Shell Oil Commercial featuring GT40s

Oh hell. That last line hurts so much, I almost cried. Why wasn't I asked? How blase we all were in those days, and how wonderful hindsight is!!

Dalton
 
Does anyone have the video? Any chance someone on the other side of the pond can track down the people that made the commercial to see if any of the raw footage survived?
 
I know this story because it was 1967 and JWA were running the Mirage M1 for the 1967 season not GT40 yet. They did take over unofficially when Ford pulled out of endurance racing when the rule change to 5 litres was imposed.
According to Ronnies Spain book four GT40's(P1025, P1030, P1035 and P1036) were shipped to Shell (Monza) from FAV not JWA. they were completed to a semi road car spec by FAV They were painted Light Blue with a Black interior and used for the advert at Monza. They were offered for sale at around £1500 as it was cheaper to sell them than to ship them back. All four were sold to a buyer in Maidenhead Berkshire. Regards Allan
 
Time to stop building cars and start work on the old time machine! Has anyone got a couple of thousand in 1960's bank notes I can take with me?
 
I hope these cars are still around. Back then, they were just used race cars. Now they are irreplaceable treasures.

These cars were well-travelled. Apparently they were originally sent to Shelby-American, but then all four were returned to FAV due to 'registration difficulties'.

I suspect the difficulty lay in finding four people willing to shell out the big bucks to buy the cars! :laugh:

From there, they went to Shell, then all four were purchased by a fellow in the UK for resale. From there they went to the four corners of the earth; apparently one is in Japan, two in the USA, one in Germany--but that was as of several years ago.
 
GT40's will never be extinct, as they are now so highly regarded. But with the interest shown, they are becoming like endangered wildlife, and I fully expect to see each one electronically "tagged" one day, with someone like David Attenborough stalking them for a wildlife documentary following the movements of the remaining 40's as they gather at watering holes.

Sorry, getting carried away there.
 
Is there anyone on the forum that has contacts inside Shell that could help find a copy of the ad? Or maybe one of the networks that might have kept a copy of it?
 

Trevor Booth

Lifetime Supporter
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1030 was in Australia for a period, now resides in USA.
When in Oz it was painted red. I seem to recall it featured in the ads for the "modern" Ford GT.
 
Re the Shell Oil campaign, I'm not sure how much was filmed at Monza but the sequences where parachutes were used for "braking" were filmed at Biggin Hill.

Regards,
 
Re the Shell Oil campaign, I'm not sure how much was filmed at Monza but the sequences where parachutes were used for "braking" were filmed at Biggin Hill.

I was wondering about that. The article didn't mention the parachutes, but the John Allen book has a photo of one of the cars with a parachute.
 
Did you notice how the front clip hinged up in the comercial. They must have given that up as the nose got longer over time.
 
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