A new year, a new Le Mans winner honoured by Ford

Melding the past with the future to honour a company’s achievements has been a common, albeit difficult to pull off, theme for many manufacturers. The Ford Motor Company has been one of the more successful ones to do so with their Heritage Edition Ford GT, and there’s a new livery coming in 2018…

Seeing red

Building off the success of this year’s Heritage Edition, which honours 1966 Le Mans-winning GT40 Mark II driven by Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon, Ford has announced a new tribute livery for the 2018 Ford GT, and the honouree will be the 1967 Le Mans-winning Mark IV race car driven by Dan Gurney and A.J. Foyt. On the other end of the colour spectrum from the silver over black 2017 version, the car will be finished in Race Red with White stripes and feature an exposed carbon package, Frozen White No. 1 hood and door graphics, 20-inch forged aluminium wheels in silver, red callipers, and silver rearview mirror caps. The interior will be fitted with leather-covered carbon fibre seats with red accent stitching, seat belt webbing in red, and paddle shifters in anodized grey. By 2020, if Ford continues this trend, all GT40 Le Mans winners will be honoured, and then what — maybe the roadster prototype?

Photos: Ford