Fueled Revenge
Road to Victory
In the early 1960s, the Ford Motor Company was struggling as their sales in automobiles declined. Le Mans was the key part of the whole brand strategy to make Ford more relevant to new markets. Ford needed to bypass Ferrari with a more affordable and accessible car that still checked all the boxes of the fast glamorous car they wanted. Lee Iaccoca, a rising automobile powerhouse, came up with the idea of the Ford Mustang. However, it did not immediately pull in buyers like they thought it would.
Lee Iacocca standing next to a Ford, 1961, New York Times .
Instead, Ford decided acquiring a flashy company like Ferrari would attract a new generation of buyers who wanted something fast and edgy. Ford sent a team to Italy to propose an acquisition with Enzo Ferrari himself. While Enzo was initially interested, he backed out because he did not want to relinquish control over his elite racing team. Ford reassessed and decided to enter Le Mans to beat Ferrari at his own game to gain attention and even revenge.
"Henry Ford II’s vision of his company as a Le Mans champion began as a marketing campaign, an investment he hoped would pay off at the cash register. In the end it became something far more. Nationalism, glory, a quest to make history like no automotive magnate ever had."
-A.J. Baime, author of Go Like Hell
Enzo Ferrari at the Grand Prix, 1967, Wired.com.