Ford Not Horsing Around About Kicking Ferrari's Ass at LeMans

As Cameron’s post earlier today indicated, at a press conference in France, Bill Ford, Mark Fields, Raj Nair and Chip Ganassi announced that Ford will be returning to LeMans to compete in next year’s 24 hour race with a red, white, and blue liveried racing version of the new Ford GT. It will be campaigned by Ganassi’s team.

Recently TTAC ran a post of mine about Nair’s hints that Ford would race again at Circuit de la Sarthe, including his reference to “kicking Ferrari’s ass” in 1966. Twelve-steppers might say that Ferrari is living in Ford’s brain rent-free because beating the folks from Modena still seems to be on the minds of the folks in Dearborn.

To commemorate their return to LeMans and big time endurance racing (the GT will compete in both the World Endurance Championship in Europe and the Tudor series in North America), Ford produced a nicely done promotional video referencing their legacy (and GT40s) from 1966 and their return to LeMans next year.

The video shows the competition version of the new GT racing through Parisian streets and then on to LeMans. In the final segment of the video, the text on the screen says “Ford GT LeMans 2016” before showing us a scene in the hedge-rowed French countryside, with a roadside sign indicating 50 km to LeMans.

As the GT flashes by, a black stallion behind the hedge rears up on its hind legs. The screen then reads, “See You There”.

A black horse up on its hind legs is, of course, Ferrari’s famous brand indicator, the “ prancing horse“. While most of Ferrari’s racing effort is geared towards Formula One, the company does compete in the FIA WEC through its Corse Clienti Department that provides race prepped cars to privateers. Ford isn’t aiming for an overall win like in 1966. As sophisticated and aero as the new GT is, it will be competing in the LM GTE Pro class, not against the field leading Audi, Porsche and Toyota hybrids. Last year’s winner in LM GTE Pro? A Ferrari 458 Italia GT2 from the AF Corse team.

Ronnie Schreiber edits Cars In Depth, a realistic perspective on cars & car culture and the original 3D car site. If you found this post worthwhile, you can get a parallax view at Cars In Depth. If the 3D thing freaks you out, don’t worry, all the photo and video players in use at the site have mono options. Thanks for reading – RJS