{"id":461227,"date":"2007-07-01T19:00:58","date_gmt":"2007-07-02T02:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportscardigest.com\/\/?p=63160"},"modified":"2025-01-06T00:24:19","modified_gmt":"2025-01-06T00:24:19","slug":"le-mans-66","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/le-mans-66\/","title":{"rendered":"14 Hours of Le Mans (1966)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='memberful-global-teaser-content'>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In April 1964, a new Gran Turismo racer 40-inches high rolled out of the Ford Advanced Vehicles factory in Slough, England, and in an inspired moment, Ford decided to call it the GT40.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">This whole project had been brought about by Ford\u2019s failure to buy Ferrari in 1963, so it was decided that if the world-famous family car manufacturer was to succeed in sports car racing, it would have to build its own \u201cFerrari beater.\u201d To help them achieve this, Ford enlisted Eric Broadley, an engineer and the founder of Lola cars, who had already built and raced his own Ford-engined GT car, which would be the basis for the first GT40. Ford Advanced Vehicles was set up in 1963 with Eric in charge of design and John Wyer, formerly of Aston Martin, running the whole team. In 1964 the GT40s entered for only two events, the N\u00fcrburgring 1000km and Le Mans; in both races the cars failed to finish. So Enzo and his team were not too worried, but the signs of future success were there: the GT40s were fast if not yet reliable.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<style>\n        .memberful-global-teaser-content > :last-child{\n            -webkit-mask-image: linear-gradient(180deg, #000 0%, transparent);\n            mask-image: linear-gradient(180deg, #000 0%, transparent);\n        }\n    <\/style>\n<div class='memberful-global-marketing-content'>\n<div class=\"cs-paywall\">\n<div class=\"cs-paywall__card\">\n<div class=\"cs-paywall__top\"><span class=\"cs-paywall__label\">Members only<\/span><span class=\"cs-paywall__price\">$29 <em>\/ year<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"cs-paywall__title\">Keep going. <span>This is where it gets good.<\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"cs-paywall__lead\">Supercars.net Membership is for people who&#x27;d rather know the spec sheet by heart than skim ten headlines. 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Cancel anytime, no hoops.<br \/>Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/?memberful_endpoint=auth\">Sign in<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"cs-paywall__trust\"><strong>BY CAR PEOPLE, NOT A NAMELESS MEDIA COMPANY.<\/strong> Your membership keeps a small independent team that celebrates the brands and cars that defined this industry doing this.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"cs-paywall__sticky\" href=\"https:\/\/supercars.memberful.com\/checkout?plan=86696\">Join &mdash; Keep Reading <em>$29\/yr<\/em><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In April 1964, a new Gran Turismo racer 40-inches high rolled out of the Ford Advanced Vehicles factory in Slough, England, and in an inspired moment, Ford decided to call it the GT40. This whole project had been brought about by Ford\u2019s failure to buy Ferrari in 1963, so it was decided that if the world-famous family car manufacturer was to succeed in sports car racing, it would have to build its own \u201cFerrari beater.\u201d To help them achieve this, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":193,"featured_media":638576,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263,3766,11272,261,16918,18207],"tags":[2727,16861,11351,17140,1148,17225,17143],"class_list":["post-461227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-car-culture","category-history","category-members-only","category-motorsport-racing","category-races","category-special-feature","tag-1960s","tag-1960s-races","tag-motorsport-history","tag-members-only","tag-24-hours-of-le-mans","tag-race-recap","tag-special-feature"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>14 Hours of Le Mans (1966)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Photographer Roger Dixon looks back at his first visit to Le Sarthe and shares his vision of Ford\u2019s historic victory.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/le-mans-66\/\" \/>\n<link rel=\"next\" href=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/le-mans-66\/2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"14 Hours of Le Mans (1966)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Photographer Roger Dixon looks back at his first visit to Le Sarthe and shares his vision of Ford\u2019s historic victory.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/le-mans-66\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Supercars.net\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Supercars.net\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/rdcmphotojournalist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-07-02T02:00:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-01-06T00:24:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/FEA200707-p2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"664\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Roger Dixon\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@supercars_net\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@supercars_net\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Roger Dixon\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"19 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/le-mans-66\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/le-mans-66\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Roger Dixon\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/80db40cfc11045b32bf2d556ba11af43\"},\"headline\":\"14 Hours of Le Mans (1966)\",\"datePublished\":\"2007-07-02T02:00:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-01-06T00:24:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/le-mans-66\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":3469,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/le-mans-66\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2007\\\/07\\\/FEA200707-p2.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"1960s All\",\"1960s Races\",\"History (Motorsports &amp; 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