Sunday, April 10, 2016

Ford GT40, America's Ultimate Automotive Sex Bomb


These are said to be the racing colors for the GT40, known officially as Ford GT, but these are not the colors of the cars which finished 1-2-3 at Le Mans in 1966.  The winning car was black from end to end and, I believe, one of the pilots was Dan Gurney and the average speed for the race was 130 mph ... for 24 hours continuously ... smokin'.

We dare say there isn't any American racing vehicle which has achieved the international success of this one nor has any had anywhere close to this kind of style.  The car is powered by a 7.0-liter / 427 c.i V8 and the results show you it wasn't any kind of a slouch.


(Ed:  is this an apology for all the politics?)

Nope, it's Lotho's birthday.

He mentioned potential yesterday and he's onto a big number today, one of those numbers you never really believe you will see and yet here it stands.  For big numbers like that, words like potential start banging but another way to describe potential is someone else's dream for you.  When you hit the big numbers, eventually you decide that potential was crap from the start and I will define my own dreams, thank you very much.  Whether you live those dreams matters a lot but whether you live potential dreams doesn't matter at all.


The GT40 is likely the best compromise those Fraser boys could make when it's time to pick the single coolest, high-performance American car.  Ford Mustangs are all the rage but if you ask 'who's yer daddy' then the Mustang will have to answer it's the GT40.  You can see the current Mustang vaguely in the front end of this car and this is from fifty years ago.


Unknown if your birthday can be as cool as a ride in a GT40 (i.e. driving it) but hopefully it has whatever kind of coolness you want and it looked like it had a grand start on that yesterday.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am sure Doc would correct you as one of his favorite drivers Btuce McClaren drove on the winning team. I dont believe Gurney drove for Ford at the time

Anonymous said...

The lead car in the team is painted this way as were successive trips to LeMans
GT returns to LeMans this year

Anonymous said...

I was wrong Gurney had not yet started the Screaming Eagle team and drove the 4th GT 40 but did not finish

Unknown said...

Whoops, my error. You're right about McClaren in 1966 ... but ... Dan Gurney and AJ Foyt took the win for that team in 1967. The 1-2-3 finish shows a black one going over the line first and #2 has paint similar to this one but not the same and #3 was tough to tell. Maybe it was 1-2-3 in '67 as well??

Geez, this is sounding a bit like baseball cards, isn't it. So ... how many home runs did Willie Mays get in 1967?? (larfs)

Unknown said...

Just verified. Nope, it was not 1-2-3 in '67 because Ferrari was after Gurney/Foyt.

Anonymous said...

You misread my comments on potential. I am happy with most of my decisions. I surely did not live up to my potential but that is fine. I base my life on lives poitively impacted in relation to those adversely impacted.
I quit counting Bdays as events. So those ending in a zero are not very intetesting. But my mile markers are events births deaths retirement trips etc

Unknown said...

With retirement trips a particularly big score!

Dunno about potential as with this IQ I should do 'x' but I have no algebra for that and I really don't believe it exists. I don't think there's anything more to self-actualizing than reaching to all your strengths and understanding what they are as much as you can, being all you are, in whatever way that is. You're not capable of idling, none of us are, and all of us push everything we have got to do what we are doing. You listed your measures of success and any others don't matter because they would not work for you and still do what you did.

Anonymous said...

Wow you have me wrong. I have been idling my entire life.
What did he say
I couda been a contender

Anonymous said...

Wow you have me wrong. I have been idling my entire life.
What did he say
I couda been a contender
I even idle at Theme Parks.
Today we arrived at 9, 3 1/2 hours later we have ridden one ride. And climb on the nets. It is time to relax and eat lunch.
The over/under bet on rides today is 6.

Unknown said...

What's a contenda?? I shoulda gone to L.A. with Ophir?? Yep, I probably should but I didn't. For whatever reason, that wasn't Fate. I have various reasons why I should or should not but they don't really matter much. Living it matters, whatever it is.

Geez, how aggressive do you need to be in a theme park! (larfs) I am going to ride EVERY ride or the trip was a failure. Nah, I wouldn't say there is any OCD in that. No way.

Anonymous said...

Marlon Brandon.
We cruise in ride a few, stroll a while, eat some
I have enough stress in my life so I quit adding it on trips. We make the plane leaving and coming back otherwise no schedules anymore

Unknown said...

Yah, everything else has a schedule and that's the last thing I want when I'm screwing off!

Anonymous said...

No schedules. Number of rides today 2 she decided swimming instead

Unknown said...

Yah, that's how you do it. Sounds perfecto!