Foothills Rides
Peter Laity’s 1967 Ford GT40 MKIII
 

A short history on the development of the Ford GT 40 MK III road car.

 The precursor of the Ford GT was the Lola MK6 of which three examples had been built Ford acquired two to act as development mules for the new Ford in 1963. There were a total of 133 cars built in the next five years.
 

Protoypes  GT/101-112
12
Production  GT40P/ 1000-1086
87
Mirage M.10001-10003
3
Mark III   GT40 M3/1101-1107
7
Post-Production  GT40 P/1108-1114
7
Alan Mann  AM GT-1and 2
2
Alan Mann  XGT –1 to 3
3
JChassis *  J- 1 to 12
12
total
133
* These cars were known as MK IVs


Debuting in 1967, the Mark III represented Fords final fling with the GT 40 as a road-car. Although the Mark III’s title did not include the GT40epithet, all examples were built on GT40 chassis, so there was no hiding their identity as GT40s. the MKIII  differed from the production cars in several ways, both visually and otherwise. The most obvious visual differences were quad headlights in raised fenders, and a lengthened, and more nearly horizontal, tail with revised rear panel. Inside, the MKIII was unique amongst GT40s in having a central gearchange, this permitting the adoption of left-hand drive; another feature unique to the Mark III, of which four examples were built.
More of the features of the Mark III’s are, a mid mounted 289 ci  engine with a 600 cfm Holley, a 5 speed Transaxle centre mounted shifter, Aluminium chassis semi-monocoque with square tube stiffening, the body is unstressed fibreglass. Front suspension with independent double wishbones, coil-over shocks with anti roll bar. Rear suspension is made up of double trailing arms, a transverse top link and lower wishbones, coil-over shocks, with anti roll bar. The peddle box is electrically operated fore and aft to give the driver eight inches of movement because the seats do not move. Disc brakes on all four wheels with centre knock off wheels. All this and more in a car that weighs 2100 lbs and a top speed of 160 mph. However this was not enough in 1967 it was a hard car to sell it sold for $ 17.500 which was more than the production GT40, only seven were ever completed and the other chassis were used to rebuild cars that had crashed in road and racing accidents.
 
 


 


PS  the 40 stands for the fact that the car is only 40 inches tall

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