FORD AND PETERSEN MUSEUM TEAM UP TO REVEAL TEAMS NEW SPECIAL EDITION FORD GT AND STUDIO COLLECTION GRAPHICS PACKAGE
DEARBORN, Mich., August 14, 2020 – Ford Motor Company unveils the 2021 Ford GT in partnership with Peterson Automotive Museum’s Car Week, marking two new variants of the Ford GT supercar – including a special edition celebrating its first honors endurance racing roots.
Visit the Petersen Museum’s YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/PetersenMuseum to see the revelation of the latest iteration of Ford Performance of the iconic Ford GT Sunday at 11:30 a.m. EDT .
The Ford GT revelation marks the last day of Petersen Car Week, which began airing on the Petersen Museum’s YouTube channel on Wednesday. Highlights include several virtual events featuring 25 hours of original content from manufacturers and enthusiasts, plus activities for motorboats and motorboats.
Birth of the Ford GT
On May 22, 1963, a low-rated newswire release was issued, noting, “Ford Motor Company and Ferrari want to state, citing recent reports of their negotiations on a possible collaboration that such negotiations are intermittent.”
The share of negotiations between the companies was over, but Ford’s desire to become a player in performance motorsport remained strong. A month later, Ford formed the High Performance and Special Models Operating Unit with the mission to “design and build a racing GT car that has the potential to compete successfully in major road races such as Sebring and Le Mans. ” The resulting work of the unit, the GT Program Book, circulated internally on June 12, 1963, and contained the initial design concepts for the GT40.
It would take three years before the Ford Performance team and Shelby Automotive could pursue the goal of Henry Ford II to beat Ferrari at Le Mans. Those three years were full will work hard and more than a few failures. As work progressed toward perfecting the car, the 1966 24-hour endurance race at Daytona would prove to be the outgoing party for the GT40 Mark II, a car that would go on to become an endurance racing legend – and will be celebrated in the 2021 model year.
