Ford GT40 MKII P/1012
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P/1012 Spa 1966
The 1965 Ford GT40 MKII chassis number P/1012 is one of eight cars built by Ford to win the 24 hours of Le Mans 1966.
It has been entered in three races : 1966 Daytona 24 hours (#96, 5th), 1966 Spa 1000 Km (#4, 2nd) and 1967 Daytona 24 hours (#1, 7th). It has also been part of the 24 hours of Le Mans tests in April 1966 (#2, 2nd best time) and was a spare car of the Ford team for the 1966 Le Mans 24 hours (#6T).
It has been driven by the best drivers of that time : Bruce McLaren (1966 and 1967 Daytona 24 hours), Chris Amon (1966 Daytona 24 hours), Jackie Stewart and Graham Hill (1966 Le Mans tests), Lucien Bianchi (1966 Le Mans tests, 1967 Daytona 24 hours) and of course Ken Miles (extensive testing end of 1965 and 1966, Le Mans Test).
In March 1967, during private tests at Daytona, the car crashed heavily with Peter Revson. This was three months before the 1967 24 hours of Le Mans. The car was entirely dismantled so as to understand the causes of the crash (flat tire, bad line, or
technical issue). After the detailed inspection, the chassis was stored until the end of the season.
By the end of 1967, the rules changed and the maximum displacement was taken down to 5 liters (instead of 7 liters) for the sports cars (more than 50 cars built), and 3 Liters for the prototypes.
All goals were achieved for Ford with two victories in a row at Le Mans, so it was decided that Ford would retire from competition. All MKII were then stored at Holman & Moody. That was the end of the MKII racing career.
In 1970, a US enthusiast named Don Davis, wanted to buy a GT40 MKII, but Ford refused to sell any. Holman & Moody offered him to buy the damaged chassis of GT40 P/1012 together with a parts package to rebuild the car.
Don Davis started to restore P/1012 by dismantling all the damaged elements of the chassis. Few months later, he got the opportunity to buy a new Ford GT40 MKI left over chassis
for $ 1500. This was far cheaper than the cost of restoration of the original one. He thus decided to build a new GT40 based on this new chassis (number P/1110), and sold the P/1012 damaged original chassis. It was then sold to Wayne Cantrell who decided to send it to UK in order to be restored by the best specialists who were part of the original GT40 design team (John Etheridge and Bryan Wingfield).
12 years would pass before P/1012 would run again !
Over the years thanks to the best specialists and experts, we have been able to re-establish the history of GT40 MKII P/1012.