The name " GT40 " was the name of Ford's project to prepare the cars for the international endurance racing circuit, and the quest to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The name of Ford's project, and the serial numbers dispel the story that " GT40 " was " only a nickname.

Carroll Shelby sold the Cobra name to Ford in 1965 and went on to develop the famed racing Ford GT40.

The GT is similar in outward appearance to the original Ford GT40 cars, but bigger, wider, and taller than the original ; as a result, a potential name for the car was the GT43.

The Ford GT40 is a high performance British-American sports car and winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans four consecutive times, from 1966 to 1969 ( 1966 being the Mk II, 1967 the Mk IV, and 1968-1969 the oldest chassis design, the Mk I ).

The contemporary Ford GT is a modern homage to the GT40.

* GT40 / R Competition, United States: authentic GT40 built by Superformance and co-designed with Pathfinder Motorsports, it is the only race-version continuation model fully licensed by Safir GT40 Spares ( Ltd ).

It is rumored that Safir GT40 Spares asked $ 40 million dollars for the rights, but this has never been verified.

The signature light blue and orange color scheme associated with its Ford GT40 and Porsche 917 is one of the most famous corporate racing colors and has been replicated by other racing teams sponsored by Gulf.

Lunar Lander ( also known as Moonlander ) is an early computer game that runs on the DEC GT40 graphics terminal ( typically downloaded from a PDP-10 mainframe computer ).

Although the cars are visually related, structurally, there is no similarity between the modern GT and the 1960s GT40 that inspired it.

* The " J57 " is based on the Ford GT40

The mid-engined car is a spiritual successor to the Ford GT40, taking from it some styling cues, such as doors that cut into the roofline, but little else.

Other appliances like pocket watches, waffle irons, sandwich toasters, krumkake irons and the George Foreman Grill have long utilised a clamshell design ; a very similar concept is used in racing and road legal cars, like the Ford GT40 and Ferrari Enzo, where the whole rear end can be lifted to access the engine compartment and suspension system.

There have been several kit cars and replicas made that have been inspired by the Ford GT40, as well as a continuation ( exact and licensed replica ):

Safir GT40 Spares licensed the use of the GT40 trademark to Ford for the initial 2002 show car, but when Ford decided to make the production vehicle, negotiations between the two failed, and as a result the new Ford GT does not wear the badge GT40.

This company licensed the use of the " GT40 " trademark to Ford for the initial 2002 show car.

This result, added to four other round wins for the GT40, gave Ford victory in the 1968 International Championship for Makes.

As the Mk III looked significantly different from the racing models many customers interested in buying a GT40 for road use chose to buy a Mk I that was available from Wyer Ltd.

Therefore a more conventional but significantly more aerodynamic body was designed for the subsequent development of the J-car which was officially known as the GT40 Mk IV.

As the price and the rarity of the Ford GT40 have increased, so has the demand for a continuation model as well as cheaper imitations and replicas of varying quality.

McCluskey raced for the Holman and Moody team in a Ford GT40 Mk. IIB at the 1967 LeMans 24hrs of Endurance, France.

The concept originated during 1963 with drawings by Ron Hickman, director of Lotus Engineering ( Designer of the original Lotus Elan, as well as inventor of the Black and Decker Workmate ), for a bid on the Ford GT40 project.

At nearly 6 ' 3 ", Gurney struggled to fit into the tight Ford GT40 cockpit, so master fabricator Phil Remington installed a roof bubble over the driver's seat to allow space for Gurney's helmet — now known as a " Gurney bubble ".

Ford took a keen interest in this and paid Broadley to put the company on hold for two years and merge his ideas with Roy Lunn's work, giving rise to the Ford GT40.

In an effort to reduce the speeds generated at Le Mans and other fast circuits of the day by the unlimited capacity Group 6 prototypes ( such as the 7-litre Ford GT40 Mk. IV and 4-litre V12 Ferrari P ) the Commission Sportive Internationale ( then the independent competition arm of the FIA ) announced that the International Championship of Makes would be run for 3-litre Group 6 prototypes for four years from 1968 through 1971.

Negstad also designed the chassis and suspension for the GT40 and the CSX 3000 series Shelby Cobra, often referred to as the " coil-Spring Cobra " chassis.

Hansgen died in 1966 while testing the GT40 in preparation for Le Mans.

In 1969, facing more experienced prototypes and the new yet still unreliable 4. 5 L flat-12 powered Porsche 917s, the winners Jacky Ickx / Jackie Oliver managed to beat the remaining 3. 0 litre Porsche 908 by just a few seconds with the already outdated GT40 ( in the very car that had won in 1968-the legendary GT40P / 1075 ).

Apart from brake wear in the Porsche and the decision not to change pads so close to the race end, the winning combination was relaxed driving by both GT40 drivers and heroic efforts at the right time by ( at that time Le Mans ' rookie ) Ickx, who won Le Mans five times more in later years.

GT40 / R Competition at Road America, built by Pathfinder Motorsports / Superformance

A GT40 / R ( GT40P / 2094 ) campaigned by Pathfinder Motorsports with an engine built by Holman Moody won both the 2009 US Vintage Grand Prix and the 2009 Governor's Cup at Watkins Glen.

At the 1995 Detroit Auto Show, the Ford GT90 concept was shown and at the 2002 show, a new GT40 Concept was unveiled by Ford.

The original version of the car was designed by Ron Hickman, who also designed the first Lotus Europa as part of Lotus ' GT40 project bid and made his fortune having designed the Black & Decker Workmate.

The camera car used was a Ford GT40 driven by Phil Hill, the car having cameras mounted at the front and rear of the car, front and rear body panels of the car being removed as necessary.

* GT40 — VT11 vector graphics terminal using a PDP-11 / 05.

The two seater Nova with its dramatically opening roof / door canopy combines basic ideas of the Ford GT40 and Lamborghini Miura in a fiberglass shell on a VW Beetle chassis and mechanicals.

After this race, the FIA changed its rules, outlawing not only the 2F as well as the Ford GT40 Mk. IV ( winner at LeMans that year ) and the Ferrari 330 P3 / 4 and 365 P4 ( winner at Daytona, 2nd at LeMans ).

1967 Ford GT40 Mk IV, which was developed from the J-car

Subsequent vector graphics systems, most of which iterated through dynamically modifiable stored lists of drawing instructions, include the IBM 2250, Imlac PDS-1, and DEC GT40.

Another possibility of inspiration could be the Ford GT40, which was a very popular and successful racecar, mainly in Le Mans and other Touring series, in the 1960s.