Ford GT farewells Le Mans with ‘celebration’ liveries.

Each livery honours Ford’s past successes at the annual French endurance event, including the outright wins in 1966 and 1967 (GT40 MkII and MkIV, respectively), and the class win in 2016. Curiously, while the fourth car appears to replicate the famous Gulf colours from the winning Ford GT40 MkI of 1968 and ’69, Ford says the livery is actually inspired by the car that came second as part of Ford’s 1-2-3 finish in 1966.

For this year’s 87th 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT raced by Stefan Mücke (GER), Olivier Pla (FRA) and Billy Johnson (USA) has a black livery that echoes that of the GT40 of Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon that won Le Mans in 1966. Appropriately, this car’s race number is #66.

The Ford GT40 that Dan Gurney and A.J. Foyt drove to victory at Le Mans in 1967 is honoured in the red and white livery of the #67 Ford GT raced by Andy Priaulx (GB), Harry Tincknell (GB) and Jonathan Bomarito (USA).

The #69 Ford GT driven by Scott Dixon (NZ), Ryan Briscoe (AUS) and Richard Westbrook (GB) takes cues from the Ford GT40 that came second in 1966, although the race number and livery suggests it was inspired more by the GT40 that scored Ford’s fourth successive Le Mans win in 1969.

The #68 Ford GT carries a more recent livery, specifically that worn by the class-winning modern Ford GT that was piloted by Sébastien Bourdais (FRA), Joey Hand (USA) and Dirk Müller (GER) in 2016.  All three drivers will reunite in #68 for this year’s race.

A fifth car, run by customer team Keating Motorsports, will carry their sponsor colours, but in a style similar to the factory cars.

While Ford says this year’s Le Mans (which ran after this issue of JUST CARS went to press) will mark the last appearance of the factory team, the wording of the press release, stating this in the end of their “current factory programme,” suggests they are likely to return in the future.