....was at the Nurburgring in 1964. Phil Hill and Bruce McLaren were a DNF, but Ford would continue trying until the first victory at Daytona in 1965.
It certainly was an ignominious start at Nurburgring in 1964 with the car only lasting 16 laps with all types of sorting issues. Ultimately, it did with persistence lead to 'America's' only victories at Le Mans starting in 1966 and lasting 4 years.
Here is the Spark #9 Ford GT40 as driven by Jo Schlesser in the 1964 Le Mans 24 Hours test. This is an accurate model. My first purchase, a John Day white metal kit was quite crude.
Is this the start of a nice discussion on the original GT40s and their successes?
I was really struck with the quality of these current models. Back in about 1974, I picked up an early C Scale Kit, number 003, made by pioneer white metal model developer John Day.
This was of a 1965 Ford GT40. The model was labelled Ford 427 MK 2, Le Mans 1965. It was the Phil Hill, Chris Amon car entered by Shelby.
Here is the model in all its crude glory. Yes, it is still on display.
I'm not one of those collectors who pulls out a vermeer caliper to take the measurements of the scale model and do the math from the 1:1 dimensions to see if it is to scale. The front end of that John Day model looks way out of whack if you ask me.
