With their third pick, Team Barnes selects in the
Race Car Category The GT40 Mk-II.
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Ford GT40 was a high performance
sports car and winner of the
24 hours of Le Mans four times in a row, from 1966 to 1969 (in 1967 with a different body, though). It was built to win long-distance
sports car races against
Ferrari (who won at
Le Mans six times in a row from 1960 to 1965). The GT40 GT-40P 1075 was the first car to win at Le Mans twice (in 1968 and 1969). That car used the Gurney
Weslake engine with the special alloy heads made by Weslake. The car was named the
GT (for
Grand Tourisme) with the
40 representing its overall height of 40 inches (1.02 m, measured at the windshield) as required by the rules. Large displacement Ford V8 engines (4.7 L and 7 L) were used, compared with the Ferrari V12 which displaced 3.0 L or 4.0 L.
Early cars were simply named "Ford GT". The name "GT40" was the name of Ford's project to prepare the cars for the international endurance racing circuit, and the quest to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The first 12 "prototype" vehicles carried serial numbers GT-101 through GT-112. The "production" began and the subsequent cars, the MkI, MkIIs, MkIIIs, and MkIVs, numbered GT40-P-1000 through GT40-P-1145, were officially "GT40s". The name of Ford's project, and the serial numbers dispel the story that "GT40" was "only a nickname."
