Balance Of Power

Greg MacLeman gathers – for a world exclusive – two generations of Ford GT with a sublime GT40 MkIII, but which one does he want to take home?

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There are faster, prettier, more valuable cars, certainly. But few can hope to match the sheer thrill and blue-collar appeal of our test cars – gathered as a trio for the first time in their history. We’ve been at Ford’s Dunton high-speed test circuit for five minutes and are already struggling to contain schoolboy levels of excitement, pressing our noses to the glass of the brand-new, otherworldly blue GT and eyeing the sumptuous lines of its white predecessor. But one of the three commands our attention like nothing else: the stunning GT40 MkIII.

The story of the GT40 began with a bust-up. Henry Ford II attempted to buy his way into top-flight competition by throwing money at Ferrari, but it ended with a bad-tempered parting of the ways. Ford, peeved at paying for dinner and not even getting a peck on the cheek, threw his weight behind his own Le Mans project. His bloody-mindedness helped to bring together some of the best engineers and race-preparation specialists in the business – Eric Broadley, Roy Lunn, John Wyer and later Carroll Shelby – to create an endurance legend from the acorn of the 1963 Racing Car Show starlet Lola GT.

Despite a shocking performance test for Le Mans that led to two cars being all but destroyed, and an embarrassing defeat to Ferrari’s P2s in 1965, the GT40 was eventually fettled into contention. The 4.7-litre engine was supplanted by the 7-litre V8 from the Galaxie with the introduction of the MkII, and with it in 1966 came a spectacular 1-2-3 clean sweep at Le Mans led (just) by Chris Amon and Bruce McLaren. Ken Miles and Denny Hulme did the heavy lifting, though they were denied a first-place finish by factory orders. Dan Gurney and AJ Foyt landed the spoils the following year, with John Wyer’s cars taking the chequer in 1968 and 1969.