Ford v Ferrari - update

I've just found myself having to explain the movie Ford v Ferrari to someone who recently saw it on a long haul flight. The movie clearly fails in many respects as the person I spoke to had missed several key elements.

They had no idea that New Zealanders played a major part in the events depicted. New Zealand drivers won the race, and a New Zealander was one of the two drivers that came second. The person viewing the movie for the first time completely missed this and did not notice that the Bruce McLaren car was painted black and had a silver fern on the side with the letters NZ clearly displayed. 

I blogged about the movie when it came out, you can see my comments at that time here: https://kenhorlor.blogspot.com/2019/11/ford-v-ferrari-2019-movie.html

Adding to what I said in 2019, some points can be made:

1. Bruce Miles was not asked to lose the race. He was running second, but on the track he was in front of the first placed car. If the GT40's crossed the finish line as they were on the track, the photo of the cars crossing the line would be 2-1-3. They're all Fords but out of sequence. Not enough time was left for Miles to race ahead and challenge McLaren for first, so if he did that the photo would be Ford 1-3. This presents a problem, so Miles was asked to let the McLaren Ford come through to make the photo 1-2-3. 

Here's that famous photo:

Ford GT40 1966 1-2-3 Finish

2. The winning GT40 was completely rebuilt by McLaren. He asked that a GT40 be delivered to him and then he stripped it and put it back together in its winning format. This is never mentioned in the movie, we are led to believe that Carroll Shelby supplied the winning car to Bruce McLaren. Not so, Ford made the car, Shelby helped design it, but the race configuration was all McLaren - as you'd expect.

I feel my early criticism is justified as the movie has failed to age well. Yes, I get that it's about the conflict of personalities between Miles and Shelby, then Henry Ford II and Enzo Ferrari. But leaving out more about the great Bruce McLaren misses the mark as his setup and driving won the race and made Henry Ford II's vengeance real. 

Ford v Ferrari (2019 movie) - 3 stars

I am going to see the movie out now, Ford v Ferrari tells the story of the 1966 24hrs of Le Mans, where the Ford GT40 defeated Ferrari. It was a great moment in motorsport and a great get-even by Henry Ford II.

I'm not expecting it to be accurate however. I notice from the list of historical figures that the only New Zealander listed is Bruce McLaren. Yes, the McLaren of racing car fame. He won the race driving a GT40 along with Chris Amon, another Kiwi. Instead the movie stars well-known actors playing Carroll Shelby and Bruce Miles. Shelby led the design of the cars while Miles was a driver. Miles was second in the race, partnering Denny Hulme, another Kiwi. The following year Hulme became F1 drivers' champion (Brabham).

Do you see where I'm going with this. Kiwis are being removed from history again. For the record, Henry Ford II gave the Kiwis credit for the win, see the below photo from the winners podium:

Henry Ford II with Bruce McLaren (left) and Chris Amon (right), winners of the 1966 Le Mans

That's 1966, Henry Ford II, Bruce McLaren on the left holding his helmet, Chris Amon on the right wearing the jacket. Interestingly, Amon went on to be a works driver for Ferrari. McLaren started a racing car pedigree still around today, with eight F1 Constructors Championships to date.

Review (3 out of 5 stars): Turns out to be okay, as far as it goes. It's principally about Carroll Shelby and Ken Miles, and to a lesser extent about Henry Ford II. I don't think it does any of them justice. In reality Shelby was more of a businessman, Miles more of a professional driver and less of the cowboy loose cannon, and Henry Ford II not the type to be easily manipulated.

The Kiwis barely get a mention. But the McLaren GT40 is pictured toward the end of the movie in its black livery, with the silver fern and letters NZ emblazoned on the side. At the end of the movie they show how McLaren/Amon were awarded the win, but what they don't mention is that the Shelby Pits believed Miles to be a lap up on the McLaren GT40. Boy, did they get that wrong. McLaren was on the same lap and as he'd started farther back on the grid he was awarded the win, he'd covered the greater distance. And for the record, McLaren crossed the finish line in first. The movie has the finishing order the other way around, a complete fabrication of the facts. If Shelby had known what lap they were on I'm sure he wouldn't have agreed on a 1 2 3 line up crossing the finish line with his driver in second (I mean c'mon).

Where does the movie go wrong? Two main ways I believe. The film shows the 1960's to be far too clean. Back then everything was dusty, oily, noisy, fenders were dented, cars lacked the bright colours you see today (they lacked the rutile additive to paints - everything was more muted in tone). The second is with the racing segments, the producers slipped up badly there. Le Mans is raced across several classes, with amateurs taking part. Through the night the fast cars have to negotiate their way past much slower cars, such as Porsche 911's. Ford v Ferrari shows none of this, unlike movies such as Le Mans starring Steve McQueen. With the latter movie you can feel the vibration, smell the burnt rubber, oil, fuel, the conditions are real.

Ford v Ferrari is enjoyable in parts, it gives some idea of what the times were like, but it is sanitised, clean-cut, respectable, less dusty, less risky. Bear in mind, drivers regularly died, not just every season, every race would see a serious injury or death. They were real gladiators.

I have a more recent post about this movie here: https://kenhorlor.blogspot.com/2023/04/ford-v-ferrari-update.html