It does have genuinely gorgeous body work! They failed by not having a reliable American V8 under the bonnet. Too many curves, while they were beautiful also create extra lift and that creates instability at high speed. The rather straight lines of the GT40 were the winning combination. Massive American horsepower plus low lift aerodynamics equals a winning solution.
Nicely done, for the most part. The only error I spotted was the power of the DFV. To get 420bhp, you needed to rev it to 11,000rpm+, which was okay for F1 racing, but not for endurance racing. In endurance racing the rpm was limited to 9,000-9,500rpm (as you stated), which limited the power to around 375bhp. At that lower rpm, the DFV was capable of surviving a 24-hour race - as long as you got the cooling sorted, something that never happened with the P68/F3L. Pity really, as it was and still is one of the few genuinely beautiful racing cars ever made. It's just a case of "If it looks right, it is right" being disproven, as it looked SO right, but the flawed aerodynamics cooked its engine...
I never can get enough of these stories. The said part, I only learned after my Uncle Norm Faustyn passed away that he was part of the engine development(engineering) team and also was present at those big races. Maybe that's why I became a Mustang owner, including owning a 71 Boss 351 and many other Mustang models. I also worked at for Ford after high school, until moving to IBM. Uncle Norm was also mentioned in Hot Rod magazine when they were reviewing the early development of the Ford 427 SOHC V8 Long live Ford in our family! --- but driving a Lincoln MKX now
For comparison, it's like GT1 cars morphed into sleeker prototype look-a-like in the late '90s.Ferrari also had 3 liter prototype similar to this, it was called 312 P.
I had/have this car as a Matchbox toy car. I got it more than 40 years ago, but since this car was a flop, I only recently finally got to see pictures of the real deal. Thanks for making this video of this rather mysterious car! I always wanted to know more about it and I always loved the design of it too.
@@UberLummox me and my twin brother ha a green and a magenta. Sadly mine has a cracked windshield after going off track one too many time in the loop de loop.
The car's main mechanical problems stemmed from the Cosworth's vibration breaking parts that were built for shorter Grand Prix race distances. The later Gulf Mirage's prototypes initially suffered the same issues although one actually won Le Mans in 1975.
Great video Chris, but even though you mentioned it, you didn't show a single shot of the totally restyled '67 GT40 Mk.IV- it was the car that led to the shape of the P68, I know cause I have a HotWheels matchbox size version of it, totally different looking car to the well known earlier iconic GT40. It looked much more like the European cars from Ferrari & Porsche, low and curvy with much bigger headlights and reduced frontal area, maybe you could do a small video on it😅😅 cheers eh!
Ford never called the MkIV GT (the car that won LeMans in 1967) a “GT40.” It was a completely different car that only shared the 427 side oiler with its predecessor.
Yup. The only "true" GT40 was the Mk.1, and even then, only if it didn't have a Gurney bubble installed. As soon as the Mk.2 7-liters appeared, they were Ford GT's, as the extra airscoops needed to keep the 427 happy made the car 2-3" taller. The Mk.4 monocoque cars were a whole different kettle of fish entirely...
@@gchampi2 Actually, the nomenclature progression was (1) Ford GT [1964]; (2) Ford GT MkII [1965] after the program was turned over to Carroll Shelby, and Shelby stuffed a 7-liter engine into a Ford GT chassis; (3) Ford GT40 [1966] when the FIA Group 4 category, also known as "Sports 50" was created, and Ford MkII for the 7-liter cars; (4) Ford GT40 [1967] when Ford Advanced Vehicles was sold to J.W. Engineering for the purpose of supplying parts for existing GT40s plus further development of the GT40s; and (5) Ford MkIV [1967], based on the J-Car that had been tested in 1966.
@@robertobrien9706I think it’s easier just to lump them all together as GT40. Especially since the “Ford GT” name is 100% the domain of the 2005 car atp.
What is always never told is that Enzo did try to come back to the table with Henry Ford II because the $18m offered to him for his financially strapped company started to look good. He agreed to Ford's terms of the deal, but Ford in return sent Enzo one of his business cards with the words "No thanks" wrote on the back.
I wish the P68 got more of a chance in its day. It’s absolutely beautiful and it’s powered by a freaking DFV. It’s pretty much a Lotus 49 with bodywork.
Correction, this was Fords reply to Ferraris revenge at Daytona where they came in 1,2,3 with there P330. Ferrari did this with passion and little budget with a completely Italian team. Ford, through a mountain of money and talent, essentially copied the winning design of the P330. Ferrari won the Ford vs. Ferrari battle in both class and in purity.
Ford Europe wasn’t able to contribute the resources that the company across the pond was able to, plus not having the talents of the engineers like the Old “ Snake “ Shelby, and Ken Miles,, well it was doomed! Still a Beautiful car! IMHO!!
The car was a Prototype in 1968 = P68 / Ford 3 Liter = F3L / 3 Liter Gran Turismo = 3LGT. Same car just many names like Ford's Boss 429 engine had = 429 Nascar motor, The Blue Crescent motor, Shotgun 429. Most people called the car a P68 or F3L.
Se fôssemos eleger um Top 30 dos carros do Mundial de Carros Esporte desde 1953(criação) que competiram ou não com certeza, ainda seríamos obrigados à deixar belos modelos de lado.
Seems to me the Ford Europe folks were ill-equipped to create a competitive car. When Shelby took over development of the original GT40 it was plagued with all kinds of problems, and it ran poorly in the 1965 LeMans 24 hours due to not having them all identified and resolved in time. They still had to replace the front brakes halfway through the race for the famous 1-2-3 finish in 1966. The P68 had many of the same issues, in addition to the trouble with the engine used not being designed or built for endurance racing.
Were they campaigned in a red paint scheme? They do look quite like something that would have come out of Maranello. I grew up watching the GT40 story play out in the 60's but after the GT 40's won at Le Mans I moved on to following F1. Le Mans and sports car racing became a been there done that kind of a thing. I didn't know anything about this car at all. But i guess it's limited number and lack of success kept it way under the radar. Too bad because it is a sexy looking machine and the use of the Cosworth engine is very interesting.
Could you give us an idea what issues faced the P68 that resulted in all DNF results? Was it a series of component issues, or a fundamental design flaw?
Basically teething issues common with new car designs- There was the DFV, which had inherent vibration issues and led to some driveshaft failures, and others which could have been solved with more time like with the GT40. Fact is, Frank Gardner put it on pole for the 68 SPA 1k- some 4 secs clear of Ickx in the Gulf GT40. It may have failed with water in the electrics on lap 1, but that should provide enough of an idea of the F3L’s potential.
Take a formula 1 engine and transmission designed to last 2 hours of sustained full power running and try to make it last more than 10 times as long. There is your answer! The same thing is happening in the modern production car world, they are building cars with miniscule engines, boosting them with turbos and superchargers to achieve horsepower outputs similar to a more conventional engine twice the size and what's the result? The engine lasts half as long! Mettalurgy, fine tolerance production and oil tech has pretty much plateau'd out. They can't make them reliable enough! 50 years ago, when I was a young man, the conventional wisdom said 100bhp per litre was the safe limit for a reliable PERFORMANCE engine, most production saloons barely got to half that, some years ago (extreme example) I had a 2 tonne 5 litre (305cu/in) V8 Oldsmobile wagon that only put out a miserable 140bhp, LESS than 30 bhp/litre! But it was unbreakable! Now you can buy a 1500kg Ford Focus with a 1 litre Ecoboost motor that kicks out 150bhp! Guess what? The engine won't last 50k miles!
@@stephenboitoult8774 All that may be true, but this is not the first video I have seen about the P68 program. Engine/transmission failures never seem to be sited as the problem for the DNF. It seems as if some other subsystems were the culprits. As for modern cars, as you state, Ford has had endless problems with their high output small displacement engines. Mostly with blown head caskets. In my mind it stems from the thin wall construction of the area around the cylinder sleeves. Honda, however, doesn't seem to suffer the same issues. A friend had a V6 turbo'ed Lincoln Navigator that dropped a valve at 148,000 miles. He replaced the engine and had the transmission fail a month later.
@@cdjhyoung Poor aerodynamics meant that the cooling system was marginal at best. It was one of those issues where it would be fine in testing (when it was the only car on track), but in racing, the engine would slowly cook itself. There were several attempts to fix the issue, but they all affected the car's handling, taking it from "tolerably sketchy" to "utterly terrifying". As you say, it was very rare that the actual Engine would fail, but there was a lot of ancilliary failures - injection pumps, oil pumps, alternators, and the like. All stuff that got cooked alongside the engine...
It was a beautiful car. Very flawed aerodynamics among other factors. The McLaren M6 was leading the way for modern aero. Not this rounded style. Refer to that saying, "form follows function".
This is what happens when someone decides to prioritize European strengths and another tries to replace a Shelby design. Shelby designs would have still won.
Wyer didn't "engineer the GT40's success", he just took over the program after Ford Motor Company lost interest -- having achieved their goal of beating Ferrari.
Almost as much a disaster as your attempt to pronounce Jochen. But hey, im just Jochen i mean joking. Love the video love the car aand love your accent. I was even doing that poke the monkey with a stick thing saying go on say fast..i just find it hilarious for some reason, probably because im an idiot or, as the Irish say an eedjit. Hopefully no one is offended by this but i doubt there are any snowflakes in your neck of the woods. Too hot. 😅
Comparing the P68 with the GT40 is a little strange. The GT40 has a European beauty to it's styling whereas the P68 looks very 1960's American. It looks like 1960's Chevy Corvette or a bunch of 1960's concept cars which were made to look pretty rather than functional. Any modern aerodynamacist would look at the profiles and overhangs and see an absolute hot mess. The Cosworth engine definitely deserved a better body. The Leyland P76 looks more aero than the Ford P68. The P76 actually had more racing success (and it could carry a 44gallon/55gallon/205litre drum in the boot).
Comparing the ugliest Australian family sedan to either of these cars is stranger than comparing two consecutive top tier endurance racing cars from the same manufacturer....yes, the p76 and p68 do have similar names. The p68 looks very European. It looks much like a Ferrari or numerous other European sports cars of the period.
Yeah, I think you're way off on its looks as well. Looks nothing like anything US or least of all a front engined Corvette. Agree with stevev6002. Looks very Ferrari-like. And I think the video 'compares' it to the GT-40 only because of its would-be successor status.
Is that the same as the "Ford Group 6" Matchbox released in 1969 ? Unfortunately, the cricket commentaror narration is far from as beautiful as the design of this car. Ow Earthlings, why do you always fail so miserably to reach perfection ?
I think it's one of those less well known South African accents. Our ears are just not attuned to the S.A. accent because they haven't been on the (automotive) world stage that much.
Fine an altraenconbent car being ulterincomitent. Ford where ok when they were copying European cars but when there designers tried to make it 100 per cent American sorry you don't get it
genuinely gorgeous bodywork..
But form follows function. I'll review the video, then yakk
Ferrari in the front, Porsche in the back
It does have genuinely gorgeous body work! They failed by not having a reliable American V8 under the bonnet. Too many curves, while they were beautiful also create extra lift and that creates instability at high speed. The rather straight lines of the GT40 were the winning combination. Massive American horsepower plus low lift aerodynamics equals a winning solution.
Nicely done, for the most part. The only error I spotted was the power of the DFV. To get 420bhp, you needed to rev it to 11,000rpm+, which was okay for F1 racing, but not for endurance racing. In endurance racing the rpm was limited to 9,000-9,500rpm (as you stated), which limited the power to around 375bhp. At that lower rpm, the DFV was capable of surviving a 24-hour race - as long as you got the cooling sorted, something that never happened with the P68/F3L. Pity really, as it was and still is one of the few genuinely beautiful racing cars ever made. It's just a case of "If it looks right, it is right" being disproven, as it looked SO right, but the flawed aerodynamics cooked its engine...
I never can get enough of these stories. The said part, I only learned after my Uncle Norm Faustyn passed away that he was part of the engine development(engineering) team and also was present at those big races.
Maybe that's why I became a Mustang owner, including owning a 71 Boss 351 and many other Mustang models. I also worked at for Ford after high school, until moving to IBM.
Uncle Norm was also mentioned in Hot Rod magazine when they were reviewing the early development of the Ford 427 SOHC V8
Long live Ford in our family! --- but driving a Lincoln MKX now
"If this were a beauty pageant, we just won."
For comparison, it's like GT1 cars morphed into sleeker prototype look-a-like in the late '90s.Ferrari also had 3 liter prototype similar to this, it was called 312 P.
Beautiful, underrated design!
One of the most gorgeous race cars ever,
I had/have this car as a Matchbox toy car. I got it more than 40 years ago, but since this car was a flop, I only recently finally got to see pictures of the real deal. Thanks for making this video of this rather mysterious car! I always wanted to know more about it and I always loved the design of it too.
Yep! Me too. Still have it.
It's number 45 and came out in '69 in magenta, then in lime green. Striking in any scale!!!
@@UberLummox me and my twin brother ha a green and a magenta. Sadly mine has a cracked windshield after going off track one too many time in the loop de loop.
@@johanwejedaldesign Love it. The play-worn ones have more character!
Lovely and interesting. I haven't seen or heard of it before.
The car shown at 1:30 is not a Mk4, as the voiceover says, but a Mk2.
interviews of Gardner about this car are hilarious - as always with this legend of a man.
A very dangerous car.
The car's main mechanical problems stemmed from the Cosworth's vibration breaking parts that were built for shorter Grand Prix race distances. The later Gulf Mirage's prototypes initially suffered the same issues although one actually won Le Mans in 1975.
Thanks Chris! What a beauty it was.
Great video Chris, but even though you mentioned it, you didn't show a single shot of the totally restyled '67 GT40 Mk.IV- it was the car that led to the shape of the P68, I know cause I have a HotWheels matchbox size version of it, totally different looking car to the well known earlier iconic GT40. It looked much more like the European cars from Ferrari & Porsche, low and curvy with much bigger headlights and reduced frontal area, maybe you could do a small video on it😅😅 cheers eh!
One of my favorite Ford endurance cars.
Amazing looking car ❤❤❤❤❤ great video thanks ❤❤❤❤
Interesting, I remember seeing these cars but knew very little about them and now I know why.
Ford never called the MkIV GT (the car that won LeMans in 1967) a “GT40.” It was a completely different car that only shared the 427 side oiler with its predecessor.
Yup. The only "true" GT40 was the Mk.1, and even then, only if it didn't have a Gurney bubble installed. As soon as the Mk.2 7-liters appeared, they were Ford GT's, as the extra airscoops needed to keep the 427 happy made the car 2-3" taller. The Mk.4 monocoque cars were a whole different kettle of fish entirely...
@@gchampi2 Actually, the nomenclature progression was (1) Ford GT [1964]; (2) Ford GT MkII [1965] after the program was turned over to Carroll Shelby, and Shelby stuffed a 7-liter engine into a Ford GT chassis; (3) Ford GT40 [1966] when the FIA Group 4 category, also known as "Sports 50" was created, and Ford MkII for the 7-liter cars; (4) Ford GT40 [1967] when Ford Advanced Vehicles was sold to J.W. Engineering for the purpose of supplying parts for existing GT40s plus further development of the GT40s; and (5) Ford MkIV [1967], based on the J-Car that had been tested in 1966.
@@robertobrien9706I think it’s easier just to lump them all together as GT40. Especially since the “Ford GT” name is 100% the domain of the 2005 car atp.
Way cool! Never heard of it. I want to add a 1/25 scale version to my Indy & LeMans car collection of 140 historically accurate cars
Beautiful looking machine! 🤘🫶✌️
The DAYTONA was my all time favorite, HOWEVER! this car might just be added to my list.
The Daytona was certainly beautiful, as was the 275 GTB, 250 GTO, but my favorite from that era was the Ferrari P3 and P4
They went full circle from trying to buy Ferrari to making a off brand one
What is always never told is that Enzo did try to come back to the table with Henry Ford II because the $18m offered to him for his financially strapped company started to look good. He agreed to Ford's terms of the deal, but Ford in return sent Enzo one of his business cards with the words "No thanks" wrote on the back.
@ enzo never gave a shit about road cars so it’s not a surprise he would change his mind
I wish the P68 got more of a chance in its day. It’s absolutely beautiful and it’s powered by a freaking DFV. It’s pretty much a Lotus 49 with bodywork.
Correction, this was Fords reply to Ferraris revenge at Daytona where they came in 1,2,3 with there P330. Ferrari did this with passion and little budget with a completely Italian team. Ford, through a mountain of money and talent, essentially copied the winning design of the P330. Ferrari won the Ford vs. Ferrari battle in both class and in purity.
Thank you.
Ford Europe wasn’t able to contribute the resources that the company across the pond was able to, plus not having the talents of the engineers like the Old “ Snake “ Shelby, and Ken Miles,, well it was doomed! Still a Beautiful car! IMHO!!
P68 or 3LGT or F3L... Wha? Were they confused or are they all slightly different for different racing categories?
The car was a Prototype in 1968 = P68 / Ford 3 Liter = F3L / 3 Liter Gran Turismo = 3LGT. Same car just many names like Ford's Boss 429 engine had = 429 Nascar motor, The Blue Crescent motor, Shotgun 429. Most people called the car a P68 or F3L.
Se fôssemos eleger um Top 30 dos carros do Mundial de Carros Esporte desde 1953(criação) que competiram ou não com certeza, ainda seríamos obrigados à deixar belos modelos de lado.
A Coyote in back would make that a legend. Gorgeous car.
Seems to me the Ford Europe folks were ill-equipped to create a competitive car. When Shelby took over development of the original GT40 it was plagued with all kinds of problems, and it ran poorly in the 1965 LeMans 24 hours due to not having them all identified and resolved in time. They still had to replace the front brakes halfway through the race for the famous 1-2-3 finish in 1966. The P68 had many of the same issues, in addition to the trouble with the engine used not being designed or built for endurance racing.
Nice video !
I like the design, looked better than the GT40 imho.
But having never finished a race sure is a disaster alright.
Cheers Chris 👍💪✌
1:46 fun fact, the UK never used the € ever Chris.
That's a real slippery looking body !!
Beautiful!! They should have made it into a limited production road car😢😢😢😢
It looks like a 1967 Holman Moody Ford Honker II.
It was designed and built by the same company. The Honker was also flawed.
A beautiful car
Were they campaigned in a red paint scheme? They do look quite like something that would have come out of Maranello. I grew up watching the GT40 story play out in the 60's but after the GT 40's won at Le Mans I moved on to following F1. Le Mans and sports car racing became a been there done that kind of a thing. I didn't know anything about this car at all. But i guess it's limited number and lack of success kept it way under the radar. Too bad because it is a sexy looking machine and the use of the Cosworth engine is very interesting.
Could you give us an idea what issues faced the P68 that resulted in all DNF results? Was it a series of component issues, or a fundamental design flaw?
Basically teething issues common with new car designs- There was the DFV, which had inherent vibration issues and led to some driveshaft failures, and others which could have been solved with more time like with the GT40. Fact is, Frank Gardner put it on pole for the 68 SPA 1k- some 4 secs clear of Ickx in the Gulf GT40. It may have failed with water in the electrics on lap 1, but that should provide enough of an idea of the F3L’s potential.
Take a formula 1 engine and transmission designed to last 2 hours of sustained full power running and try to make it last more than 10 times as long. There is your answer!
The same thing is happening in the modern production car world, they are building cars with miniscule engines, boosting them with turbos and superchargers to achieve horsepower outputs similar to a more conventional engine twice the size and what's the result? The engine lasts half as long! Mettalurgy, fine tolerance production and oil tech has pretty much plateau'd out. They can't make them reliable enough! 50 years ago, when I was a young man, the conventional wisdom said 100bhp per litre was the safe limit for a reliable PERFORMANCE engine, most production saloons barely got to half that, some years ago (extreme example) I had a 2 tonne 5 litre (305cu/in) V8 Oldsmobile wagon that only put out a miserable 140bhp, LESS than 30 bhp/litre! But it was unbreakable! Now you can buy a 1500kg Ford Focus with a 1 litre Ecoboost motor that kicks out 150bhp! Guess what? The engine won't last 50k miles!
@@stephenboitoult8774 All that may be true, but this is not the first video I have seen about the P68 program. Engine/transmission failures never seem to be sited as the problem for the DNF. It seems as if some other subsystems were the culprits. As for modern cars, as you state, Ford has had endless problems with their high output small displacement engines. Mostly with blown head caskets. In my mind it stems from the thin wall construction of the area around the cylinder sleeves. Honda, however, doesn't seem to suffer the same issues. A friend had a V6 turbo'ed Lincoln Navigator that dropped a valve at 148,000 miles. He replaced the engine and had the transmission fail a month later.
@@cdjhyoung Poor aerodynamics meant that the cooling system was marginal at best. It was one of those issues where it would be fine in testing (when it was the only car on track), but in racing, the engine would slowly cook itself. There were several attempts to fix the issue, but they all affected the car's handling, taking it from "tolerably sketchy" to "utterly terrifying". As you say, it was very rare that the actual Engine would fail, but there was a lot of ancilliary failures - injection pumps, oil pumps, alternators, and the like. All stuff that got cooked alongside the engine...
@@gchampi2 Ah, this is the kind of detailed answer I was looking for. Thanks for the update.
Beautiful but fragile. A long forgotten racecar.
Nice to compare this 3.0 with the Ferrari 312 3.0, v-8 vs v-12 😗
Sound wise
GT40 Mark II then Mark IV. Not just GT40. Sadly Ford pulled the plug on Shelby, big mistake
Do a video on the ferrari 288 gto evo group b prototype
It was a beautiful car. Very flawed aerodynamics among other factors. The McLaren M6 was leading the way for modern aero. Not this rounded style. Refer to that saying, "form follows function".
Ferrari paid them off to make that rule .I'm sure of it .they didn't want to get beat by American cars .
This is what happens when someone decides to prioritize European strengths and another tries to replace a Shelby design. Shelby designs would have still won.
Chrus versus Cors
Wyer didn't "engineer the GT40's success", he just took over the program after Ford Motor Company lost interest -- having achieved their goal of beating Ferrari.
Kind of like a middle easter AI thing trying to sound British going on here type scene
You might want to work on the pronunciation of the drivers names, it helps with credibility.
prototypes got so ugly since the 80s
BIG time ugly!!!
Almost as much a disaster as your attempt to pronounce Jochen.
But hey, im just Jochen i mean joking.
Love the video love the car aand love your accent.
I was even doing that poke the monkey with a stick thing saying go on say fast..i just find it hilarious for some reason, probably because im an idiot or, as the Irish say an eedjit.
Hopefully no one is offended by this but i doubt there are any snowflakes in your neck of the woods.
Too hot.
😅
Was wondering if I was the only one that heard his "John" Rindt.😂
Thought it was all stupid ai till I read this.
Still looks like a 312…
Comparing the P68 with the GT40 is a little strange. The GT40 has a European beauty to it's styling whereas the P68 looks very 1960's American. It looks like 1960's Chevy Corvette or a bunch of 1960's concept cars which were made to look pretty rather than functional. Any modern aerodynamacist would look at the profiles and overhangs and see an absolute hot mess. The Cosworth engine definitely deserved a better body. The Leyland P76 looks more aero than the Ford P68. The P76 actually had more racing success (and it could carry a 44gallon/55gallon/205litre drum in the boot).
Comparing the ugliest Australian family sedan to either of these cars is stranger than comparing two consecutive top tier endurance racing cars from the same manufacturer....yes, the p76 and p68 do have similar names. The p68 looks very European. It looks much like a Ferrari or numerous other European sports cars of the period.
Yeah, I think you're way off on its looks as well.
Looks nothing like anything US or least of all a front engined Corvette. Agree with stevev6002. Looks very Ferrari-like.
And I think the video 'compares' it to the GT-40 only because of its would-be successor status.
Ferrari rip of 😂😂😂
Fascinating car, but can't they get someone or something normal to narrate? 🤦
He did fine. Maybe you're baked.
Is that the same as the "Ford Group 6" Matchbox released in 1969 ?
Unfortunately, the cricket commentaror narration is far from as beautiful as the design of this car. Ow Earthlings, why do you always fail so miserably to reach perfection ?
Get a better speaker, can't hardly understand this guy
you need to be South African
Sound fine to me.
This is how I know I am watching a lot of international UA-cam. I didn’t even notice his accent til I saw this comment
turn on subtitles.
I think it's one of those less well known South African accents. Our ears are just not attuned to the S.A. accent because they haven't been on the (automotive) world stage that much.
Fine an altraenconbent car being ulterincomitent. Ford where ok when they were copying European cars but when there designers tried to make it 100 per cent American sorry you don't get it
Why Ford didn’t persevere with the program is a disappointment. Time, money & talent can solve anything.
Not pretty, not even purposeful, I hate it.
????Not pretty???? Don't let your hate of the US of A cloud your judgement, son.