Ford celebrates at Goodwood

Ford Celebrates 100 Years Of Motorsport At The Goodwood Festival Of Speed

BRENTWOOD, 5 April, 2001 - As part of Ford's celebration of its first 100 Years of Motorsport, the 2001 Goodwood Festival of Speed will include many significant Ford and Ford-engined competition cars in this year's classic hillclimb event. Around 30 Ford or Ford-powered cars have been invited so far. Those invited and/or confirmed are identified in the categories below.

The list, which is not yet complete, represents one of the greatest collections of Ford and Ford-powered racing machinery racing ever assembled. It provides a fitting tribute to the thousands of engineers, designers, drivers, technicians and all others who have contributed to Ford's 100 Years of Motorsport.

The Early years

As well as racing on salt flats, stripped-down Model Ts also raced in vast numbers on tracks laid out in boards, dirt tracks and impromptu street races. Fords running in international competition were rare, given the nature of the larger-engined purpose-built sports/racing car opposition, but a Model T did finish 5th overall in the Indy 500 in 1923.

* Model T dirt track and/or circuit racers

Sports cars and Le Mans

Following impressive campaigns with Shelby Cobras (and even with Sunbeam Tigers) in the early 1960s at Le Mans, the Company made a very serious Le Mans contender with the GT40. After two years of frustration with the beautiful new car, it pulled off a dominant 1-2-3 finish in 1966. A further three successive victories made the GT40 one of the all-time Le Mans greats. All of the most significant GT40s have been to Goodwood in the past, and it is difficult to imagine the event without one present.

Ford power returned to the top of the Le Mans podium in 1975 with the Mirage-Ford and French Rondeaus using the engine for victory in 1980, with second and third places following in the 1981 race. In the early eighties Ford developed its own Group C racer, the C100.

* 1964 Sunbeam Lister Tiger (glorious Le Mans underdog - very charismatic)

* 1968 Ford F3L (GT40 successor)

* Ford GT40 (Martin Colvill's Gulf-liveried car)

* 1972 Duckhams-Ford (brave and competitive privateer Le Mans car)

* 1980 Rondeau-Ford (Le Mans winner - only man to win Le Mans in own car)

* 2001 Saleen-Ford Le Mans car

Touring cars

A discipline in which Ford has always excelled. One of the most spectacular racers was the Capri 2600RS that ran in the European endurance racing, and which it is hoped will be at Goodwood this year. In the UK, Jim Clark and Sir John Whitmore made the Lotus-Cortina MkI a legend, then large American saloons like the Galaxie and Falcon dominated in the late Sixties until the Escort RS became a potent force.

The V8 Capri 'Perana' took a crushing title victory in South Africa, and in the 1980s the Capri 2.8i won successive class titles for Gordon Spice. Perhaps most successful of all Ford European touring cars was the Sierra RS500, especially in the distinctive black Eggenberger livery. In Britain, Andy Rouse led the way in RS500s, then switched to Mondeos in the BTCC.

* 1970 Ford Capri 'Perana' (1970 RSA Saloon car championship winner)

* 1973 Ford Capri RS 'Cologne'

* c1965 Lotus-Cortina MkI (in Cartier 'Style et Luxe' competition)

* c1986 Ford RS500 (Andy Rouse)

Formula 1

Ford worked with Cosworth in the late Sixties to produce the most successful Grand Prix engine ever, the DFV, which continued to be an F1 force until the mid-Eighties. A selection of DFV-powered cars will be at Festival, incorporating the 'Will to Win' theme. There will be a special acknowledgement of the 25th anniversary of James Hunt's world title. The following cars have been invited:

* 1968 Lotus-Ford 49 (first, enormously successful DFV-powered F1 car)

* 1971 Brabham-Ford BT34 (Graham Hill's last F1 winner)

* 1972 Lotus-Ford 72 (Jochen Rindt championship winner)

* 1973 Brabham-Ford BT42 (Martini-liveried Gordon Murray debut design masterpiece)

* 1974 Hesketh-Ford 308 (James Hunt's first F1 car)

* 1976 McLaren-Ford M23 (James Hunt's championship winner)

* 1976 Tyrrell-Ford P34 six-wheeler (highly competitive now, GP winner then)

* 1981 Brabham-Ford BT49 (Nelson Piquet's championship winner)

* 1982 Williams-Ford FW08 (Keke Rosberg's championship winner)

* 2001 Jaguar-Ford R2

Indycar/CART

Just as the mighty DFV proved invincible in F1, so the DFX development thrived in the USA. Representing its glory years in the late Seventies and early Eighties will be Indy legend Bobby Unser, who will drive a Ford-Cosworth-powered Penske PC9B at the Festival - the car in which he won the 1981 Indy 500.

Perhaps the epochal Ford-powered Indycar is the Lotus 38 driven to victory by Jim Clark in 1965, the first Ford engine to win the race. The winning car is a non-running museum piece, and its sister car has been to Goodwood many times. This era of Ford Indy racing will therefore be represented by the sensational 1965 Brawner Hawk Ford and the 1967 Lola-Ford Retzloff Special, neither of which have been seen outside the US before.

* 1965 Brawner-Hawk Ford

* 1967 Lola-Ford Retzloff Chemical Special

* 1981 Penske-Ford Cosworth PC9B (Bobby Unser's 1981 Indy 500 winner.)

* 1984 March-Ford 84C Kraco/STP (potentially for Bobby Rahal.)

TransAm and CanAm

A special class incorporating little-seen cars from the American TransAm series will include the 1970 championship-winning Mustang Boss 302. Ford has been a consistent winner in this series, primarily with Mustangs, and in later years with Capris.

* 1971 Ford Mustang Boss 302 (TransAm car)

NASCAR

Ford has always been a force in NASCAR, from the Galaxies, Fairlanes and Torinos of the sixties to the Thunderbirds and Tauruses of the eighties and nineties. At the Festival this year it is hoped to represent this with the gargantuan Dayton-winning Galaxie 500 from 1965 driven by 'Fast Freddie' Lorenzen.

* 1965 Ford Galaxie (Daytona 500 winner driven by Fred Lorenzen)

World Rally

Ford's current programme will be represented by a WRC Focus driven by a WRC driver. It is also planned to reunite Ari Vatanen with his world championship-winning Escort MkII from 1981.

* 1981 Ford Escort MkII (Ari Vatanen's championship winner)

* 2001 Ford Focus WRC

-Ford-