ferraris sounded great too. 

 

BTW, this movie is called "Le Mans 66" in most other countries....

 

Very well done and entertaining 

now Netflix has a documentary on the subject

In 1991 when I was 12 years old I went and stayed with my cousin for a summer break. Being the car kid I was I was excited to hear his new step dad was a car nut too. He was 62 years old at the time. His name is Fred. Fred raced cars back in the 60's and 70's. He was a huge ford fan and so was I. However I was a Lamborghini fan most of all. He liked the entertainment of it, but he wanted to enlighten me on why he was such a ford fan.

 Fred showed me a collection of items he had found and hung onto over the years. 1 of them was a photograph. The ford GT40's coming over the finish line at leman in 1966. I was there to visit for 3 weeks. Fred was excited that he had found an ear to start educating on one of the greatest car stories of all time. Fred detailed almost line for line this entire story. Everything about Shelby, Miles etc. The most glaring thing I recall Fred saying. "The Ferrari's were amazing cars. Their V12's would scream past at a hi rev note everyone loved, but the Ford's, they left an impression on everyone. When they would drive past it was that deep rumble of a big block American V8 that roared so loud you couldn't hear anything else". I had never seen anyone so enthusiastic to tell a story in my entire life. It still gives me goose bumps. Watching the movie was a pleasure for me. All because of Fred. He was also friends with guys that were involved in the project. One of them was an engineer that figured out how to get better air and fuel mixture in the carburetors for race cars. Fred had a carburetor that he pulled out of a pile of car parts just to show me. It was such a cool piece of art work.

 I was such a mustang fan. But I had never heard of the ford GT40 or the Shelby AC cobra cars. Then he started educating me about Carroll Shelby.  Fred had all sorts of pictures and diecast models of the GT40's and Cobra cars. He loved the Daytona coupe. I fell in love with it as well. He was so inspiring. The story was like a fairytale for dudes.

I included a pic. It was the closest one I could find that resembled what he showed me all that time ago.

 

On 11/21/2019 at 5:52 PM, Smash Boy said:

Even to hear Bob Bondurant get talked about as a racer is wild...….you forget he raced Le Mans and is still alive!

I asked Bob about LeMans, and all that, when I went there last year. He didn't have much to say, then the topic quickly changed to it being my birthday and and I never got the story. The problem I had with the movie was the kind nature they painted Carroll and Ken to be in. I have heard nothing but the contrary.