GT40 Mirage : The 1965 season

After the previous season's disaster, Roy Lunn contracted Carol Shelby to handle the racing department while John Wyer was in charge of the building of the GT40 at FAV (Ford Advanced Vehicles) at Slough in the UK. In Detroit, Ford created his own racing department : Kar Kraft. Eric Broadley, unhappy with the way the program evolved decided to leave and returned to work on his own Lola cars. After some testing in Riverside the GT40 evolved significantly. Two cars were sent to Daytona for the 2000 km race. Now in Shelby colors (metallic blue with white stripes) they finally found success. GT103 won the race and GT104 finished 2nd. The same cars went to Sebring for the 12 hours and GT103 finished 2nd behind the controversal Chaparral while GT104 didn't finish. These 2 long races were good preparation for the 24 hours of Le Mans. The traditional April trial saw 4 cars: GT 103/4/5 and a new roadster GT111. The results were encouraging. Then came Monza (a 3rd place) the Targa Florio (a DNF with GT111) Silverstone (a 5th place with 1002 the 1st production car to race) the Nurburgring (an 8th place and 3 DNF) and again with 1002 two second places at Mallory Park and Goodwood.
For a few months, at Shelby initiative two cars (GT106 and 107) were prepared with a big block 427 CI instead of the 289. They became the first Mk 2. The idea was simple, a bigger engine means more power and more power is more speed. A new transmission was designed by Kar Kraft to handle this extra power. They were sent to Le Mans with little testing. 4 other GT40, now refered as MK1, joins the group:
No 1 - Mk 2 - Chassis 106 Team: Shelby
No 2 - Mk 2 - Chassis 107 Team: Shelby
No14 - Mk 1 - Chassis 1006 Team: FAV ( J. Wyer)
No 7 - Mk 1 - Chassis 1004 Team: Shelby / Rob Walker
No 6 - Mk 1 - Chassis 1005 Team: Shelby / Scuderia Filipinetti
No15 - Mk 1 - Chassis 109 roadster Team: Ford France
All these cars were out of the race within the first 7 hours
Only privateers raced the GT40 the rest of the season while Shelby (with the Mk2) and FAV (with the Mk1) went on with more testing.
Another project was started that year : a lightweight alloy chassis roadster, known as the X1. the chassis GT110 was sent to Mc Laren Racing in England to be prepared for the Can Am serie. It raced at Mosport in Canada and at Riverside with no success. The project was abandoned.

The models :