Fifty years after breaking Ferrari six-year stranglehold on Le Mans, Ford is putting that victory back on the road with a heritage-liveried GT. This gloss red, red-stitched special edition ties back to one of the greatest underdog wins in racing history. See how Ford turned a decades-old Le Mans triumph into a modern tribute.
The zenith of that era occurred in 1967 when Ford‘s GT beat Ferrari NVÂ at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Now 50 years later, Ford is introducing a special edition GT that should look familiar to racing fans who know its history.
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The car features a gloss finish race red exterior and leather trimming with red accent stitching on the interior.
Fifty years is a long time to wait to say I told you so, but that is basically what Ford did with this one. Back in the 1960s, Ferrari dominated the 24 Hours of Le Mans for six years straight, until an American manufacturer showed up and ended the streak in the most emphatic way possible. Now Ford is bringing that story back with a special edition that wears the same racing colors as the cars that made history. This is not just a paint scheme. It is a callback to one of the greatest underdog stories in racing.
The Win That Started It All
Ford built the GT40 specifically to dethrone Ferrari, who had owned Le Mans for six straight years by 1965. In 1966, three 427-powered Mk.II GT40s crossed the finish line together, breaking Ferrari streak and making Ford the first American manufacturer to win a major European road race since Jimmy Murphy Duesenberg back in 1921. Ford was not done. In 1967 the Mk.IV took the win again, and this time it was the only car in Le Mans history built entirely in the United States, chassis and engine both, to take overall victory.
How Ford Brought the Story Back
Ford has rolled out several Heritage Edition liveries across the modern GT production run, from a tribute to the original 1964 prototype to a black-and-silver package honoring the 1966 win. A gloss race red exterior with red-stitched leather inside reads like a nod to the red-and-white GT40 Mk.IV that closed out the job at Le Mans in 1967. Whichever year it is paying tribute to, wrapping a brand new GT in genuine racing colors ties the car directly back to the track where Ford actually earned the bragging rights.
A Modern Supercar Built to Honor an Old Legend
The second-generation Ford GT that carries these heritage liveries is nothing like the raw, purpose-built GT40 racers that actually won at Le Mans. It is a carbon-fiber, twin-turbo V6 supercar built in extremely limited numbers, with Ford handpicking buyers rather than simply selling to whoever showed up with a checkbook. That exclusivity only adds weight to a heritage-liveried example. It is not just a tribute color, it is one of a very small number of modern GTs built specifically to keep the Le Mans story alive for a new generation of enthusiasts.
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