Latest / Ridiculous History / CLASSIC: How A Grudge Match Launched the Ford GT40

Transcript

CLASSIC: How A Grudge Match Launched the Ford GT40 · Ridiculous History

0:00
Speaker 1: Oh man, So off air, we were talking about our
0:05
Speaker 1: I think we're all three of us, you, Max and
0:08
Speaker 1: myself are are contemplating to one degree or another when
0:12
Speaker 1: it's going to be time to get a new car. Yeah.
0:14
Speaker 2: I've been rocking the old Honda fit which I've had
0:18
Speaker 2: paid off for many years, and I was just talking
0:19
Speaker 2: about how it has a really good track record in
0:21
Speaker 2: terms of like I haven't really had to do any
0:23
Speaker 2: major repairs on it except for, you know, just some
0:26
Speaker 2: cosmetic things here and there and just keeping up the
0:29
Speaker 2: oil changes and the tires and all of that. But
0:31
Speaker 2: I am in a place where I've got a kid
0:33
Speaker 2: who's about to be of driving age, kind of pass
0:35
Speaker 2: this bad boy on to the kid and then be
0:38
Speaker 2: in the market for what I like to refer to
0:40
Speaker 2: as a big boy car.
0:42
Speaker 1: A big boy car Yeah nice.
0:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, that could mean like an suv or something, but
0:46
Speaker 2: I think I mean I want something with a little
0:47
Speaker 2: bit of pick me, a little pickup, you know, a
0:49
Speaker 2: little bit get up and go a little Yeah.
0:53
Speaker 1: I don't know what y'all are talking about.
0:54
Speaker 3: My car, Sylvia is going to last forever for anyone
0:57
Speaker 3: saying out there saying, wait, your car and your cat
0:59
Speaker 3: have the same name Max like, no, the car is
1:01
Speaker 3: filt with a y.
1:03
Speaker 2: These are the important questions that keep ridiculous historians up
1:06
Speaker 2: in nimax.
1:06
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, and it's it's funny because there are excellent
1:12
Speaker 1: podcasts like ninety nine percent Invisible that trace the unknown
1:17
Speaker 1: origins of different things. And the world of automobiles, there
1:21
Speaker 1: are also many, many fascinating origin stories, some a little
1:26
Speaker 1: more wholesome than others. But even if you don't like cars,
1:30
Speaker 1: if you don't consider yourself a gear head, you're gonna
1:34
Speaker 1: dig this one ridiculous historians, because the Ford g T
1:38
Speaker 1: forty is the automotive version of what were those things
1:43
Speaker 1: we looked at earlier?
1:44
Speaker 2: Spe building spipes, well, spipe stor is what I was
1:46
Speaker 2: talking about. From from Kerb Larry started a Spike coffee
1:50
Speaker 2: shop next to Mocha Joe's. But yeah, we've got historical
1:54
Speaker 2: examples of spikee buildings where either to obscure somebody's view
2:00
Speaker 2: or buy up a piece of land that would be
2:02
Speaker 2: crucial to somebody's business, idea or design, or whatever happens
2:07
Speaker 2: all the time, spiteful choices that are not necessarily made
2:12
Speaker 2: for any other reason but to piss somebody else off
2:15
Speaker 2: or up end somebody else's aspirations. Yeah.
2:19
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And it turns out that the world famous, award
2:23
Speaker 1: winning Ford g T forty is itself the result of
2:28
Speaker 1: a cartoonish grudge match. So we hope you enjoy this.
2:34
Speaker 1: Statistically speaking, at least some of some of our folks
2:38
Speaker 1: listening along today are in fact driving a Ford g
2:42
Speaker 1: T forty right now as you listen to the show.
2:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then you know, is this gosh, Ben's this
2:49
Speaker 2: is a long time sins we did this, and I
2:51
Speaker 2: know this was maybe a bit of a shared topic
2:54
Speaker 2: with your former podcast car stuff, But is this a
2:58
Speaker 2: Ford versus Ferrari kind of situation or what's what's the
3:02
Speaker 2: deal here? Can you give us a little bit of
3:03
Speaker 2: the setup where the spike came from? I know it's
3:06
Speaker 2: going to be in the episode, but just maybe bring
3:08
Speaker 2: things up to the modern day.
3:10
Speaker 1: All right, So in uh, it may yeah, yeah, it
3:17
Speaker 1: may or may not surprise some of us listening to
3:21
Speaker 1: learn that people who decide to manufacture their own cars
3:26
Speaker 1: sometimes have a bit of an ego. And there was
3:29
Speaker 1: a there was this personal grudge match between Henry four
3:33
Speaker 1: two and Enzo Ferrari and then other people like Carol,
3:40
Speaker 1: the legendary Carol Shelby. They also didn't like Enzo Ferrari,
3:45
Speaker 1: and so they decided that they were going to create
3:50
Speaker 1: a car that could compete with the Ferrari, that could
3:55
Speaker 1: beat these records set by Ferrari's team at a prestigious
3:59
Speaker 1: race car.
4:00
Speaker 2: Yes, of course, and I believe we did this episode
4:03
Speaker 2: back in twenty eighteen, in the very first year of
4:07
Speaker 2: doing this show. And in twenty nineteen a very well
4:10
Speaker 2: regarded film came out starring Christian Bale and Matt Damon
4:16
Speaker 2: who played Carol Shelby, actually Matt Damon, directed by James Mangold,
4:22
Speaker 2: and it is called Ford Versus Ferrari, and it is
4:25
Speaker 2: less about the men themselves, but more about the men
4:28
Speaker 2: behind the men and the race car drivers that were
4:32
Speaker 2: sort of like putting these particular vehicles on the map.
4:35
Speaker 2: So definitely worth some supplementary viewing if you're interested in
4:39
Speaker 2: this kind of topic.
4:41
Speaker 1: A business deal, god, a ry egos wounded, a race
4:46
Speaker 1: that becomes a symbol for it's it's just so weird, man.
4:53
Speaker 1: We hope you enjoy it. Folks. Will be back next
4:57
Speaker 1: week with another classic no spoilers it turns out the
5:01
Speaker 1: Wild West may be a bit of a misleading name.
5:05
Speaker 2: The Tame West. Let's roll that tape.
5:10
Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Put yourself in
5:38
Speaker 1: a situation. Listeners, imagine that you have been driving all day,
5:42
Speaker 1: but not on any road trip, no, on a mission
5:46
Speaker 1: of vengeance. Your heart is thumping, your body is on
5:50
Speaker 1: its last legs, and you might be about to blow
5:53
Speaker 1: up your car or make history.
5:56
Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Ben, my name is Nola. And
5:58
Speaker 2: then I have to tell you, and I'm going to
6:00
Speaker 2: come clean right up front. It wasn't until doing the
6:02
Speaker 2: research for this episode that I actually understood why those
6:05
Speaker 2: people drive around in circles all day long.
6:08
Speaker 1: Right, Yes, today we are delving into racing, not just
6:12
Speaker 1: any race, but one of the most important moments in
6:17
Speaker 1: one of the world's most important races. And for a
6:20
Speaker 1: lot of people who aren't already race fans, racing's a
6:23
Speaker 1: weird thing, you know what I mean, Like, well, you're
6:26
Speaker 1: just what everybody's just going left. For a while, I just.
6:29
Speaker 2: Straight up didn't understand the rules are anything about it,
6:32
Speaker 2: Like I just didn't. So this was a very eye
6:35
Speaker 2: opening thing for me, and I am going to defer
6:37
Speaker 2: largely to you on this, Ben because many listeners may
6:40
Speaker 2: know you had a podcast for many years called Car Stuff,
6:43
Speaker 2: where you delved into all things automotive, and I believe
6:45
Speaker 2: you guys did an episode on this very subject.
6:48
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, thank you, Noel. Yes, my co host Scott
6:51
Speaker 1: Benjamin and I who longtime listeners will remember from several
6:55
Speaker 1: other shows, including Stuff They Don't Want You To Know,
6:58
Speaker 1: which you KNOWL and I do with our esteems compatriot
7:01
Speaker 1: Matt Frederick. We spent nine years examining everything that floats, fly, swims.
7:05
Speaker 2: Or drives as a dope tagline.
7:07
Speaker 1: Thank you, thanks man. And one of the things that
7:11
Speaker 1: we loved exploring and that listeners loved exploring with us
7:15
Speaker 1: was the behind the scenes stories of automotive fame or infamy.
7:22
Speaker 1: Because you know, nowadays we're recording this in twenty eighteen.
7:25
Speaker 1: You can look at the hundreds of new cars that
7:28
Speaker 1: come out every year and you can tell that millions
7:32
Speaker 1: of dollars of research and design went into them, but
7:36
Speaker 1: we often forget the personal inspirations behind them.
7:41
Speaker 2: Well, it's also with today. Other than like you know,
7:43
Speaker 2: your electric cars and Tesla's and things like that, there
7:47
Speaker 2: aren't a whole lot of aha moments as far as
7:50
Speaker 2: motoring is concerned, Like you've got your McLaren's and these
7:53
Speaker 2: like million dollars supercars, which is all very niche and interesting.
7:57
Speaker 2: But back in the days that we're talking about, it
7:59
Speaker 2: was kind of like the wild West. There weren't as
8:02
Speaker 2: many regulations in place. Racing was a much more dangerous sport.
8:07
Speaker 2: It's still pretty dangerous, but in terms of you you
8:10
Speaker 2: talked about explosions, that was a regular occurrence, but innovation
8:14
Speaker 2: was something that was I feel like was much more
8:18
Speaker 2: hard fought.
8:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would agree, because in every new car that
8:23
Speaker 1: you see nowadays stands on the shoulders of giants, right,
8:29
Speaker 1: and people will spend years figuring out how to get
8:33
Speaker 1: what would seem to be a largely minuscule edge in performance.
8:38
Speaker 1: And racing is where we see this to the most
8:42
Speaker 1: extreme extent, I almost say cartoonish, but to the most
8:45
Speaker 1: extreme extent. And today you and I and our super
8:50
Speaker 1: producer Casey Pegrim are exploring one of the most ridiculous
8:56
Speaker 1: stories in the world.
8:58
Speaker 2: Were supposed to acknowledge that Casey exists as a Mario
9:01
Speaker 2: sound effect?
9:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, that's why it comes up yea.
9:04
Speaker 2: Is it okay for us to acknowledge that? Does it
9:05
Speaker 2: cheapen it? Does it take away the fun?
9:07
Speaker 1: I don't think so. Do you think so?
9:09
Speaker 2: I think it's delightful.
9:10
Speaker 1: I look forward to it every time. Also, Noel and
9:14
Speaker 1: I try to listen to the episodes after we record
9:18
Speaker 1: them to make sure that we don't sound too ridiculous.
9:21
Speaker 1: And I got to tell you that sound cue is
9:23
Speaker 1: one of my favorite parts.
9:25
Speaker 2: We have to sound just ridiculous enough. And Casey, as
9:27
Speaker 2: you know from the segment Casey on the Case which
9:29
Speaker 2: we'll be returning, does in fact have a corporeal form
9:32
Speaker 2: and a voice, but from time to time he exists
9:35
Speaker 2: in the form of a sorry to make you do
9:38
Speaker 2: it again.
9:40
Speaker 1: So this is something that we wanted to bring to you, Todave,
9:44
Speaker 1: friends and neighbors. Whether or not you are a racing fan,
9:48
Speaker 1: you will find this interesting because this is not just
9:51
Speaker 1: a story about racing, not really. It's a story about revenge,
9:55
Speaker 1: a story about beef, yes, a story about titans of
10:00
Speaker 1: history were very, very personal and dare I say, petty
10:03
Speaker 1: problems with each other. And our story begins today with
10:11
Speaker 1: well you'll see people say it begins in the early
10:14
Speaker 1: nineteen sixties, but you can trace it a little further back.
10:19
Speaker 1: In October tenth of nineteen oh one, Henry Ford, the
10:23
Speaker 1: legendary mad genius Henry Ford won a race with a
10:28
Speaker 1: car he had built called Sweepstakes, and he always loved racing.
10:33
Speaker 1: But the thing about Ford, one of the largest car manufacturers,
10:38
Speaker 1: was that they were not building cars to win races.
10:43
Speaker 1: They were building cars to be affordable for the average
10:46
Speaker 1: American and then later the average citizen of the world.
10:49
Speaker 2: I believe there was a even a beef at this point.
10:52
Speaker 2: A driver by the name of Alexander Winton was the
10:55
Speaker 2: biggest hot shot race car driver of the day, and
10:58
Speaker 2: Ford was just bound and determined to kick his butt,
11:01
Speaker 2: and he did just that, and then that kind of
11:03
Speaker 2: opened the doors for Ford where people were like, whoa,
11:06
Speaker 2: we want to help this guy do everything we can
11:08
Speaker 2: to get his fledgling car company off the ground.
11:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, and by golly, by gum or whatever they
11:16
Speaker 1: used as a phrase of exclamation in those times. It worked,
11:20
Speaker 1: and Henry Ford, not by any means a perfect man,
11:24
Speaker 1: went on to be the head of one of history's
11:28
Speaker 1: most successful car companies. Fast forward to the nineteen sixties
11:34
Speaker 1: when Henry Ford's son named in a burst of creativity
11:38
Speaker 1: Henry Ford two electric bogloo joke or no.
11:42
Speaker 2: Sure it's done, it's out there. What's done is done,
11:44
Speaker 2: my friend.
11:45
Speaker 1: So now we're in the nineteen sixties. Henry Ford two
11:48
Speaker 1: is the chief executive of Ford. That's right.
11:52
Speaker 2: Henry Ford the second came out of the Navy to
11:56
Speaker 2: run the company that his father had started after Henry
11:59
Speaker 2: Ford Senior had gotten a little too up there in
12:02
Speaker 2: years to continue running it, and Ford the second was cool,
12:07
Speaker 2: I like, two.
12:07
Speaker 1: We're gonna go. I'm gonna go Ford two. I'm good
12:09
Speaker 1: with that.
12:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, he didn't know a whole lot about running the business,
12:13
Speaker 2: but he was savvy enough to hire people that did.
12:16
Speaker 2: So we hired this like brain trust, this group of
12:18
Speaker 2: marketers and finance experts and just in general very very smart,
12:23
Speaker 2: well equipped people that was known as the whiz Kids,
12:26
Speaker 2: and then the Ford Company kind of entered a new era.
12:29
Speaker 1: Yes, exactly, because you see, the thing that happens often
12:33
Speaker 1: with family companies is they will either remain ideologically aligned
12:39
Speaker 1: with the founder or ideologically opposite. And in this case,
12:46
Speaker 1: Henry Ford the second or two loved the things that
12:50
Speaker 1: his father loved, and one of those was racing. And
12:55
Speaker 1: by the time two becomes the chief executive, Ford never
13:01
Speaker 1: quite manages to get the acclaim they wanted with racing.
13:05
Speaker 1: They're associated with some great vehicles, but those vehicles are
13:09
Speaker 1: not associated with winning prestigious races.
13:12
Speaker 2: This is very true, and that's because, like you said,
13:14
Speaker 2: their main focus was not necessarily on innovation technologically, but
13:20
Speaker 2: it was on really pushing that marketing angle and selling
13:23
Speaker 2: the American dream to that nuclear family that was so popular.
13:27
Speaker 2: In all the ad campaigns we see, they were referred
13:30
Speaker 2: to as living rooms on wheels, and they were sold
13:34
Speaker 2: as part of that American dream ideal. There really wasn't
13:38
Speaker 2: any interest in having any sporty qualities or like good
13:42
Speaker 2: handling or anything like that. I just to give you
13:45
Speaker 2: a sense of the vibe of these ad campaigns. A
13:47
Speaker 2: quote from one of the Ford commercials is as such,
13:51
Speaker 2: and out on the highway, the thought in your future,
13:53
Speaker 2: with its lower, safest center of gravity, provides a smooth
13:57
Speaker 2: and midship ride, quiet as a whisper gentleist, a summer breeze.
14:02
Speaker 1: Well read, well, we're read, and this is accurate. This
14:06
Speaker 1: is not a bunch of advertising smoke. People were buying
14:10
Speaker 1: forwards for that reason to satisfy that demand to participate,
14:14
Speaker 1: as we established in the American Dream. So two decides
14:19
Speaker 1: that one way to innovate forward as a brand is
14:23
Speaker 1: to become known not just as a rolling living room
14:26
Speaker 1: for the average well to do American, but to be
14:29
Speaker 1: known as a credible racing manufacturer. And here they run
14:35
Speaker 1: into a bit of a catch twenty two. Up until
14:38
Speaker 1: this point, most successful racing vehicles came from dedicated racing teams.
14:47
Speaker 1: So they would build a small number of very high
14:52
Speaker 1: end cars right or even custom cars, and these cars
14:56
Speaker 1: would not be in several cases, would not be considered
15:00
Speaker 1: the street legal. They're not what we call daily drivers.
15:04
Speaker 1: They are built to kill other cars on the racetrack.
15:08
Speaker 1: So if you are a company with a ton of
15:12
Speaker 1: money and a ton of credibility in regular daily driving,
15:18
Speaker 1: you have to find a way to break into this market,
15:20
Speaker 1: and money alone is not going to help you immediately.
15:24
Speaker 1: The best way to build a reputation in the racing
15:27
Speaker 1: world is to either win a race yourself, which is
15:31
Speaker 1: very very very very very difficult coming in new and
15:35
Speaker 1: coming in green, or as we see a lot of
15:38
Speaker 1: larger companies doing today in places like Silicon Valley and
15:42
Speaker 1: in other industries, to find a smaller company that does
15:45
Speaker 1: one thing and does it really well and buy them
15:49
Speaker 1: so too, and his brain trust, the whiz kids that
15:53
Speaker 1: Noel mentioned earlier, said let's go buy a racing company,
15:58
Speaker 1: and then we can take their expertise, we can take
16:01
Speaker 1: their experience and their knowledge, and we can make it
16:04
Speaker 1: a part of us, the same way that Rome would
16:06
Speaker 1: conquer other territories.
16:08
Speaker 2: And two went to a race, and in that race
16:11
Speaker 2: he saw a shiny Italian sexy sports car with that
16:17
Speaker 2: badge that we know so well, the rearing horse on
16:21
Speaker 2: the yellow background, the Ferrari, and he saw it when
16:24
Speaker 2: and then and there decided that he wanted to buy
16:28
Speaker 2: that company because Ferrari had a storied history in the
16:33
Speaker 2: European racing game.
16:35
Speaker 1: Yes, And one contrast between Ferrari and Ford is that
16:39
Speaker 1: in Ferrari's case, the founder, Enzo Ferrari, is still very,
16:44
Speaker 1: very active. And if you've ever learned much about the
16:50
Speaker 1: history of Inenzo Ferrari, you will see that what we're
16:53
Speaker 1: saying is absolutely true, storied racing history and also nothing
16:58
Speaker 1: to sneeze at. But Inzo Ferrari is a legendarily cantankerous individual.
17:06
Speaker 1: Let's just give him a little bit of backstory. Enzo
17:09
Speaker 1: Ferrari was born in eighteen ninety eight in northern Italy
17:12
Speaker 1: and he grew up relatively poor in a rural area.
17:15
Speaker 2: Father of a metal worker and they produced parts for
17:18
Speaker 2: the Italian Railway. He went to his first race in
17:21
Speaker 2: nineteen oh eight and decided he was just in love
17:24
Speaker 2: with the sport and wanted to be a race car driver.
17:26
Speaker 2: World War One took Enzo's father and brother from him,
17:30
Speaker 2: and he too joined the army and helped maintain their
17:33
Speaker 2: motor pool for the Artillery Division. After the war, he
17:37
Speaker 2: sold the family home to buy race cars. Then he
17:40
Speaker 2: won his first race in nineteen twenty four using an
17:44
Speaker 2: Alpha Romea and it totally changed his life. Alfa Romeo
17:47
Speaker 2: at the time we're having some financial problems, so they
17:49
Speaker 2: gave control of their motorsports division to Enzo because he
17:52
Speaker 2: had proven himself a worthy racer and a smart businessman.
17:56
Speaker 1: That's in nineteen thirty three exactly, and he and his
17:59
Speaker 1: team won the prestigious twenty four hours at Lemon's race
18:04
Speaker 1: four times. Yes, this we're already seeing a little bit
18:09
Speaker 1: of Ferrari's bona fides here because he is the best
18:13
Speaker 1: kind of person to run a racing company, a former racer,
18:17
Speaker 1: and Alpha took control of its racing efforts again in
18:21
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty seven, and they, I guess you could phrase
18:25
Speaker 1: as a demotion. They moved his position, Endo's position to
18:30
Speaker 1: director of sports and he soldiered on. But in nineteen
18:35
Speaker 1: thirty nine he left Alfa Romeo and he agreed to
18:41
Speaker 1: some terms that would later haunt him, a kind of
18:45
Speaker 1: exclusivity agreement. He said that he would not use the
18:49
Speaker 1: name Ferrari in relation to racing and racing cars for
18:53
Speaker 1: four years.
18:54
Speaker 2: But then World War two hit and it turned out
18:57
Speaker 2: that he and his company we were quite cut out
19:01
Speaker 2: for helping build planes for the war effort. So it
19:05
Speaker 2: almost made it a moot point that he couldn't get
19:07
Speaker 2: right into building race cars and getting back into the
19:10
Speaker 2: racing game. But I'm sure he missed it very much.
19:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's a good point, because World War two
19:16
Speaker 1: affected all auto manufacturers across the planet, including including Henry Ford.
19:22
Speaker 2: You right, and right after the war ended, Ferrari had
19:26
Speaker 2: his chance when in nineteen forty nine he entered the
19:30
Speaker 2: twenty four hour at Lamont Race and totally dominated, and
19:35
Speaker 2: that became a fixture of that prestigious race. Ferrari reigned supreme.
19:40
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, Ferrari won multiple Lamond after that time. So
19:46
Speaker 1: it's no surprise that two is impressed when he sees
19:50
Speaker 1: Ferrari on the track because Ferrari is a known dominant
19:55
Speaker 1: force here, and Two says to his brain trust, to
20:01
Speaker 1: his executives, to his entourage, he says, I want that one,
20:06
Speaker 1: and for some reason, I kind of picture it like
20:08
Speaker 1: a Veruk assault and Charlie and the chocolate factory situation. Yeah,
20:13
Speaker 1: I want that one and the here's how it works out.
20:16
Speaker 1: He sends his trusted emissary, a guy named Don Fry,
20:21
Speaker 1: to negotiate with Ferrari, and they propose an acquisition deal
20:27
Speaker 1: that hits the following points. Ford wants to buy a
20:31
Speaker 1: ninety percent stake in the Italian company for eighteen million dollars.
20:37
Speaker 1: Under this agreement, it is important to say they would
20:40
Speaker 1: still be relying on Ferrari and Coe's racing expertise.
20:44
Speaker 2: They were going to actually spin that off into a
20:46
Speaker 2: racing division that would be called Ferrari Ford. But Ford
20:50
Speaker 2: had veto power over a few pretty important things.
20:54
Speaker 1: Right, and this is where the this is where the discord, see,
21:00
Speaker 1: because we can't emphasize enough that we're talking about two
21:03
Speaker 1: very large personalities, that's the polite way to put it.
21:07
Speaker 1: And what happens is Ferrari towards the very end of
21:11
Speaker 1: the deal decides he's not into it. And this is
21:14
Speaker 1: the point where you'll begin to hear the conflicting accounts
21:19
Speaker 1: of how it went down, some of which is still
21:21
Speaker 1: in debate today. The Ferrari side says that they found
21:27
Speaker 1: a deal breaker in the agreement, and that deal breaker
21:31
Speaker 1: was the veto power that you mentioned, nol specifically in
21:35
Speaker 1: the idea that Ford, the larger company, would have to
21:39
Speaker 1: green light expenditures. Yeah.
21:41
Speaker 2: And I also actually in a film called The Twenty
21:43
Speaker 2: four Hour War that does a really good job of
21:46
Speaker 2: chronicling this whole beef situation, it's mentioned that the points
21:52
Speaker 2: in contention had to do with the fact that Ford
21:54
Speaker 2: had the power to decide which races they'd participate in
21:58
Speaker 2: and which drivers to use.
22:00
Speaker 1: And that's the biggest one.
22:01
Speaker 2: Andoe'd like spent his life in this industry, knew these cars,
22:05
Speaker 2: knew this game. He wasn't going to have some stuffed
22:08
Speaker 2: shirt American tell him what to.
22:10
Speaker 1: Do, right, And you'll hear on the Ford side, you'll
22:14
Speaker 1: hear people arguing that Ferrari was just looking for an
22:18
Speaker 1: excuse to not do the deal. But on the Ferrari side,
22:22
Speaker 1: these sound like understandable deal breakers, don't they.
22:25
Speaker 2: It does. And it also was much, much, much smaller
22:28
Speaker 2: company than Ford. And there was a sense, I believe
22:32
Speaker 2: from Ferrari that he didn't want to be swallowed up
22:35
Speaker 2: by this BMF bureaucracy.
22:38
Speaker 4: Right.
22:38
Speaker 1: We have the specific quote here from a book called
22:41
Speaker 1: Ford GT. How Ford Silenced the Critics Humbled Ferrari. And
22:45
Speaker 1: I'm not going to tell you the rest of the
22:47
Speaker 1: title because they don't want to give away the episode totally.
22:50
Speaker 1: But it's by an author named Preston Learner. And in
22:53
Speaker 1: the book, the quote from Enzo himself is this. He
22:59
Speaker 1: says he doesn't want to become another cog in what
23:01
Speaker 1: he describes as the enormous machine, the suffocating bureaucracy of
23:06
Speaker 1: the Ford Motor Company. I'm styling a little bit on that.
23:10
Speaker 1: I just want to be clear that he's using the
23:13
Speaker 1: name Ford Motor Company with intense approbrium, you know, and
23:18
Speaker 1: so he he says, we can't agree to this. You
23:22
Speaker 1: can't choose the races. You can't choose the racers. I
23:25
Speaker 1: know them. I know the racers and the racing both.
23:28
Speaker 1: And if we want to spend money on something, it
23:32
Speaker 1: should be up to me how he spend it.
23:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, and spending money is going to become a big
23:36
Speaker 2: part of this story really soon. I just want to
23:39
Speaker 2: pull a little bit of a quote from a review
23:42
Speaker 2: of this movie, is Ford and Ferrari make racing a
23:45
Speaker 2: grudge match in The twenty four Hour War. The Twenty
23:48
Speaker 2: four Hour War is a somewhat jingoistic documentary about that
23:52
Speaker 2: celebrated and deadly dangerous feud, one that spilled over from
23:55
Speaker 2: the boardrooms and onto the world's great race tracks for
23:58
Speaker 2: one all the Marbles decade. And I just wanted to
24:01
Speaker 2: point that out because the film does kind of cast
24:04
Speaker 2: Ferrari as a bit of like a Bond villain.
24:08
Speaker 1: Type figure and antagonistic force.
24:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, and the Ford folks are kind of portrayed as
24:13
Speaker 2: the great American heroes in the story. And as we
24:16
Speaker 2: just said, it is not nearly that cut and dry.
24:19
Speaker 2: This is a man who built a company with his
24:22
Speaker 2: bare hands from the ground up, and still it was
24:24
Speaker 2: in control of it as opposed to having it been
24:27
Speaker 2: passed down. You know, Ford two, I don't think he
24:30
Speaker 2: was really much involved in the company before he kind
24:33
Speaker 2: of came out of the Navy to join up and
24:36
Speaker 2: take it over from his father.
24:37
Speaker 1: So I don't know. I just think that's a little
24:39
Speaker 1: bit it's a little bit unfair the way the.
24:40
Speaker 2: Film has that kind of like adversarial you know, divide there.
24:44
Speaker 1: I agree with that completely because again, big personalities, they're not.
24:49
Speaker 1: We're not saying either of them are villains, but we
24:51
Speaker 1: are saying when Don Fry comes back and says, sorry, boss,
24:55
Speaker 1: that that dog doesn't hunt, what happens is Ford too
24:58
Speaker 1: is livid. He is curious. His bellows of anger are
25:02
Speaker 1: resounding throughout Ford Motor Company, and he says, screw this,
25:08
Speaker 1: screw you, no deal. You're right, no deal, and worse
25:11
Speaker 1: than no deal, I'm coming for you.
25:13
Speaker 2: Inzo, I think the quote that I saw is something
25:15
Speaker 2: along the lines of we're going to Lemont and we're
25:18
Speaker 2: gonna beat his ass.
25:20
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, yeah, if we if we can't join up
25:23
Speaker 1: with them, then by god, by golly, by gum, we're
25:26
Speaker 1: going to beat them. So Ford two says, I don't
25:30
Speaker 1: care about the cost, I don't care about the time.
25:33
Speaker 1: I don't care about who we need to hire. I
25:35
Speaker 1: don't care about what we need to build or where
25:37
Speaker 1: we need to find it. I will do anything within
25:41
Speaker 1: this company's power to beat this guy.
25:49
Speaker 2: So Ford had to, you know, he had he had
25:51
Speaker 2: a big job on his hands. He had to build
25:53
Speaker 2: a car from scratch in a game that they were
25:57
Speaker 2: not schooled in. Because that's why they wanted to buy
26:00
Speaker 2: Ferrari in the first place. They didn't really have to
26:02
Speaker 2: know how or the team put together to match what
26:06
Speaker 2: Ferrari had been building for years and years and years.
26:11
Speaker 2: And the car that ultimately would be the fruits of
26:14
Speaker 2: this beef was the GT forty.
26:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, the Ford GT forty GT standing for Grand Touring Vehicle.
26:26
Speaker 1: It was forty being.
26:27
Speaker 2: The height of the roof I think.
26:29
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, overall height forty inches. That's something that was
26:34
Speaker 1: required in race and rules at the time. It had
26:37
Speaker 1: a large placement V eight engine, and they had to
26:40
Speaker 1: teach themselves a lot of things that they did not know.
26:43
Speaker 1: As a car company. It wasn't in what corporate folks
26:47
Speaker 1: today would call their DNA. So going back to point
26:53
Speaker 1: we established earlier. They did something very very smart, which
26:57
Speaker 1: is they started pulling outside experts tease. And again, at
27:02
Speaker 1: this point we have to emphasize this racing is a
27:07
Speaker 1: very small world. People know each other, so if Ford
27:12
Speaker 1: is going around grabbing some experts, then all the other
27:16
Speaker 1: people are hearing about. Zo had to know that this
27:19
Speaker 1: was coming. Enzo Ferrari had to have some sort of
27:22
Speaker 1: spider sense about this at the minimum.
27:25
Speaker 2: But when you look at Enzo Ferrari and just the
27:27
Speaker 2: way he carried himself, I can picture him saying let
27:30
Speaker 2: him come. Oh yeah, absolutely, and that was more of
27:33
Speaker 2: a French accent. I can't really do Battalion very well.
27:37
Speaker 1: I feel like if we tried to do Italian we
27:39
Speaker 1: might both end up being offensive. Let's just give it, yeah,
27:42
Speaker 1: We'll just use the power of your imagination.
27:44
Speaker 2: Dear listening, Can I drop some GT forty specs as
27:47
Speaker 2: if I know anything about cars?
27:49
Speaker 4: Yeah?
27:49
Speaker 1: Please do, Chris, I'm sure you got them.
27:51
Speaker 2: So it was a magnesium cast and he had ninety
27:54
Speaker 2: two separate parts, which is a big deal. And every
27:57
Speaker 2: single element of this vehicle from the pedal to theo
28:00
Speaker 2: were custom fabricated. It was a unibody, and it had
28:04
Speaker 2: as much detail and definition as anything that they would
28:09
Speaker 2: have made for mass production, more so probably because of
28:12
Speaker 2: the fact that it was, for all intents and purposes,
28:14
Speaker 2: a custom job.
28:15
Speaker 1: Right, and they used. One of the races that they
28:18
Speaker 1: did participate in was the Indianapolis five hundred, which I
28:21
Speaker 1: think is one of the Indie five hundred. Is one
28:24
Speaker 1: of the things that really soured the deal between Ferrari.
28:28
Speaker 1: That was one of the races that he would not
28:30
Speaker 1: be allowed to participate in because Ford didn't want competition
28:33
Speaker 1: because they would get their ass kicked probably, And when
28:37
Speaker 1: they started building the GT forty, they were using, as
28:42
Speaker 1: anol said, a lot of custom design. They were using
28:44
Speaker 1: a lot of lessons learned from their Indie five hundred project.
28:49
Speaker 1: So they also started, as we said, pulling in a
28:54
Speaker 1: couple of different luminaries of the time. They spoke with
28:59
Speaker 1: calling Chapman, legendary driving force behind Lotus, and they also
29:06
Speaker 1: negotiated with Lola and Cooper, and Cooper at the time
29:11
Speaker 1: was known for Formula one, but they were kind of
29:14
Speaker 1: in a decline at the time and they had no
29:17
Speaker 1: experience in GT or prototype building.
29:21
Speaker 2: I think one of the features that I should have
29:22
Speaker 2: mentioned that is a hallmark of the GT forty is
29:25
Speaker 2: that it was very low, very low to the ground.
29:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, very low to the ground, which is important in
29:31
Speaker 1: racing there and equally important too with the vehicle itself.
29:37
Speaker 1: Is the race in which they decided this beef would culminate,
29:41
Speaker 1: and that brought them to the most prestigious race in
29:46
Speaker 1: Europe at the time, the twenty four hour of La Mant.
29:50
Speaker 2: Can you give us a little bit of a scoop
29:51
Speaker 2: on what that race is all about. I know at
29:54
Speaker 2: the top of the show I made it clear that
29:55
Speaker 2: I only recently discovered what one of these races is
29:58
Speaker 2: even about, but I still am a little in the
30:00
Speaker 2: dark about the legacy of this course.
30:02
Speaker 1: Oh boy, okay, this you're going to enjoy this. So
30:06
Speaker 1: the twenty four Hour of Lamon is named after the town,
30:10
Speaker 1: the closest town to where it occurs, which is Lamont
30:12
Speaker 1: in France. It's the world's oldest sports car race that's
30:16
Speaker 1: still active. It's been held since nineteen twenty three, with
30:21
Speaker 1: I believe a couple wartime complications World War two stuff,
30:28
Speaker 1: but this has for the longest time been one of
30:32
Speaker 1: the hallmarks of any racing company. If you walk away
30:35
Speaker 1: with a victory at Lamont, then your cars are.
30:38
Speaker 2: Sold because this is about endurance, right right.
30:40
Speaker 1: Instead of focusing on just the fastest machine, the Lamon
30:48
Speaker 1: concentrates on the ability to build cars that are both
30:52
Speaker 1: sporty and reliable. So the vehicles have to have fantastic handling,
30:58
Speaker 1: they have to still be aerodynamic and stable at high speeds.
31:03
Speaker 1: And the race begins in mid afternoon and ends the
31:07
Speaker 1: following day at the same hour. It literally is twenty
31:10
Speaker 1: four hours.
31:10
Speaker 2: And there are other races that are like twelve hours,
31:13
Speaker 2: right right.
31:13
Speaker 1: There are other endurance races that approach this kind of thing,
31:16
Speaker 1: but Laman was one of the first to do this.
31:19
Speaker 2: So how does that differentiate from say like Talladega or Daytona, Like,
31:23
Speaker 2: what's the difference?
31:25
Speaker 1: So one of the differences, well, let's take let's take
31:29
Speaker 1: INDY five hundred. Sure, so as we're talking about that one.
31:32
Speaker 1: So one of the differences with NDY five hundred is
31:35
Speaker 1: that the drivers race a specific number of laps. They
31:39
Speaker 1: race two hundred laps counterclockwise they go five hundred miles.
31:45
Speaker 1: So there's this specific thing in terms of distance as
31:49
Speaker 1: a rating. However, in Laman it's get as far as
31:53
Speaker 1: you can within that span of twenty four hours, cover.
31:56
Speaker 2: The most distance in twenty four hours, right.
31:59
Speaker 1: Without your car catching on fire, without getting in a wreck.
32:02
Speaker 2: And it's at night too.
32:03
Speaker 1: It's like they go, they go, like staying out for
32:06
Speaker 1: twenty four hours.
32:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, and just to drop a few little interesting nuggets
32:09
Speaker 2: about Lament and racing in these days. In general, in
32:12
Speaker 2: the nineteen fifties and sixties, motor racing was absurdly violent.
32:17
Speaker 2: Death was commonplace. Yes, the nineteen fifty five Lamon had
32:22
Speaker 2: one of the most horrific crashes in racing history. A
32:26
Speaker 2: car exploded, killing around ninety people when flaming debris rocketed
32:32
Speaker 2: into the packed seats. People didn't typically wear seat belts
32:35
Speaker 2: because part of the thing at Lama is you have
32:37
Speaker 2: to run from across the track and hop into your
32:41
Speaker 2: car and then get going.
32:43
Speaker 1: The drivers a lot of.
32:44
Speaker 2: Times they didn't feel like taking the time to put
32:46
Speaker 2: on their seat belts, and not to mention that fires
32:49
Speaker 2: and explosions were so common that.
32:51
Speaker 1: They wanted to be able to escape, right, that's why,
32:54
Speaker 1: Because the seatbelt might be as dangerous to you in
32:58
Speaker 1: their view as not one. Yeah, the nineteen fifty five
33:02
Speaker 1: Lamon disaster didn't just change Lamont, it changed motor sports entirely.
33:09
Speaker 1: And it actually the catastrophe. I think we mentioned around
33:13
Speaker 1: ninety people died, eighty three spectators definitely some a driver
33:19
Speaker 1: died as well. There were almost two hundred injuries. One
33:23
Speaker 1: hundred and eighty people at least got injured, and this
33:26
Speaker 1: actually led Mercedes Benz to retire from racing until nineteen
33:30
Speaker 1: eighty nine.
33:31
Speaker 2: In nineteen fifty seven there was another race called the
33:34
Speaker 2: mil Miglia road Race and there were five Ferraris in
33:38
Speaker 2: that race. One of them that was driven by a
33:41
Speaker 2: race over the name of Alfonso de Portago, had a
33:44
Speaker 2: tire blowout, carreemed into the crowd of spectators. He was killed,
33:49
Speaker 2: his co driver was killed, and a number of spectators,
33:52
Speaker 2: including five children, were killed. And this comes from the
33:56
Speaker 2: twenty four hour War. This is really fascinating to me.
34:00
Speaker 2: In law, when someone is killed in a car, the
34:04
Speaker 2: manufacturer was held accountable in those days, so Enzo Ferrari
34:08
Speaker 2: himself was called before the law and had to plead
34:11
Speaker 2: his case. He was investigated, but ultimately found innocent because
34:15
Speaker 2: it was a racing accident and everyone knew what they
34:18
Speaker 2: were signing up for when they stand on the sidelines
34:20
Speaker 2: and watch these crazy things.
34:22
Speaker 1: And if you see the old footage of these kinds
34:25
Speaker 1: of races, you'll notice that the spectators are right next
34:29
Speaker 1: to these vehicles. Then they're going at insane curves and certain.
34:33
Speaker 2: Speeds up over two hundred and fifty miles an hour,
34:35
Speaker 2: I think top speeds in those days. Nowadays it's mandated
34:39
Speaker 2: that they can't go that fast.
34:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's true, and it depends upon the race. But
34:45
Speaker 1: most races now will have pretty stringent safety requirements and
34:50
Speaker 1: things still go horribly wrong at times. But when we
34:55
Speaker 1: look at Ferrari Lamont, despite the despite the dangerous despite
35:00
Speaker 1: the court case, despite the deaths and the injuries and
35:03
Speaker 1: the catastrophic accidents, Ferrari is dominating, and they're dominating the
35:08
Speaker 1: most important race in the world. We shall also say
35:11
Speaker 1: that that track they're driving on for twenty four hours
35:15
Speaker 1: was at the time eight point four miles long. From
35:18
Speaker 1: the fifties to the mid sixties, Ferrari cars were dominating
35:24
Speaker 1: the event. Between nineteen fifty eight and nineteen sixty five,
35:27
Speaker 1: Ferrari vehicles and drivers won seven of the eight races,
35:31
Speaker 1: which you know makes them the equivalent of for sports fans.
35:38
Speaker 1: Their winning streak is similar to the winning streak of
35:42
Speaker 1: the New England Patriots or the New York Yankees. Irritating,
35:45
Speaker 1: irritating to everyone else. Right, Okay, so we're in nineteen
35:48
Speaker 1: sixty four.
35:49
Speaker 2: Now here we are. Ford makes its debut of the
35:51
Speaker 2: g T forty at Leamont. Millions are tuning in. This
35:56
Speaker 2: is like the battle of the Titans of industry. Like
35:58
Speaker 2: we described at the top of the show, crowds were
36:01
Speaker 2: bigger than they'd ever been. There were three GT forties
36:04
Speaker 2: in the race, and they were by far the lowest cars.
36:07
Speaker 2: It was like a design that was not as common.
36:08
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, these things look like space sally. It's like,
36:13
Speaker 1: are they supposed to be?
36:14
Speaker 2: There?
36:14
Speaker 1: Is this a race? How the heck are these vehicles
36:18
Speaker 1: going to perform against all these tried and true racing
36:22
Speaker 1: teams that perfected art over decades and spoiler alerts. Not well?
36:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, not well, not well at all, including a fiery explosion.
36:31
Speaker 2: Luckily no one was killed, but not a single Ford
36:35
Speaker 2: got anywhere near the finish line.
36:37
Speaker 1: No, not at all. It was for a first swing out.
36:42
Speaker 1: It was pretty disastrous and it proved a lot of
36:47
Speaker 1: the skepticism that racing fans had about Ford entering in
36:52
Speaker 1: for the first time. Everybody was thinking, Ah, there's no way,
36:56
Speaker 1: this is too new. They don't have experience, and this
36:59
Speaker 1: is aerous endeavor.
37:01
Speaker 2: So two Ford two was understandably livid, and he was like,
37:06
Speaker 2: We're going to make whatever changes we have to make
37:08
Speaker 2: to beat that sexy, sexy Italian man.
37:12
Speaker 1: And so those are my words. Notice, well, I think
37:15
Speaker 1: it's a good paraphrase. That quote was based on a
37:17
Speaker 1: true story. So here we go. There's you know, again
37:23
Speaker 1: such anger and vim from Ford two, and he says,
37:28
Speaker 1: you know what, I need more experts. I need more
37:31
Speaker 1: people to help me in my vendetta. So he finds
37:37
Speaker 1: some more folks to help them, and one of them
37:39
Speaker 1: is the legendary Carol Shelby.
37:41
Speaker 2: He is probably the most important other player in this story.
37:44
Speaker 2: Shelby drove in some of the first races in American
37:48
Speaker 2: history in Watkins Glen, New York. There's a story in
37:52
Speaker 2: that he tells himself in the Twenty four Hour War.
37:54
Speaker 2: He says he got his license when he was fourteen
37:56
Speaker 2: and immediately got pulled over by the police for driving
37:59
Speaker 2: his father's thirty four Dodge eighty five miles an hour,
38:02
Speaker 2: which would have been an insane speed for that car,
38:05
Speaker 2: right Ben.
38:06
Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely no, And you can find a pretty interesting
38:11
Speaker 1: argument for this in another book called Go Like hell
38:15
Speaker 1: Ford Ferrari. In their Battle for Speed and Glory at Lamon,
38:19
Speaker 1: when they got Carol Shelby on the team, it was
38:22
Speaker 1: kind of like when the Avengers got thor or something,
38:27
Speaker 1: someone with honest superpowers, and they began working with him.
38:34
Speaker 1: Don Fries still in the mix, as was Leo Biebe,
38:38
Speaker 1: and they said, you know what, Shelby is going to
38:42
Speaker 1: take the lessons from our less than awesome performance and
38:45
Speaker 1: show us how to make this something that isn't dismal.
38:48
Speaker 1: So they handed the program over to Shelby. After a
38:52
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty four Nasau race, they sent the cars directly
38:55
Speaker 1: to Shelby. Like they didn't even wash them, dude, they
38:59
Speaker 1: were still dirty. And they were like, all right, he's in,
39:01
Speaker 1: just send them, now send him send them. Well.
39:03
Speaker 2: Shelby was a really punchy character too. He actually won
39:06
Speaker 2: Lamar as a racer in fifty nine despite having serious
39:09
Speaker 2: health problems. He had a heart condition and is said
39:11
Speaker 2: to have raced with a nitroglycerine tablet under his tongue.
39:15
Speaker 2: And then he went on and actually got support from
39:17
Speaker 2: Ford to build his own after he retired from racing,
39:21
Speaker 2: to build his own sports cars. So he went to
39:23
Speaker 2: Lee Iacocca, who was a big time executive, and pitched
39:27
Speaker 2: him on this idea of making American sports cars a coca.
39:30
Speaker 2: It sounded like he wanted to get rid of him,
39:32
Speaker 2: so he gave him a few engines and some money
39:34
Speaker 2: and said, do your thing. And they made this car
39:37
Speaker 2: called the Cobra, with this team of kind of ragtag
39:40
Speaker 2: team of folks from across all over the place, like
39:43
Speaker 2: he had experts, hot rod experts from all over the world,
39:46
Speaker 2: and it performed. They did well at all of the
39:48
Speaker 2: big races, and they won Lamon in nineteen sixty four
39:52
Speaker 2: with the model of this Cobrad. They called the Daytona
39:55
Speaker 2: Coup because they had made it specifically for Daytona. But
39:58
Speaker 2: that is when Ford was like, Okay, I like this kid.
40:01
Speaker 2: I like the cut of his gym. I like the
40:02
Speaker 2: cut of his bib overalls, which he apparently wore a lot.
40:05
Speaker 1: And a dream team was born. Yes, the dream team
40:09
Speaker 1: was born. And he also had a common villain in
40:16
Speaker 1: Enzo Ferrari because Shelby, you see, also was not a
40:20
Speaker 1: fan of Ferrari, or at least Ferrari hated him because
40:25
Speaker 1: Ferrari had been beaten by Shelby at Lamont in nineteen
40:29
Speaker 1: fifty nine when Shelby was driving for Aston Martin.
40:32
Speaker 2: He tried to recruit him as well to drive for him.
40:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, and Shelby said, nah, again, this is another cantankerous guy.
40:40
Speaker 1: Shelby often complained to Ford that the cars were terribly maintained.
40:44
Speaker 1: Sort of what am I supposed to do with this situation?
40:47
Speaker 1: So in nineteen sixty five they were there at Lamont
40:53
Speaker 1: driving a new version of the GT forty called the
40:56
Speaker 1: Mark two, and they started out doing really well. People thought, hey,
41:02
Speaker 1: this might change the racing game. But again, over that
41:08
Speaker 1: twenty four hour period all of their cars were forced
41:11
Speaker 1: out of the race by mechanical bugs.
41:13
Speaker 2: I think there was even a story where one of
41:14
Speaker 2: the racers had to push his.
41:16
Speaker 1: Car for a few miles.
41:17
Speaker 2: And I think there was even a thing where Ford
41:19
Speaker 2: the last minute insisted they switch out the engines to
41:23
Speaker 2: a newer engine that they had done, and that last
41:25
Speaker 2: minute shuffle kind of screwed them over a little bit.
41:28
Speaker 2: And maybe caused some of those mechanical failure. I think
41:32
Speaker 2: there was an issue of bolts that had expanded and
41:35
Speaker 2: cracked and just caused some problems because of that last
41:37
Speaker 2: minute switch, right.
41:38
Speaker 1: And we should also say nineteen sixty five it's the
41:41
Speaker 1: same year that Ford showed off these gts that they
41:44
Speaker 1: would later use in Lamon, and even the Ford company
41:48
Speaker 1: wasn't able to estimate how much they cost. They like
41:51
Speaker 1: didn't know. Yeah.
41:52
Speaker 2: I saw an article on Thrillists that used the phrase
41:56
Speaker 2: a budget of roughly infinity.
41:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, say which will about Ford to two? He
42:01
Speaker 1: was serious when he was beefed up. So they don't
42:10
Speaker 1: take this punch on the chin lightly. They come back
42:13
Speaker 1: the very next year and they have fixed these various problems.
42:17
Speaker 1: They've taken the lessons learned, and they come back with
42:20
Speaker 1: even better cars. And nineteen sixty six is when everything
42:25
Speaker 1: changes for Ford, Lamal Ferrari and the world.
42:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, because they decided they had to kind of think
42:31
Speaker 2: about the problem differently, and they abandon the smaller engines
42:35
Speaker 2: in favor of what has become termed as big block
42:39
Speaker 2: cars because they needed more horsepower and that was how
42:43
Speaker 2: they would get the edge on the zippy light smaller
42:47
Speaker 2: engined set of thing.
42:48
Speaker 1: Ferraris, Yeah, so they did institute the big block. That's
42:54
Speaker 1: absolutely correct, and they had some experience leading up to
42:59
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty six Lamon because they won the twenty four
43:04
Speaker 1: Hours of Daytona and the twelve Hours of Spring before
43:08
Speaker 1: with this big block Ford that Noel just mentioned. They
43:12
Speaker 1: also sent a lot of cars. They sent eight gto
43:16
Speaker 1: Mark twos with three teams, three teams by Shelby American,
43:21
Speaker 1: three teams by home In and Moody, and two by
43:23
Speaker 1: Alan Mann Racing. So again we're seeing that Ford is
43:27
Speaker 1: pulling in the expertise of these pre existing racing geniuses. Ferrari,
43:33
Speaker 1: in contrast, only sent I think two Ferrari three thirty
43:38
Speaker 1: P three's to compete, and that was sent by them directly.
43:43
Speaker 1: There was an outfit called Nart that entered another P three,
43:45
Speaker 1: and then there were four cars entered by Ferrari's private partners.
43:50
Speaker 1: They were going to have John Surtees racing with them,
43:53
Speaker 1: but surprise he had I'm doing air quotes here, No
43:57
Speaker 1: only he had a falling out with Ferrari. Man. So
44:01
Speaker 1: it sounds like inso got in another argument of some sort.
44:06
Speaker 1: So this race is insane, and behind the scenes, Ford
44:12
Speaker 1: is so certain that they're going to win that they
44:15
Speaker 1: tell two of their drivers that they think are going
44:17
Speaker 1: to be in the front lines. They tell them that
44:20
Speaker 1: they want them to finish at the same time.
44:22
Speaker 2: And that's to drive home the fact that it was
44:25
Speaker 2: the car and not necessarily the drivers that accounted for
44:29
Speaker 2: the victory.
44:30
Speaker 1: Right because drivers, as you can imagine, might have a
44:32
Speaker 1: bit of ego. So they said, yeah, we want to
44:35
Speaker 1: show that it is the superiority of us as manufacturers,
44:40
Speaker 1: not just the individuals behind the wheel.
44:42
Speaker 2: Should we play a clip from that stunning conclusion?
44:45
Speaker 1: Fantastic?
44:46
Speaker 4: And here they come for the finish first place, the
44:51
Speaker 4: number two for GT second place, the number one for
44:55
Speaker 4: GT third place, the number five four GT an authoritative
45:02
Speaker 4: win for the American Challengers.
45:06
Speaker 1: So not only does four take first place in this event,
45:11
Speaker 1: but they also.
45:12
Speaker 2: Take second and third, right, second and third.
45:15
Speaker 1: The number two for g T forty takes first place,
45:20
Speaker 1: the number one takes second place, and the number five
45:23
Speaker 1: takes third place. And this is one of those moments
45:28
Speaker 1: in history where you have to wonder what Enzo Ferrari's
45:31
Speaker 1: face looked like.
45:32
Speaker 2: There's probably a bit of a scowl.
45:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, it probably wasn't a big cheese eating grin.
45:41
Speaker 2: He always looked a little demiere. I wonder if you
45:43
Speaker 2: ever changed his expression much.
45:45
Speaker 1: Yeah. You know, he's a guy who had a lot
45:46
Speaker 1: on his mind, and I know we're dinging him a
45:49
Speaker 1: little bit, but we we want to again highlight that
45:54
Speaker 1: there's not really a bad guy in this story. It's
45:57
Speaker 1: just two people who really hated each other and because
46:02
Speaker 1: of their enmity, because they were so beefed up, they
46:05
Speaker 1: managed to make a beautiful car that changed the world.
46:08
Speaker 2: And in the documentary, Ferrari's son has a pretty chill
46:12
Speaker 2: attitude about the whole thing and has some really nice
46:14
Speaker 2: things to say about Ford and very even hand that
46:17
Speaker 2: with this thinking about this, So then the next year,
46:19
Speaker 2: of course, Ford returns to Lamont and adding insult to injury,
46:25
Speaker 2: wipes the floor with Ferrari yet again, with wins in first, second,
46:29
Speaker 2: and third place once again.
46:30
Speaker 1: Yeah m hmm, yep, absolutely, they mop up once again.
46:35
Speaker 1: And this changes the concept of who can win a
46:41
Speaker 1: race globally. Also, it creates a new model, so the
46:47
Speaker 1: same kind of innovation in terms of assembly and distribution
46:51
Speaker 1: and output that the original Ford Company had building the
46:54
Speaker 1: Model T in the Model A is still going strong
46:58
Speaker 1: in Ford in the sixties here because they have unveiled
47:04
Speaker 1: a new model for manufacturers and the model is providing
47:07
Speaker 1: money and internal research and design while farming out the
47:11
Speaker 1: actual racing to the professionals. This didn't just change the
47:16
Speaker 1: operations at Laman, but also changed the operations in Formula one,
47:20
Speaker 1: NASCAR other world famous racing events. And additionally, this is
47:25
Speaker 1: something that stayed with Ford as a manufacturer because in
47:29
Speaker 1: two thousand and sixteen, to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary, they
47:35
Speaker 1: attempted to execute the same sort of coup and they
47:38
Speaker 1: more or less did they more or lested they didn't win.
47:42
Speaker 1: Porsche won that year, and Porsche has been dominating a
47:47
Speaker 1: lot of lamon so they didn't win, but they did
47:50
Speaker 1: come back and they tried to take some of the
47:55
Speaker 1: innovations that they have in their street level cars and
47:58
Speaker 1: make a racing car out of them. So the he's
48:00
Speaker 1: an eco boost engine, which was a little bit smaller too,
48:04
Speaker 1: and well, you know.
48:06
Speaker 2: Well, and I would say the takeaway here for me
48:09
Speaker 2: is that Ford was kind of a big, fat baby, honestly,
48:14
Speaker 2: you know, because Ferrari was doing Lamon since the beginning
48:18
Speaker 2: and continue doing it in that fifty year span where
48:22
Speaker 2: Ford was not, and they only came back to kind
48:26
Speaker 2: of thumb their nose at their old rivals again. So
48:30
Speaker 2: it was like, you know, Ford two wanted to make
48:33
Speaker 2: a point and he did it, and then he was
48:35
Speaker 2: kind of I'm out.
48:36
Speaker 1: So I don't know.
48:37
Speaker 2: I would argue, it's a little childish.
48:39
Speaker 1: He's just not the kind of guy I would want
48:41
Speaker 1: to play Monopoly or cards with, you know what I mean.
48:44
Speaker 1: I think we have a Rukasolt kind of figure. He
48:46
Speaker 1: could take Uno real hard. But this concludes one of
48:51
Speaker 1: the one of the most ridiculous stories of pettiness and
48:55
Speaker 1: spitefulness in racing. And I would argue that it has
48:57
Speaker 1: a happy ending because the Ford GT is a beautiful vehicle.
49:01
Speaker 2: Cool car, cool car, cool car, and Ferraris are still
49:04
Speaker 2: too expensive for anyone to o't right.
49:07
Speaker 1: Right, we do have someone in our building who owns
49:09
Speaker 1: a Ferrari. I used to sneak up and look at it.
49:12
Speaker 1: Quick story. I was on an emotional roller coaster NOL.
49:16
Speaker 1: I couldn't decide if I liked the guy because one
49:18
Speaker 1: time I went up there and he was double parked
49:21
Speaker 1: in a parking spot. Nope, And I thought, I get it, man,
49:24
Speaker 1: that don't you know, don't don't buy the car. So
49:27
Speaker 1: I did some investigation and Scott car Stuff co host
49:32
Speaker 1: did some as well. And it turns out the guy's
49:34
Speaker 1: paying for both parking spots, so he's an ethical double parker.
49:37
Speaker 2: Oh oh my gosh, we've got a double happy ending here.
49:40
Speaker 1: We did. We did.
49:42
Speaker 2: Let us know your.
49:43
Speaker 1: Position on double parking.
49:45
Speaker 2: Let us know if there are any particular car brands
49:48
Speaker 2: that when you see them on the road, you immediately
49:50
Speaker 2: despise the owner. Ben, I believe for you that is
49:52
Speaker 2: the Odyssey, the Honda Odyssey, right, that still whole true.
49:55
Speaker 1: Well, the thing about Honda Odyssey is, I think when
49:58
Speaker 1: you buy it, the dealers give you a discount if
50:02
Speaker 1: you agree to have a sensor install that makes your
50:05
Speaker 1: car go twenty miles an hour whenever I'm in traffic
50:08
Speaker 1: with it.
50:09
Speaker 2: Yep, yeah, that's probably true.
50:12
Speaker 3: Let us ridiculous at HowStuffWorks dot com, social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter,
50:17
Speaker 3: ridiculous history blasting through these because this was a long one,
50:20
Speaker 3: but thanks to super producer Casey.
50:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, thanks to Alex Williams who composed the track. Thanks
50:27
Speaker 1: to entry Ford, to an Enzo Ferrari, and most importantly,
50:31
Speaker 1: thanks to you, folks, and we hope you join us
50:34
Speaker 1: next time when Nol and I are using our world
50:38
Speaker 1: famous time machine to travel to the wild West.
50:43
Speaker 2: Get along, little doggies. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
51:04
Speaker 2: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
51:07
Speaker 2: your favorite shows.