The first trailer for Ford V. Ferrari, the action biographical drama of how Ford beat Ferrari to become Le Mans champion in 1966, has just dropped online.
Ford recently announced that the upcoming 24 Hours of Le Mans race will be the last one for the current GT racing program. They revealed a selection of heritage liveries that harken back to the time when Ford and their iconic GT40 race car were the dominant force in professional motorsports, winning the Le Mans race four times in a row from 1966 to 1969.
And now they’re making a movie about it. Imagine that.
It won’t be out in time for Le Mans, which kicks off June 15th, but if Ford doesn’t win it will certainly remind people of the time when Ford was more than just a maker of SUVs and pickup trucks.
Titled Ford V. Ferrari, since Enzo Ferrari was the team to beat at Le Mans throughout the ‘50s and early ‘60s, the movie features Christian Bale as Ford team driver Ken Miles, Matt Damon as legendary Ford engineer Carroll Shelby, and Jon Bernthal as Ford general manager Lee Iacocca.
The story centers around Ford’s development of the GT40, which had quite the troubled upbringing. Initially debuted in 1964 at the Nürburgring 1000 km race, the GT40 was forced to retire due to suspension failure. It would suffer more technical issues at the 1964 Le Mans race until it was finally handed over to Carroll Shelby to remake into a winner.
In true Shelby fashion, he created the MkII GT40 with a 7.0-L V8 with 485 horsepower. This allowed race car driver Ken Miles to win the 1965 Daytona 2000, although he wouldn’t stay on to see the GT40’s ultimate 1-2-3 finish at the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans race. That race would be lead by another British race driver, who would eventually lend his name to what might be the greatest supercar maker the world has ever seen.
Ford V. Ferrari his theatres on November 15th, so mark your calendars.