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Did Walt Hansgen, killed testing a Ford prototype, get any mention in the movie? It's shocking to me to look back at that era and see how many were killed in testing/racing incidents.
I don't recall it being mentioned but since the movie I have watched a few really great Ford VS Ferrari documentarys on You Tube and learned of his death watching one of these. They said he refused to slow it down during his practice in the rain at Le Mans.
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Originally Posted by JBtwinz
I don't recall it being mentioned but since the movie I have watched a few really great Ford VS Ferrari documentarys on You Tube and learned of his death watching one of these. They said he refused to slow it down during his practice in the rain at Le Mans.
I was young and grew up not far from his hometown in NJ so he became a local hero to me. I'd been to a number of local bullrings but my interest in international racing ramped up when Phil Hill was chasing the title in '61. That era taught one real quick how cruel racing could be. Hansgen, Miles, Bandini, Clark and others who've slipped my aging memory all killed and the career ending crash of Stirling Moss were all losses to the sport. Some of the crashes drivers walk away from today really amaze me now.
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Le Mans rules hold that in the event of a dead heat finish, the car that drove the furthest distance is the official winner regardless of overall standings in the race. And since the Ford car driven by New Zealander Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon started the race eight meters (roughly 60 feet) behind Miles (who was in the pole position), Miles is declared the second place driver.
British driver Graham Hill later became the only driver ever to win the triple crown of motorsport, however he was sadly killed aged 46 years old, when the plane he was pilotiong crashed in fog at night on Arkley golf course while attempting to land at Elstree Airfield in north London in 1975, in all six people died on board the arcraft. Graham Hill's son Damon Hill would later go on to win the 1996 Formula One World Championship and won numerous ther races and awards.
In reality Ken Miles should have won the triple crown before Graham Hill did, but a techicality stated by Le Mans denied him.
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As for New Zealander Bruce McLaren being awarded the win, Bruce himself died a few years later in 1970 aged 32, however he left a legacy in terms of the McLaren racing team, he set up in 1963 and which is now a vast technology and automotive company. In many ways Bruce winning was also something to celebrate, and although Ken Miles lost on a technicality, if you are going to lose on a technicality at least lose to a great driver and man like Bruce McLaren.
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The best British driver at the time wasn't actually Ken Miles or Graham Hill, it was the son of a Scottish sheep farmer called Jim Clark. Juan Manuel Fangio called Jim Clarke the best ever, whilst Ayrton Senna went as far as visting Clark's home town in Scotland to pay tribute to Jim, as he was one of Senna's all time heroes.
Clark was tragically killed in 1968, and his good friend and fellow Scottish racing driver Jackie Stewart campaigned tirelessly to improve safety in the sport following Clark's death.
As for Graham Hill, his charm, wit, warmth, good humour and personality, coupled with his abilities as a racing driver saw him widely adored within the racing community and by motor racing fans and the general public.
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Another dynamic that went in Fords favour in 1966, was the dropping of John Surtees in the Le Mans race by Ferrari, a legendrrey driver who was one of the few to win on two wheels and four wheels.
I finally saw this movie and as a lifelong motor racing fan, I was somewhat disappointed. It is definitely a somewhat hokey Hollywood movie intended for a general audience.
The racing sequences are unrealistic. Things such as drivers talking to each other while side by side on the straights were ridiculous. (When they finally got to LeMans, because they were in enclosed cars, they just stared at each other.)
Some of the scenes in the pits at LeMans were laughable.
An alternate movie title might have been “Ford (the bureaucratic behemoth) v Shelby.” I wondered, after watching the movie, could Ford really have been as obstructionist as portrayed? After doing a little research I decided, definitely not.
Here is what Ford through their racing division actually did:
They went to England and hired Eric Broadly to designer and build the first cars. (They were not designed by Shelby.) He based them on his design for the Lola Mk6 GT:*https://s1.cdn.autoevolution.com/ima...ry-83394_1.jpg
They did all of the wind tunnel work and engine development, including extensive durability testing on sophisticated dynamometer equipment.
They set up a small but well-funded subsidiary, Kar-Kraft, to develop many parts such as transmissions and other mechanical parts, continue the design of the car, assemble it, and do many other things. Kar-Kraft adapted the final engine choice, the big stock car based engine, to the chassis.
They gave cars to Shelby AND Holman-Moody AND Allan-Mann Racing (England) for on-track testing and development. Holman-Moody, of stock care fame, was barely mentioned in the movie and Allan Mann never was. The quick-change brakes (they showed it as an entire suspension change in the movie) were a Holman-Moody development. Ford coordinated the best efforts of these three so the resulting cars were the same. All three teams raced them.
It doesn't seem that Ford hindered the effort in any way. The coordinated the whole thing. They were the ones who made it happen.
As for Graham Hill, his charm, wit, warmth, good humour and personality, coupled with his abilities as a racing driver saw him widely adored within the racing community and by motor racing fans and the general public.
I'm a baseball fan. I think of Graham Hill as being the Brooks Robinson of motor sports.
The "Ford Vs. Ferrari" movie was OK. Not particularly realistic, but OK for a couple of hours of entertainment.
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