James Mangold directed the true story-based film Ford vs. Ferrari. The movie is about a 24-hour endurance event that occurred at the 1966 Le Mans race. A team of auto engineers engaged by Ford to develop a racing that can outperform a Ferrari sports vehicle at the 24 Hours of Le Mans race in France is the center of the movie’s plot. Carroll Shelby, a pioneer in the automotive industry, and British race car driver Ken Miles are in charge of the Ford team. Carroll Shelby is portrayed in the movie by Matt Damon, while Ken Miles is portrayed by Christian Bale, who also plays Batman.
In This Article...
What’s False About Ford Vs. Ferrari Is This
Like every other reality-based film, Ford Vs Ferrari’s main plot was liberally laced with made-up side stories.
The most thrilling film to watch in 2019 was Ford vs. Ferrari. Starring Matt Damon, Christian Bale, Jon Bernthal, and Caitriona Balfe in a sports drama directed by James Mangold. The movie Ford vs. Ferrari was based on the actual event of Ford’s first-ever victory over Ferrari, an Italian rival, at the 1966 24 Hours of LeMans.
The factual book Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, And Their Battle For Speed And Glory at LeMans by A. J. Baime served as the basis for the motion picture. Christian Bale was cast in the role of race car driver Ken Miles, while Matt Damon took on the part of car designer Carroll Shelby.
Ford actually recruited Shelby and Miles to develop, modify, and race the car against Ferrari, who had essentially proven itself as unstoppable forever. Fun fact: Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise were first cast as the lead actors. In November 2019, Ford vs. Ferrari was made available in the US.
It was well welcomed by both the public and the critics, earning over $225 million worldwide. Particularly amazing and really appreciated were the racing scenes and the direction. Unsurprisingly, the National Board of Review named it one of the top 10 films of the year.
September 2022 revision: There aren’t many movies that can keep you on the edge of your seat and make you feel things at the same time. One such film that pushes the boundaries of storytelling is Ford Vs. Ferrari, which depicts the legendary rivalry between Ford and Ferrari in the 1960s. However, not everything depicted in the film is entirely accurate. More information about the overstated and inaccurate material presented in the film has been added to this article.
The acclaimed film Ford vs. Ferrari is a pure joy to watch. Everyone enjoys the film, whether they are car enthusiasts or wizards, but how much of this drama drenched in gasoline is fake?
Miles, Ken (Christian Bale)
The real Ken Miles isn’t all that different from the bubbly, Brummie-accented Ken Miles that Christian Bale portrayed in Ford v. Ferrari. In reality, Miles transitioned from operating stodgy tanks for the British Army during World War II to setting records in some of the quickest sports cars made over the subsequent two decades. He genuinely relocated to Hollywood and made friends with the hot-rodding racing community there. He did, in fact, operate a tuning shop in North Hollywood called Ken Miles Unlimited, gladly but unsuccessfully, up until the beginning of 1963, when the IRS locked the doors due to unpaid taxes. He did have a kid named Peter and he did married a woman named Mollie. And, regrettably, on August 16, 1966, while testing Ford’s J Car at the Riverside Raceway, Ken Miles did pass very soon after Le Mans ’66.
Ford v. Ferrari’s character arcs and dramatic tension come from the countless small incidents and dialogue exchanges that distinguish the fictional Miles from the real-life Miles. Here’s a clear illustration: The Shelby American team knuckles down at an airplane hangar near LAX to put different prototype dragsters through their paces after Ford II gave Carroll Shelby and his team a blank check to develop, manufacture, and road test a race vehicle to best Ferrari at Le Mans. In the movie, Miles loses all patience with Ford’s corporate gearheads when they try to weigh down his experimental Ford GT40 with an advanced aeronautical computer in the passenger seat, ripping the entire device out in annoyance and choosing to work with the rest of Shelby’s team to use a more tried-and-true, traditional approach: taping pieces of string to the vehicle’s exterior and observing their wriggling movements for signs of drag. There was no conflict at all. The computer collected data on the internal air pressure and temperature, and the string approach collected data on the vehicle’s exterior and exhaust. Ford’s aeronutronic technicians and Shelby’s team manager, Carroll Smith, collaborated to combine these two techniques.
One of the most famous and strikingly applicable lines from the late Ken Miles is one of the many jagged edges that were smoothed over in the process. The actual Miles stated, “I fear I’ve been screwed,” after discovering that he had given up his well-deserved victory at Le Mans ’66 to another Ford driver by caving in to a PR ploy. Bale’s delivery of that sentence would have been great.
In actual life, the competition between Ford and Ferrari was just as acrimonious.
The main focus of “Ford vs. Ferrari,” Slate’s exploration of reality vs. fiction, was on the animosity between Henry Ford II of the Ford Motor Company and Enzo Ferrari of Ferrari, which was almost as terrible in real life as it was on screen.
The “Ford vs. Ferrari” story begins when Ford makes an acquisition bid for Ferrari but is rejected and insulted by Ferrari. Enzo Ferrari actually called Ford II and the other owners of the company “pig-headed bosses” and “worthless sons of w***es” in person. It was described as “a rant that I had never seen or heard before in my entire life and have not done so since” by Ferrari’s attorney, Franco Gozzi (via Slate).
In contrast to the movie, when he declares that Ferrari will be buried “100 feet under the finish line at Le Mans,” Ford reportedly responded to the affront with more grace in real life. Ford actually allegedly said, “Okay, we’ll kick his ass. We’ll compete against him.”
In addition, Shelby approached Ford in real life, unlike the movie, when Iacocca sought Shelby to help Ford design a race car that could defeat Ferrari. Shelby submitted the idea to Iaccoca and requested $25,000 to build two cars, according to the book “Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans,” which is the basis for the film “Ford vs. Ferrari.”
Is the Ford vs. Ferrari story really over?
The actual world Le Mans ’66 came to a thrilling conclusion with a historic result as all three Ford vehicles tied for first place when they passed the finish line.
Ford reportedly tried to purchase Ferrari.
No, to put it simply. Ferrari is not owned by Ford. However, it turns out that there is a very good reason why you could have believed they do. The New York Times claims that Ford actually made an attempt to buy Ferrari in the past. Sadly, the Ford-Ferrari merger didn’t go as well as the carmaker had intended.
Instead, according to The New York Times, Enzo Ferrari finally rejected Henry Ford II’s attempt to purchase Ferrari in 1963. Ford apparently felt embarrassed by the incident, which prompted Ford to put together a racing squad under the direction of Carroll Shelby, a former racer turned designer. At the 1966 French 24 Hours of Le Mans, the team was instructed to compete against Ferrari. If you’ve ever seen the movie “Ford v Ferrari,” there’s a good chance that you already have some knowledge of Ford’s propensity for getting back at Ferrari.
Has Ford ever defeated Ferrari?
As you might anticipate from a Hollywood movie, the plotline strayed from reality a bit. What portions of the movie are therefore accurate, and what details were exaggerated for artistic and dramatic effect? Check out the second in a series of videos covering the actual race and the movie in the one up top (part 1 can be viewed below).
At a race in California, did Ken Miles actually throw a wrench at Shelby? Has he ever thrown a punch at him in public? Was Ford management sabotaging Miles after he had a multiple-lap lead at Le Mans because they wanted their other drivers to win? At the finish line, what actually transpired? What did the actual podium scenario look like?
Using exclusive footage from Motorsport.tv’s Le Mans archive and images from Motorsport Images, we tell the story of what actually happened with interviews with a number of motorsport experts, including Miles’s son Peter, who was a young boy when all the real-life drama unfolded. Tom Kristensen, a nine-time winner of the Le Mans 24 Hours, serves as the narration.
Shelby may have indeed taken Ford on a trip.
Even while we wish it were true, it just never did. Henry Ford II bursts into a mixture of sorrow and hilarity when Carrol Shelby takes him for a joyride in his creation in the movie. It is portrayed as being a part of a scheme to get Miles a seat in the 1966 Le Mans race. However, as we already established, Ford didn’t object to the British driver participating, thus the incident was needless.
The president of one of the biggest automakers in America being taken for a joyride in a race vehicle without a helmet is also quite unusual. Back then, safety restrictions were somewhat lax but not so lax.
There is no evidence that this scene ever occurred, which puts the icing on the cake in terms of facts. You’d think someone would have noticed if Henry Ford II jumped into a GT40.
What did Henry Ford hear from Enzo Ferrari?
Tell your pigheaded employer that all of his, eh, pompous executives are worthless sons of whores, said Ford Italian Translator Gary. Italo Ferrari Inform him that he is not Henry Ford
Fiat still owns Ferrari, right?
The bulk of Ferrari will be owned by the public by 2020, but if you find yourself wondering, “Doesn’t FIAT own Ferrari?” you’re not the only one (just a few years late)
cried Mr. Ford actually?
In the film, Shelby seizes Beebe and drives Henry Ford II away in the prototype to demonstrate the GT40’s capabilities. Henry Ford II breaks down in tears throughout the film. Although we are unsure if that actually occurred, a high speed of 210 mph in the 1960s would have been enough to make any adult man cry.
Who was the Shelby Cobra’s driver?
Carroll Hall Shelby was an American car designer, racer, and businessman who lived from January 11, 1923, until May 10, 2012. Shelby is best known for his work on the Ford Motor Company vehicles AC Cobra and Mustang, which he modified between the late 1960s and early 2000s. In 1962, he founded Shelby American to produce and sell performance cars. The Carroll Shelby Story, his autobiography, was released in 1967. His best performance as a race car driver came while sharing the wheel of the winning 1959 24 Hours of Le Mans vehicle.
Miles and Shelby truly fought, right?
Some racial incidents were just included to advance the plot and strengthen the characters. The Willow Springs Raceway in California was one such instance. The conflict between Shelby, Miles, and Beebe was also exaggerated.
Although they did occasionally disagree with one another on their working practices, risk factors, etc., their disagreements weren’t as heated as they appeared in the film. Shelby and Miles also never actually argued, in contrast to how the movie depicted their relationship. Those scenes were just included to heighten the tension.
A Ford GT40 costs how much?
When they first enter the market, Ford GTs are reputed to be quite pricey. You won’t be surprised to learn that they sell for just around $10 million given their extensive history and numerous victories. The special price can be explained by the fact that just 31 models were produced. At the time of its release, it was hard to locate. Therefore, we are unable to fathom how tough it would be to find one nowadays.
Even though one example did sell for $4 million, if you’re lucky don’t plan on paying anything less than the $10 million asking price. Owners will probably want to seize them with both hands and refuse to let go in exchange for a low price.
In conclusion, the Ford GT40 was a jaw-dropping vehicle in the making. Given that it received several accolades and has since become one of the most expensive GT models ever, the numerous reworks were obviously well worth the trouble.