Trev, very interesting read and thanks for posting. I'm a wee bit confused as Roy Lunn appears to get credit for the design where as I always thought that credit went to Eric Broadly. of Lola fame. Did I miss something?
Ah yes, a long debated subject and very subjective. If we concentrate on the chassis layout only and leave the body design and drivetrain to others then this quote from John Wyer in his book, A Certain Sound, is appropriate:
" this is perhaps the right time to correct certain widely held misconceptions about the Ford GT 40.The first is that it was a thinly disguised and only slightly modified version of Broadley 's Lola GT. Nothing could be further from the truth. Both cars were midship-engined coupés, using a Ford engine. Any resemblance ended here. The Lola GT was a simple concept which set a trend and for which Eric Broadley is entitled to great credit. Because of its generally similar configuration to the Ford GT 40 it could be used, to a limited extent, for component testing. I do not underrate the part which Broadley played in the evolution of the GT40, and, inevitably, the car incorporated many of his ideas. But the GT40 was an original concept and by contrast with the simplicity of the Lola GT it was extremely sophisticated and, for its purpose, over-engineered."
"At the end of August (1963) Roy Lunn arrived in England, followed by three design engineers who had been assigned to the project. Two of them, interestingly, were Englishmen .......They were Len Bailey, responsible for chassis engineering , and Ron Martin, a body designer .The third was an American, Chuck Mountain ".
"Between September 1963 , when we effectively started work in England, and the end of March 1964 we completed the design of the Ford GT 40 and the build of the first two cars. It was, in the circumstances, a remarkable achievement, for which credit must go to Eric Broadley himself, and, in particular, to Len Bailey, who, with his very small staff, was so largely responsible for the execution of the GT 40 design ".