Gt 40 w/ indy four- cam

[cougaraug]

pretty much my first exposure to the GT 40 was an article in one of my dads books. It is in Petersen's Complete Ford Book (1973). It covers the "freshening up" of P 1027, using an indy four- cam engine. Does anyone know if this car is still around or if it still has this engine? I would really enjoy it if anyone has any pictures of this or any -40 with that engine.

[gt40ford@juno.com]

August,

I thought I had read where that this engine was still being used in its original GT40 (not sure).

This was the engine that lost to "company politics" when the regular V-8 was chosen for racing. It would have been neat to have had R&D on this engine and to have used it. Of course, the 289, 302 and 427 turned out to be awesome.

Have fun!

John

[Steve Toner]

According to Legate's book:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR> Restored during 1991 and sold to an anonymous owner in the far east in 1994. For sale in the USA during 2000. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

[M.B]

Some good shots in the book...
P1027 does not have that engine mounted in car anymore.
There was threads on this a few weeks ago..
It was recently sold in auction.BARRETT-JACKSON SCOTTSDALE 2002.
Maybe you can search their site and find pics.
Also: http://www.grandsportcorvette.com/gt/1027.htm
[img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[gt40ford@juno.com]

Marcos,

Thanks for the update and your email.

Have fun!

John

[jimbo]

GT40 #103 has a 4cam Indy engine in it. I believe, though, that this is a later addition and that all the times it raced successfully it was powered by a small block pushrod engine. Didn't seem to hold it back any...

[Mike Dozier]

I doubt the 4 cam would ever have been a success in the GT40. Car weighed too much.
Thank God it wasn't used. Imagine how expensive it would be to put in a replica!

MikeD

[gt40ford@juno.com]

Jim,

#103 is the one I was trying to think of...thanks.

Have fun!

John

[GT40MKV]

august,
If you want to see pics of the Indy engine you can find it in a few publications of GT40 book. Offhand I can't recall the name of the books but let me just say, it looks absolutely awesome! Those big air-intakes shaped in a V with the bundle of snakes headers joining down the middle of the engine. I can only imagine what it sounds like when it starts up.

[gt40ford@juno.com]

Hi all,

The current Indy car engines run at 900+ HP (at a light weight). I wonder what a GT40 would do with that??

Have fun!

John

[Mike Dozier]

I believe it was called Can Am racing.

MikeD

[gt40ford@juno.com]

Neal,

Another great picture post from you.

Question: Is that Indy engine difficult to rebuild? It looks much more complicated than a simple V-8.

Have fun!

John

[jimbo]

I think the major problem regarding rebuilding of the Ford 4cam Indy engine is that it is very old in terms of years, although obviously this technology is not obsolete. Not that many were made, parts are very hard to get, and they are very expensive. And, they are relatively small engines (256 cu in) so the amount of power you can pull out of them is limited somewhat by displacement. Also, modern valve train technology has improved so that pushrod engines can rev higher than in the past.
Lots of power can be made from relatively small engines. I had a hair-raising ride in a Ferrari 288 GTO today- all that power (400hp) from 170 cu in!!!!!! What was really impressive was how smooth and tractable the engine was, and how flat the torque curve. But it took twin turbos, intercoolers, and electronic fuel injection to do this. And, in 1985, that engine was, I think, state of the art. I think you could get a lot of horses from the 4cam Ford vintage Indy engine- but I can't think of a more expensive way to go about it.

[Neal]

Look familiar?

[kenmac]

Nice pic of the "Indy" installation in Bill Wonder's #103 in John S Allen's first book on GT40

Hope this helps [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Chris Notley]

Back in the mid 90's I was introduced to the Ford Quad Cam Indy engine expert and who resides in the area of Clearwater Florida. Over many years his hobby and obsession had been to gathered together enough spares to build around 36 engines. I was invited to visited him at his workshop and which turned out to be a smart factory unit on an industrial estate. It was like an Aladdins cave and I must say I found it very difficult to take it all in at the one time - mental overload of the petrol head variety !! I saw 7 or 8 motors, brand new, dyno tested, shrink wrapped and on pallets looking for customers.Asking price $35,000. His stores area was beautifully laid out with racks of cams, and exhaust systems for turbo and naturally aspirated motors, draws full of piston and conrod sets, just incredible !!
His game plan was a speculation based on the fact that these motors were fitted to many Indy cars during the mid sixties but most were eventually replaced with more commonly available engines due to high running costs. He figured that these Indy cars would eventually become collectable and their new owners would need to fit the correct quad cam motor to enable them to be eligable to race in historic events.
Ford started to develop this motor during the early sixties and invested a vast amount of money into the project and with the plan to also use it in the GT40 but in particular in F1 cars. What Ford were unaware of was that a little British company called Cosworth were at the same time developing the DFV. The rest is history.
Two original GT40's were retro fitted with the Indy Quad Cam, one of them being in the car owned by William (Bill) Wonder. He has a special excentricity and used it regularly day to day as a road car !!
I believe the naturally asperated version of the engine produced around 550hp while the turbo was supposedly capable of 1100hp on methanol.
I have seen one here in the UK at a test day at Silverstone which is fitted in a Gerhard chassis, running on methanol and sounded like a top fuel dragster. Fabulous
Ho-Hum. You guys in the States certainly know how to do things properly.
I have a copy of the original engine build manual so if anyone out there needs any specific info, drop me an email.

[Mark Worthington]

Excellent post, Chris!