Native Grounds
Ford GT40
by Luciano Vittori
On the bank of the Thames, with Tower Bridge for a backdrop, stands the car that was born of revenge. The Ford GT40 — low, wide and unyielding — is the British-made promise that America kept.
- TechniqueHahnemühle · Dibond
- Size100 × 75 cm
- EditionEdition of 24
- Price€995
Built to win
The story begins with a refused handshake. When Ferrari called off a sale to Ford at the last moment in the early 1960s, Henry Ford II ordered one thing: beat the marque where it would hurt most — at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The answer took shape in England, at Ford Advanced Vehicles in Slough, where the first GT40s were built. The name was simply the car's height: forty inches, barely more than a metre.
After two years of setbacks came 1966. The GT40 took the first three places at Le Mans — the first ever win for an American manufacturer in the classic, and a humbling of Ferrari. The model would win four years running, in 1968 and 1969 in the unforgettable blue-and-orange colours of sponsor Gulf Oil, as this work wears them still.
Luciano Vittori brings the racer to rest on its second home: not the circuit, but the river of the city where it was built. The fresco treatment lays the patina of half a century over the bodywork — the roar has fallen silent, the legend remains.
