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Photo Courtesy Andrew Casselberry
It took five years, but this car, one of the original 1966 GT40 Me Mans racers, has finally been restored to its former glory. This car, which originally wore #4, was a Mark IIa machine that started the race but didn’t actually finish the event. It was painted over to look like one of the winners and was shown until 1968 before being donated to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame, where it remained until 2006.
But the story isn’t just “we dropped it off to this shop and signed a check” – not at all. In fact, the racer was handed over in 2006 by the Henry Ford Museum to retired Ford Engineer Mose Nowland, retired Illustrations Designer Paul Osborne, and current Engineers Jim Dunham and Adam Christian to bring this priceless machine back to its former glory.
Left - The team built a jig to support the engine and transmission combination while it was worked on externally. Left Middle - Each piece on the car had to be removed one-by-one until the whole car was in ziploc bags - crucial to preserving all of the original fasteners. Right Middle - The car with most of the body panels removed. It was taken to the Ford GT assembly line for dipping, acid-etching, and repainting. Right - An original specification book from the SAE on the Mark II's ignition system. Cool stuff! Restoration Shop Photos Courtesy Ken Schabow
The up-and-over header design was necessary to fit the monster dry-sump 427 side-oiler between the framerails.
The car was transported to Dunham’s shop in Michigan, and ever since, the four men, along with a number of other Ford engineers they recruited to help with the process, have spent their own time and energy to perform the restoration. Nowland, as one of the original engineers who made the trip to France back in 1966 to tune the GT40’s for the Le Mans race, was intimately familiar with the car and the entire GT40 program. Initially the restoration process was only slated to take six months, but after tearing the car down the team found much more decay than initially thought. The car was stripped piece by piece, with each part removed carefully catalogued, photographed, and documented, to aid in the reconstruction process.
The engine was also not accurate, but Nowland had the ability to return it to its former glory as it was all he worked on when he originally joined FoMoCo. Even more amazingly, Nowland still had an original build sheet for the side-oiler 427 engine and was able to use that during the reconstruction process. There are many more details about the rebuilding process on the Ford Racing website, so check it out if you’re interested.
