Road Coupe vs Race Coupe

[Jay Gadsby]

Going by the shape of the nostrils, the vents at the rear of the front clip, and the ducting in the B-pillar, I believe the photo posted above is of a very early p

Yes, I'm glad I put probably/possibly in there now. Is there a way to delete the misleading photo?

 

[Stephen Ducker]

Brian's correct, in fact that's the very first car, GT101. One of the 12 prototypes, GT101 to GT112.
Considered a total loss at the time by FAV it was replaced by GT103 in the team.
That accident was at the April 1964 Le Mans test day. Happily Jo Schlesser was not injured. Perhaps the first driver to be glad Ford insisted on a steel chassis rather than an aluminium one as favoured by Eric Broadley.

 

[Rick Muck- Mark IV]

Going by the shape of the nostrils, the vents at the rear of the front clip, and the ducting in the B-pillar, I believe the photo posted above is of a very early prototype.

Yes, not a "road coupe" but a prototype chassis

 

[Ryan L]

Brian's correct, in fact that's the very first car, GT101. One of the 12 prototypes, GT101 to GT112.
Considered a total loss at the time by FAV it was replaced by GT103 in the team.
That accident was at the April 1964 Le Mans test day. Happily Jo Schlesser was not injured. Perhaps the first driver to be glad Ford insisted on a steel chassis rather than an aluminium one as favoured by Eric Broadley.

Agree, the car in the picture is GT101, The first prototype as wrecked at the Lemans trials.

Note the additional ducting at the base of the windscreen that ran through the doors and into the engine bay. note, no fuel tank control valve is present on the port side b pillar, but the vent with either a transistor ignition box or rev limiter is visible.

If you watch this video on YouTube, at the 6 minute mark you can see the chassis stripped down. Note the additional sill ribs on the vertical face inside the cockpit.

I believe the video also shows GT103 and or GT104 prototypes being built and readied for lemans in 1964. Note the lack of sill ribs and additional holes around the rear of the engine bay. The three Lemans entrants are also shown together in the final stages of assembly.

GT103 and 104 would get further revisions to their layout when they arrived at SAI for the 65 season.

 

[Ryan L]

Yes, not a "road coupe" but a prototype chassis

I believe this duct shape was only on GT101 and maybe GT102 and only for launch and the Le Mans trials in early 64. It had changed again by the time the Le Mans race weekend had arrived.

 

[Lee Patterson]

Do we know who "invented" painting the inside of the headlight and fog light buckets black? All the original road car pics from Slough they are body color. But then in subsequent repaints of some, they are black. Was the black inset a "racing" thing?

 

[BenL]

Mk1 road cars , 1013 prototype road car , 1028 , 1033 , 1034 , 1043 , 1044 , 1045 , 1049-1072.

The four Shell ad cars (1025, 1030, 1035 and 1036) were completed in "semi-race" condition. They have race engines (289 Trans Am engines), but a street clutch and door locks. They don't have ash trays and carpeted interiors.