The 1960s are regarded by many as the heyday of motor racing—a time when storied drivers from all over the globe were household names, piloting some of the most beautiful machines ever built by the most famous automotive marques in the world.

In the most glamorous, yet grueling, endurance race of the era, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Ferrari represented the force to be reckoned with. The race’s 1965 running marked Ferrari’s sixth consecutive win, with Masten Gregory and Jochen Rindt behind the wheel of Luigi Chinetti’s NART entry Ferrari 250 LM, chassis number 5893. Even more impressive was the marque’s 1-2-3 finish, with privateer entry P. Dumay’s Ferrari 250 LM and Ecurie Francorchamps’ Ferrari 275 GTB rounding out the podium.

The race was an exciting one, but competition from Ford’s GT40 program was once again lacking. The GT40 was well represented in 1965 with six entrants, but frustratingly, for a second year in a row, none were able to finish the race. A positive takeaway from 1965 for Ford was Phil Hill achieving the fastest lap in practice and the race itself behind the wheel of Shelby American’s #2 car, the 427-cubic-inch V-8-powered GT40X. The Mk I design was showing its age, updates were necessary to make the car more competitive, and more importantly, reliable.

ENTER THE Mk II—AND HOLMAN-MOODY

Having used the big-block NASCAR 427 V-8 in 1965 with the GT40X, it quickly became evident that a larger engine was the solution to many of the GT40’s problems. Following Le Mans in 1965, Ford Advanced Vehicles (FAV) shipped unfinished GT40s to Shelby American, which team members from Holman-Moody, Alan Mann, and Shelby American assembled to create the GT40 Mk II. Together, they modified the GT40 to accept the bigger NASCAR 427 engine with modifications for endurance racing. With the bigger engines came the need for more cooling, as well as revised aerodynamics to keep the car planted to the track. “Ram air” intakes were added to the shoulders, just in front of the rear wheels, in addition to brake cooling intakes on the rear deck, which afforded the new Mk II with all the cooling power it needed. The Mk II nose received a redesign as well, ensuring the new GT40 stayed glued to the track.

Ford also had Holman-Moody on its side for the GT40 racing program for 1966, in addition to Shelby American. The Charlotte, North Carolina-based Holman-Moody was already a proven race shop when they were asked by Leo Beebe to get involved in the program in fall 1965. Holman-Moody had built a name in racecar construction and auto racing dating back to the 1950s. No stranger to success, in 1965 the Holman-Moody-prepped Fords won an impressive 48 of the 55 NASCAR Grand National Series races that season. Ford’s Beebe, then Director of Special Vehicles, felt the added experience to the GT40 program would be helpful, noting that Shelby was a good racing team—but Holman-Moody was effectively a racing factory with a bigger supporting cast.

SEBRING 1966

This car, chassis number P/1032, was shipped to Shelby American on 5 November 1965. Delivered unfinished, the car arrived as an unpainted chassis with doors, sill panels, and facia, with screen and bulkhead glass and trim. Shelby American completed the car to Mk II specifications. P/1032 was painted white with a flat black nose and shipped to Florida. The car was to serve as a replacement for chassis GT/107 in the race program.

A Holman-Moody entrant for the 1966 12 Hours of Sebring, P/1032 donned race #3 and was piloted by Walt Hansgen and Mark Donohue. Both hailing from New Jersey, Hansgen, then 46 years old, had nearly 20 years on Donohue. Hansgen had competed in two US Formula One Grands Prix and three NASCAR races, and he was a two-time Indianapolis 500 starter (1964 and 1965). But his real success had come in the SCCA, where he was a four-time National Champion in the C Modified class, competing in a Jaguar D-Type from 1956–1958 and a Lister Jaguar in 1959. Hansgen worked for Inskip Motors in New York and Rhode Island, and it was through that and the SCCA community he met Donohue, a graduate of Brown University in Rhode Island with a degree in engineering.

Donohue had won the SCCA national championship in 1961, as well as the Bridgehampton 500-mile SCCA race in 1964. It was through Hansgen that Donohue got a seat to co-drive in bigger events, starting with Sebring in 1965, where he and Hansgen piloted a Ferrari 250 LM for Mecom Racing Team. Donohue would go on to win two divisional championships in 1965, SCCA B Class behind the wheel of a Shelby GT350 and an SCCA Formula C in a Lotus 20B. Later, Donohue would go on to achieve 4th overall (2nd in class) at the 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans with Bruce McLaren behind the wheel of a Shelby American GT40 Mk IV—in addition to a very successful SCCA Trans AM career and his famous victory at the Indianapolis 500 in 1972.

Hansgen and Donohue proved to be quite the duo. Prior to the 1965 12 Hours of Sebring the Holman-Moody team drivers finished 3rd at the 1965 24 Hours of Daytona in GT40 Mk II chassis P/1031, behind two Shelby American Mk IIs driven by Dan Gurney and Jerry Grant and the 1st-place car driven by Ken Miles and Lloyd Ruby.

Looking to build on the success at Daytona, Hansgen and Donohue qualified 4th at Sebring with a time of 2 minutes and 58 seconds flat—edging out the prior month’s Daytona winners, Shelby American’s Ken Miles and Lloyd Ruby, by six-tenths of a second.

On race day at Sebring, Hansgen and Donohue shined once again, this time piloting P/1032, race #3, in a competitive field highlighted by 13 GT40s, five Ferraris, and 10 Porsches. Hansgen and Donohue held their own, defending a top 10 place for the last three hours of the race, eventually climbing up to 3rd. Shelby American’s Dan Gurney, the race’s fastest qualifier, was disqualified after pushing he and Jerry Grant’s GT40 Mk II across the finish line, one lap behind Shelby American’s race-winning GT40-based Ford X-1 Roadster piloted by Miles and Ruby. Hansgen and Donohue took 2nd place for Holman-Moody, followed by Peter Revson and Skip Scott finishing 3rd in the Essex Wire GT40.

The 1966 Sebring podium was an impressive 1-2-3 finish for Ford Motor Company and marked Holman-Moody’s best finish at the race.

LE MANS 1966

Following Sebring, and in preparation for Le Mans, P/1032 was shipped to Ford’s Kingman test track in Arizona, where alongside J-1, the prototype GT40 Mk IV, it was run in test sessions from 30 April to 1 May. P/1032 was subsequently sent to Riverside Raceway, where further testing took place from 2–7 May. Following testing, P/1032 was shipped back to Holman-Moody to be prepared for Le Mans, which included being painted in the Mustang shade of Emberglo with white stripes.

At the annual Le Mans test weekend, nine GT40s were in attendance including Mk Is, Mk IIs, and the experimental J-2. On Saturday, in wet conditions, Walt Hansgen had an accident behind the wheel of P/1011, aquaplaning and hitting a retaining wall at high speed. He tragically passed away five days after the accident. The upcoming race would have been Hansgen’s sixth appearance at Le Mans, with his last entry in 1963 with Briggs Cunningham’s team. Hansgen’s tragic and sudden passing led to Australian sports car driver and then three-time Formula One entrant, Paul Hawkins, to drive with Donohue at Le Mans. Hawkins was no stranger to the Circuit de la Sarthe, coming off a 1965 class win in the Donald Healey Motor Company’s Austin-Healey Sebring Sprite.

Ford went all in at Le Mans in 1966 with eight factory-supported Mk IIs entered in the race: three entered by Shelby American, three entered by Holman-Moody, and two entered by Alan Mann. Holman-Moody’s three entrants were Mark Donohue and Paul Hawkins in the #4 car (P/1032, this car), Ronnie Bucknum and Dick Hutcherson in the #5 car (P/1016), and Mario Andretti and Lucien Bianchi in the #6 car (P/1031).

Leading up to race day it became evident that differentiating the GT40s entered in the race was going to be difficult, especially at night. Holman-Moody made the decision to apply DayGlo identification patches, with P/1032 receiving green DayGlo patches on the front nose and on the side, providing easy differentiation amongst the GT40s in the field.

With Mark Donohue and Paul Hawkins behind the wheel, P/1032 qualified 11th, one-tenth of a second behind Phil Hill and Jo Bonnier’s #9 Chevrolet-powered Chaparral 2D, and 1.1 seconds ahead of the Holman-Moody sister car, Mario Andretti and Lucien Bianchi’s #6 GT40 Mk II. Pole was achieved by Shelby American’s #3 GT40 Mk II driven by Dan Gurney and Jerry Grant. Just 4.6 seconds separated Donohue and Hawkins from the #3 Gurney and Grant pole position car, outlining a very competitive top of the field.

Henry Ford II, then Chairman and CEO of Ford Motor Company, dropped the starting flag at the beginning of the 1966 race, sending off 55 drivers to begin the legendary endurance event. Le Mans proved a challenge for P/1032. After completing the first lap the car was forced to pit with a broken half shaft. Following a lengthy pit stop, P/1032 rejoined the race with ground to make up. The car would return to the pits to tape the tail section to the car; this would prove futile as P/1032 would famously lose its tail section on the Mulsanne straight, continuing to cover laps “half naked.” Donohue and Hawkins were unable to climb higher than 30th place during the race, and in the end, transmission problems would ultimately end their day, forcing retirement after four hours of racing and having covered just 12 laps of the unforgiving Circuit de la Sarthe.

Despite the challenges P/1032 dealt with in the race, the GT40 Mk II as a model proved to be a potent racecar, finally delivering for the Blue Oval—and doing so in impressive fashion. Three GT40 Mk IIs would finish the race: Holman-Moody’s #5 car driven by Bucknum and Hutcherson, the sister car to P/1032, finished 3rd; Shelby American #1 car driven by Ken Miles and Denny Hulme finished 2nd; and Shelby American’s #2 car driven by Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon finished 1st.

For Ford, it was the first-ever win at Le Mans, and the 1-2-3 finish sent a powerful message to the racing world. Ford’s win with the new GT40 Mk IIs closed the book on Ferrari, ending their streak of six consecutive wins at Le Mans, and started what would be Ford’s own multi-year run of dominance: they would go on to win again in 1967, 1968, and 1969. After that, the Blue Oval would sit out the legendary endurance race until 2016, the 50th anniversary of the marque’s famous 1966 win. Ford’s highly successful return was spearheaded, of course, by the new GT—the modern-day incarnation of the legendary GT40.

A RACECAR’S RETIREMENT—AND RESTORATION

Following Le Mans, P/1032 was shipped back to the United States, famously stopping through Luigi Chinetti’s Greenwich, Connecticut dealership prior to a return trip to Europe. Chinetti and Holman were good friends, and Chinetti’s proximity to New York’s JFK Airport with fast air freight made it an easy decision for Holman to have Chinetti handle shipping cars to and from Europe for the Holman-Moody team.

Back in Europe, the GT40 Mk II was displayed in its “as-raced” #4 Le Mans appearance; however, the green DayGlo patches were now red. The change was likely due to the fact that the DayGlo patches were prone to quickly fading. P/1032 is believed to have been shown at the October 1966 Paris Motor Show. It was then shown at the March 1967 Geneva Motor Show, with a photo of this exhibit on file. Its last European auto show is believed to have been the August 1967 Monza Auto Show. Following Monza, P/1032 was turned over to Ford of France and then returned to the United States.

At some point following its European tour, P/1032 was refinished to black with white stripes, similar to the 1966 Le Mans-winning #2 McLaren and Amon car (P/1046). Although unconfirmed, it is believed that this cosmetic refinish was carried out for promotional purposes. Interestingly, the livery of the #2 car was not reproduced with total accuracy; chassis P/1046 raced at Le Mans in black with silver stripes, not white stripes. Additionally, the roundels on P/1032 were outlined in red, unlike the purely white roundels on P/1046.

P/1032 was eventually donated to Anton "Tony" Hulman Jr., then the owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, for display at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) Museum. It joined the display on 29 March 1968. At the time of donation, P/1032 was still black with white stripes, and the car was equipped with a non-running, wet-sump NASCAR 427-cubic-inch V-8 with a T-44 transaxle. With oil lines for the engine disconnected, a non-running engine, no clutch, and the car’s fuel bags removed, P/1032’s “setup” was good only for one thing: static display.

From 1976 to 1983, P/1032 was displayed at the Early Wheels Museum, an arm of the IMS Museum with a small display of non-Indianapolis 500-related cars in Terre Haute, Indiana, where Tony Hulman Jr. was originally from and where his family businesses were based. P/1032 was featured in the 1982 issue #39 of The Shelby American and later in a 1985 calendar Ford Racing: A Retrospect by Paul Oxman publishing.

In the mid-2000s, discussions began to restore P/1032 to its correct #4 Holman-Moody 1966 Le Mans livery, and restoration work began in October 2006. It is significant here to note that this restoration work was undertaken by four employees of the Ford Motor Company. Jim Dunham, a senior engineer, took the lead, joined by engineers Paul Osborne and Adam Christian. Mose Nowland—who, in his 57-year career at Ford developing engines, was part of the Le Mans program in the 1960s—rounded out the team. All four graciously donated their time to restore P/1032, only asking for reimbursement for materials required to complete the restoration.

While the initial scope of the project was an exterior refinish, the job expanded to a full restoration, which was completed in 2011. Following completion, P/1032 was proudly displayed at the 2011 Concours d'Elegance of America, held at The Inn at St. Johns in Plymouth, Michigan, not far from where the restoration was carried out.

Since then, P/1032 has resided in the IMS Museum's illustrious Vault, where it was shown on VIP tours for guests who wanted to see the full extent of the impressive collection. There, P/1032 was displayed alongside the 1965 Le Mans-winning NART Ferrari 250 LM and the Mercedes-Benz W 196 R Streamliner driven by Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss. It has been periodically displayed on the IMS Museum’s main floor, most recently in the 2020–2021 “From the Vault” exhibition. Further, INDYCAR driver Conner Daly drove the car in demonstration laps during the 2023 IMS and IMSA’s Battle on the Bricks weekend.

Today, P/1032 remains in its 1966 #4 Le Mans livery, still beaming from its 2011 restoration and in running order. A “no-stories example” with known ownership from new, P/1032 has the distinction of two of the world’s premier races, Sebring and Le Mans, on its record. In part because it only raced twice, P/1032 suffered no on-track crashes, and it did not receive the ongoing upgrades that similar cars with more extensive racing records did. Because of this, P/1032 is believed to be one of the best examples of a Mark II in existence—a stellar representation of the GT40 as it was at the beginning of Ford’s endurance-racing dominance.

THE OPPORTUNITY OF A LIFETIME

Ford celebrated its centennial with a special car, the GT40-inspired Ford GT—a stunning homage to the Le Mans-winning cars of the 1960s, and Detroit’s first supercar. Ten years later, the second-generation Ford GT would return to Le Mans achieving class victory in 2016 for Ford, fittingly on the 50th anniversary of their first win in 1966. Between Ford’s celebration of its heritage with retro-inspired models, a victorious return to Le Mans in 2016, and the release of the Academy Award winning-movie Ford v Ferrari in 2019, Ford’s legendary 1960s GT40 program has captured the hearts of the next generation of automotive enthusiasts, ensuring that the original GT40s will remain a celebrated racecar for generations.

Yet chances to own genuine, competition-driven GT40s come along very rarely, with most of these chassis sequestered in museums—as has been the case with this car for over five decades—or closely held in corporate or private collections.

Ford’s Total Performance era set the tone for Blue Oval products for years to come, and no car is more emblematic of the effort than the mighty GT40. P/1032 was not only part of this illustrious story: it was prepped by the legendary team at Holman-Moody; it performed on two of motor racing biggest stages, Le Mans and Sebring; and it was piloted by notable drivers of the period, including Walt Hansgen, Mark Donohue, and Paul Hawkins.

Benefitting from a wonderful restoration to its 1966 Le Mans configuration, chassis P/1032, one of just eight Mk IIs built, represents an excellent opportunity to acquire a piece of Ford’s legendary GT40 program—one that is, as Holman-Moody’s slogan so aptly put it, Competition Proven.