It was to Roy Lunn that then CEO Henry Ford, II entrusted the management of the GT40 program when he decided to go after Ferrari at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1963. This after Enzo Ferrari turned up his nose at the American manufacturer's buyout offer of the Italian's company. At the time Lunn was head of Ford's Advanced Vehicle service in the U.S. after having started as an engineer in the U.K., but he also had experience in the development of a race car: as an assistant chief designer for Aston Martin between 1947 and 1949, he created the DB2 (DB MkII) of which three models took the start at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1949 (one finished seventh, another was forced to retire and the third unfortunately had an incident at the Maison Blanche culminating in the death of Pierre Maréchal).

As time was of the essence and the capability of designing a car capable of winnig at Le Mans were to be found in Great Britain, Lunn found his solution in the form of the Lola Mk6 GT chassis, utilized as a development car for the future Ford GT40 (40 being the height of the car in inches), the first of which wase fabricated at Slough, Great Britain under the supervision of John Wyer. Regretfully, that wasn't enough and the American car's first appearance at Le Mans, for the preliminary sessions of 1964, ended in utter failure with two incidents. All while proving fast in the race, the Ford GT40s were forced to retire following gearbox problems, and 1965 was no better with no GT40s still in the race after seven hours!

Redemption came in 1966 with a historic one-two-three for Ford at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. That triumph was followed by three wins in a row before the American marque decided to withdraw as an official outfit in 1967 following a change in the regulations pertaining to the engine, and left the honour of scoring two additional wins to John Wyer's outfit in 1968 and 1969, the year Lunn left to join Jeep as Technical Director in 1971. He led up the Jeep XJ Cherokee, the new series all-terrain vehicle and worldwide success.

This past December, a ceremony was organized in Sarasota, Florida to pay tribute to Roy Lunn, now 91 years young. In July, the Brit, nicknamed the "godfather of the Ford GT40," was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in the U.S.

Translation by Nikki Ehrhardt / ACO

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Photo (copyright: Martyn L. Schorr): Roy Lunn and John Wyer stand next to the Ford GT40.