The 1968 Ford GT40 Mark IV: The Race Ford Had to Win
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Quick Takeaways
- The Ford GT40 program was born out of a failed attempt to buy Ferrari — and became one of motorsport's greatest rivalries.
- The Mark IV was an all-American evolution: designed, engineered, and built entirely in the United States.
- At Le Mans in 1967, the Mark IV delivered Ford its second consecutive overall victory, with a 1-2-3 finish that remains one of the most dominant performances in the race's history.
- Only seven Mark IVs were ever built, making it one of the rarest American race cars of the 1960s.
How a Failed Acquisition Became a Racing Legend
In 1963, Henry Ford II attempted to purchase Ferrari. Enzo Ferrari agreed to negotiate, then walked away at the last moment — reportedly unwilling to relinquish control of his racing program. Ford was furious. What followed was one of the most expensive acts of corporate revenge in automotive history.
Ford threw its considerable resources at building a car that could beat Ferrari at Le Mans, the race that mattered most to Enzo. The first GT40s were built with help from Lola and raced in 1964, failing to finish. By 1966, a refined version of the car had won Le Mans outright. In 1967, the Mark IV — a ground-up American design developed by Kar Kraft in Michigan — won again, running a 7.0-liter V8 that produced over 500 horsepower and pushed the car past 210 mph on the Mulsanne Straight.
The 1-2-3 finish at Le Mans 1967 was the mission accomplished. Ford pulled back from GT racing shortly after. The rivalry had been settled, at least to Ford's satisfaction.
Seven Cars
Only seven Mark IVs were constructed. Unlike the earlier GT40s, which were built in England and subsequently raced across multiple seasons by various teams, the Mark IV was purpose-built for a specific moment. When that moment passed, production ended.
The surviving cars have spent the decades since moving between private collections, museums, and the occasional auction block. When they appear at concours events, they tend to draw the kind of attention that makes the surrounding cars seem very far away. There's a particular quality to American racing cars of the 1960s — a directness of purpose that reads clearly even to viewers who don't know the history — and the Mark IV has it in full measure.
What the Car Actually Looks Like
The Mark IV is lower than you expect. Standing next to one, the roofline is at roughly mid-chest height on an average adult. The entire car has the appearance of something compressed by speed — as though it was designed to take up as little vertical space as possible and succeeded completely.
The bodywork is fiberglass, which was unusual for the era and part of how Ford and Kar Kraft saved weight. The cockpit is narrow. The visibility was described by drivers as adequate at best. Bruce McLaren and Mark Donohue both noted that what the car lacked in comfort it made up for in the way it communicated through the steering — you knew exactly what it was doing, which at Le Mans speeds is not a small thing.
Bottom Line
The Ford GT Mark IV exists because one man walked away from a deal at the wrong moment. That the car that resulted from that slight is now considered one of the greatest American racing machines ever built is the kind of outcome that makes automotive history genuinely interesting.
