The Ford GT40 could have looked like this

Welcome to what might have been. While searching Ford’s presumably vast collection of negatives, the company’s archivists came across what are believed to be some of the earliest design sketches of the Mk1 GT40, as well as a profile shot of the first full-size clay model.

Dating back 57 years, three years before the GT40 won its first Le Mans 24hrs, the sketches show a road-going GT40 that looks quite unlike the car Ford eventually built, with pop-up headlights and a full-on canopy instead of conventional doors. Far more delicate than the finished car, that’s for sure, and really quite lovely.

The model was apparently finished just a week after the sketches. You can see the design process at work – already it’s flatter, racier, with Ferrari Testarossa-esque vents on the side for supplying the mid-mounted V8 with air. Closer to the finished article.

So, reckon Ford should have stuck to these early sketches?

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