(Hat tip to Dustin!)

Stumped, aren’t you?

Photo Credit: ANITA.trans - My way of life/Flickr

The outburst of relief does make you wonder if Webber had for the past 22 races or so spent time thinking about another racing driver from the Southern Hemisphere: Chris Amon.

Born in New Zealand to a sheep farmer, Amon raced in Formula One for 14 years, entered 108 races, stood on the podium 11 times—but never won a single grand prix. And it’s not like he was a bad driver. He was racing the GT40 that gave Ford its first victory at Le Mans, paired with fellow Kiwi Bruce McLaren.

Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

Proper Aussie accessories!

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Photo Credit: Getty Images

At the top of the podium.

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

The other gent is Mark’s dad, Alan.

Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

Here I am in London, walking its myriad streets and turning my head to the occasional air raid rumble of a TVR Tuscan at full throttle, and I meet the boss of my boss Ray Wert, Nick Denton, publisher of this fine motoring magazine, on the High Street in Hampstead Village. We go into Maison Blanc for an espresso. Bad idea.

It will only become apparent an hour later that we should have waited for an outside table to free up. As we chat about all manner of things I will not mention here, a preep-preep-preep in my pocket indicates an incoming message, which I leave for later checking. Half an hour later, we finish our coffees and I leave Nick to head home with his father. Here is the message, which I now check:

A Maison Blanc előtt épp most ment el egy GT40.

It’s from my friend Máté, an incredible treasure chest of local petrolhead information, and I have a vague notion that his Hungarian will not need translating.

Although in retrospect, those Jurassic Park-style ripples on my not particularly good double espresso observed midpoint were no doubt caused by the GT40’s 7-liter V8 rearranging matter along the High Street.

What a city. And what a comically unlucky way to time a meeting.

Photo Credit: Máté Petrány

Truesdell’s great adventure began at a press garage in London where he was given the keys to a Ford GT. Crossing into Continental Europe, he visits the Nürburgring, then Maranello, and finally ends up at Circuit de la Sarthe—the racetrack in Le Mans. His story was published in high-class British classic car magazine Octane, but never online.

It’s a great read with fun pictures—including the obligatory balls-out Autobahn run speedo shot—and it proves that sometimes, it takes a European motor race to perform the vaguely Biblical turning of blood into gasoline. Or should we say, petrol.

Photo Credit: Automotive Traveler

Today I put up a little ditty about Auto Futura's "new" GT40 recreation, the Gulf Oil liveried CAV GT. Lighter, faster and better all around than the original GT40, we've been smitten for the past 24 hours over this bad sucker at it's 500 horsepower at the crank 5.6-liter V8. Commenter SRekauqh had only the following to say:

I effing love it.

Ah, the ceaselessly amazing world of Fiero-based exotic replicas. Which DNA has been implanted in the Fiero cell this time? Yes, it is indeed that of the Mk1 Ford GT40. V8 Archie's GT4T has V8 power, front and rear clamshell lids and um, uh, no Gurney Hump. Still, for a mere $45k, you can go out and shame Enzo Fiero all over again! We're totally buying one to go with our A.J. Foyt mask. Now we just need to find an ersatz Mulsanne straight in some sprawling Central Valley mixed-use office-industrial complex.

GT4T [V8 Archie's]

Related:
Big Daddy Glickenhaus On The Ford/Ferrari War [Internal]

Ah, Jim Glickenhaus. Ah, to be Jim Glickenhaus, the only man ever to produce a Basket Case movie and have Pininfarina scan his body for a perfect fit in a custom Enzo-based car. We met him briefly in Paris last fall and he turned out to be a very nice, personable dude, always willing and ready to drop some science. Here he tells the story of the battle of wills contested between two titans of the automotive world: Hank The Deuce and Enzo Ferrari. Part I above, click the link for part II. We can practically guarantee you'll learn something you didn't know. [Thanks to Haller for the tip] – Davey G. Johnson

The Ford/Ferrari Wars, Part II [Cirkitvision]

Related:
Foyt On Indy [Internal]

Like last week's Bugatti Veyron, this week's Fantasy Garage nominee should be a no brainer. You will also note for the first time I'm including a video, not merely a static image. Why? It's the legendary Ford GT Super Bowl commercial. I find it noteworthy because it was America's first peek at modern car porn. Sure, the Brits have had Top Gear for what? 90 seasons? But in the US of A, we had nothing of the sort, at least until Tom Brady bested Jake Delhomme. And while most of the country was in a tizzy over Janet Jackson's boob, pistonheads were worked up over a sexier exposure. I still recall vividly a slack jaw and my tongue unrolling, cartoon wolf-style. Since that day, I've watched roughly 10 million hours of smoking cars drifting sideways on YouTube, but the Ford GT spot is better than all of them, combined. Of course, no car makes it into our garage on a slick corporate ad alone.

Assuming for a moment you're from Venus, here's the back-story. In the early 1960s Ford was all set to buy Ferrari. The son of Henry Ford wanted to get into racing in a big way and Ferrari was having severe financial troubles. It seemed, to the American at least, to be a match made in automotive heaven. However, rumor has it old Enzo would have rather worn a tie-dyed suit than let his beloved Prancing Stallions fall into grubby American hands. However, despite his dubiousness and, uh, difficult personality, Enzo was no dummy. He knew that allowing Ford to put money on the table, it would raise the bid of Fiat, which bought 50% of Ferrari in 1965. Henry Ford II's offer of $18 million was rejected.

Hank the Second was furious. He vowed to beat Enzo at what had become his own, personal game. Ford wanted to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the most grueling, challenging and brutal race of them all. A race, by the way, Ferrari had won six years in a row (1960 through1965). So angry was Ford that he had lapel buttons made up that proclaimed, "Ford Wins Le Mans in '66" and threatened to fire any employee not on board with his decision. The resulting racecar is pure legend. The Ford GT40 ("Grand Touring and 40 inches high") is possibly the most storied racer of all time. The cars utterly devastated Ferrari, putting the smackdown on Enzo four years straight, until the car was banned from competing in 1970. Most remarkably, GT40s finished 1-2-3 in 1967.

The year 2003 marked Ford's 100th anniversary. In commemoration, Hank's great-grandson, Bill Ford Jr., initiated a series of prototype neo-GT40s to be built for the 2002 auto show season. The show cars were styled and designed Camilo Pardo under the watchful, retro-futuristic eye of J Mays. The story goes, these mid-engined (longitudinally mounted) beauties were never meant to be anything but flashy design exercises. But the results were just too staggering. One hundred times better looking than Ford's new Mustang and one thousand times sexier than the reborn Thunderbird (not to mention a billion trillion times cooler than the New Beetle), the GT40 concepts burned up their auto show competitors in 2002, prompting Motor Trend to start a shameless "Give Us Our Ford GT" campaign. In the end, Ford decided to build them. Since they no longer owned the name (and since they balked at Safir Engineering's $8 to $60 million asking price, depending on who you believe), Ford needed a new one. (GT43, which represented the car's actual height, is silly.) Plain old GT it was.

Ford GT40 Prototype. Ford was allowed to use GT40 for the concept cars

But build it with what? All supercars begin with their engines (though the GT had the added advantage of ultra-hot bodywork) and end with their engines. The closest thing Ford had to a hot motor was the 4.6-liter modular V8 out of the Mustang, and that simply would not cut it. Instead, they recast the 5.4-liter V8 from the F-Series pickup in aluminum and bolted on a Lysholm screw-type supercharger. The aluminum heads were lifted from the Mustang Cobra R (and Australian Boss 290) and the whole enchilada is dry sumped to keep oil flowing on hard corners. This setup allowed for 550 hp and 500 lb-ft of torque. In other words, plenty. But, as our dear friend Jezza is quick to point out, America has a fine and long tradition of building straight-line monsters. Ford wanted this car to go both left and right as well.

Ford's SVT engineers worked closely with aluminum experts Hydro Aluminum North America to develop what was at the time the most sophisticated extruded aluminum space frame in the world. The frame consists of 35 extrusions, 30 of which were developed just for the GT. The chassis also features several stamped panels (floorboards), five complex castings and four semi-solid formed castings. The four latter castings serve as mounting points for the double-wishbone suspension at all corners. Both the unequal-length control arms and the coil-over spring-damper units are made of extruded aluminum.

The engine assembly is also, you guessed it, made from extruded aluminum, as is the rear sport bar. And you should see how beautifully that stonkin' "Powered by Ford" engine fits into its cradle. Of course, all the body panels are also made from lightweight aluminum. The GT sports a front splitter, a rear diffuser, a sealed underbody and a through-vehicle venture tunnel that provides 300 lbs. of downforce at 130 mph. The shape is also one of the most aerodynamic production cars ever. Bored yet? Me too. Suffice to say, the GT handles better than your car, pulling 1.00 G on the skidpad in either direction with ease.

Forget the history and the looks and the significance for a moment. What most impresses me about the Ford GT – and what I most want to impress upon you as you weigh your vote – it the sucker's performance. Like very few cars in the world, the GT's actual numbers are much better than those the factory advertised. For their part, Ford claimed a zero-to-60 mph dash of just under four seconds and a top speed of about 200 mph. Awesome numbers, no doubt. But guess what? Car & Driver knocked off 60 mph in 3.3 seconds and top speed is in the neighborhood of 212 mph. Just as incredible is the GT's quarter-mile time of 11.6 seconds at 128 mph. For some perspective on these numbers, the Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradale reached 60 mph in four seconds and ran the quarter-mile in 12.4 seconds at 113 mph. And the Stradale's top speed is a mere 186 mph. And don't think that because the 360 is last year's Ferrari that the GT is currently outclassed. F430s get to 60 mph in 3.8 seconds and run the quarter in 12 flat at 120 mph.

Ford GT Heritage Edition

This level of performance is even more impressive, when combined with the low weight and über-stiff chassis. How impressive? Octane magazine ran a Ford GT around the 'Ring in 7:42. That is fast — world-beating fast. Everybody's favorite American supercar, the C6 Z06 is 300-pounds lighter and one second slower. The ten-times more expensive Veyron bests the GT by just two seconds, as does the McMerc SLR. Part of the explanation for these freaky good numbers is that the GT does not make its advertised 550 hp and 500 lbs. ft. of torque. No, the GT makes much more than that. Just as the Shelby GT500 comes from the factory with its gumption underrated, the GT makes its advertised numbers at the wheels! Actual horsepower is likely in the 615- 630 range. Dang.

Ford initially planned a run of 4,500 GTs. But, as the company was (and is) hemorrhaging billions of dollars per quarter, production of the GT totaled just 4,068 cars, while the Wixom plant that built it (and the Lincoln LS and the Thunderbird) will be shuttering its doors in a week (May 31, 2007). Despite the sad ending, there is no doubt in my mind that the GT is the greatest car Ford has ever built. Even better than the RS200, Davey. In fact, the only argument I can think of against its inclusion in the Fantasy Garage is that it is not the original GT40. But I'm claiming that the new car is better.

First of all, the OG GT40s are twitchy, stinky racecars, whereas the GT has AC and power windows. True, there was a street version of the GT40 you could buy (the Mk. III) but it was ugly and slow. Second, the successor GT is much faster than the originals ever were. And, in keeping with the spirit of the GT40s, the modern Ford supercar smacked the teeth out of the competition from Ferrari. Oh, and just to pad your votes a bit, Jeff Zwart, who has an unfortunate last name directed the Super Bowl ad, claims that the GT not only outran the helicopter that was filming it, but that the spot was the first time he didn't have to speed up the film to make the car in question look good. I trust you will do the right thing. – Jonny Lieberman

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[The Jalopnik Fantasy Garage appears every Tuesday. Readers vote the cars in or out. Sometimes. The idea is that we'll have 50 cars in our Fantasy Farage, the world's greatest mechanic and endless wads of cash. Would you like to nominate a car for the Fantasy Garage? Write tips@jalopnik.com with the subject line "Fantasy."]

The Jalopnik Fantasy Garage, So Far:
· RUF RT12
· Maserati Quattroporte Executive GT
· 1978 Aston Martin V8 Vantage
· Honda 1300 Coupe 9
· 1931 Daimler Double Six 50 Corsica Drophead Coupe
· Ferrari 288 GTO
· Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1
· 1970 Buick GSX 455
· First Generation BMW M Coupe
· Bugatti Veyron 16.4

Related:
Bugatti Veyron 16.4; Edo Competition Ford GT [Internal]

With the cheapest "Buy it Now" price of a Ford GT just below $150,000 — and the last GT having rolled off the Saleen Special Vehicles line back in September — what's a speed-craving cheapskate to do? They can write a check for around $70,000 to replicar builder Superformance, and roll out with a new SPF GT40 MKII A (sans engine, of course). Rather than wallowing in Ford's new tech, they'll be getting a car that's closer to the Ford GT's antecedent, the Le Mans-winning GT40. The Superformance car is built from the original blueprints drawn up by Ford Advanced Vehicles, the FoMoCo division responsible for the mid-60s racer. The SPF even comes with a driver-side "Gurney bubble" set into the pressed-steel roof, to accommodate the helmets of those, like big Dan, who happen to be tall in stature. As for the drivetrain, which will cost extra, might we suggest something in a 427? – Mike Spinelli

Superformance SPF GT40 - Familiarity Breeds Perfection [Kit Car]

Related:
Update on Superformance Brock Coupe [internal]

It's as simple as this: we need to make the pilgrimage to Goodwood. And oh to be there this year when Ford breaks out the 1966 Le Mans-winning GT40 with former 24 Heures du Mans winners Dan Gurney and Jackie Oliver behind the wheel for blasts up the hill. Ford's celebrating the 40th anniversary of a victory that set off a four-year winning streak for the Eric Broadley-designed sports car. A guy we know rides with Gurney, and apparently, even at 75 years old, he's impossible to keep up with. God, this should be good. [Thanks to Alex for the tip.]

Dan Gurney to Drive Le Mans-winning Ford GT40 at Goodwood [Classical Drive]

Related:
Weird French Supercar Concept Goes to Goodwood: Peugeot 907 to Attempt Hillclimb [Internal]