SAAC Forum

Most of us always assumed the '67 commercial segment was filmed somewhere in LA.
That assumption just changed.

With help from the Michigan SAAC club (MCR and Bill Cook) we now know it was filmed at the Ford NAAO building
FORD NAAO BUILDING (North American Automotive Operations)

Recently I discovered a Ford PR photo from 1960 that show this exact location in Michigan.

Very Cool to get this new infomation...Thanks Bill

Recently we received information that confirmed some of the 7/10/1967 San Jose built date cars had '6A' trim.

We've noticed late cars built on the June and July days identified have both '5A' and '6A' trim.
It would be helpful to add the '5A' trim cars to the '6A' trim days built at SJ in June / July.

Quote from: Side-Oilers on December 13, 2022, 11:20:39 PM

Quote from: Richstang on December 13, 2022, 06:36:48 PM
The photo you noted as Miles Testing is striped as J7. I don't think it is the same J2 car
It was likely captioned incorrectly.

Attached is another view on the same tragic day with J2.

Rich,
I don't think that's RIR.  The trees aren't right, and I can't see any of the half-buried white tires that RIR had all around the track.

You're right Van. It looks like a wavy wall in the distance which would make it the Deaborn test track.
I believe that was a Ford captioned photo (published by Consumers Guide) that noted it incorrectly as Riverside. Good catch.
So does anyone know when Miles was testing in Dearboarn? There's nothing in my notes about it.

The other photo with more of a side view was also a Ford photo / caption.
I'm not aware of any other photos of the J2.

It does appear to be Ken Miles driving

The photo you noted as Miles Testing is striped as J7. I don't think it is the same J2 car
It was likely captioned incorrectly.

Attached is another view on the same tragic day with J2.

Yes, al three photos are from the same internet source at the Texas State Fair.

I beleive that event was in October 1966 and the GT40 is GT-104 restored for Ford by Kar Kraft.

Quote from: Side-Oilers on December 05, 2022, 05:03:51 PM
Kudos to the owner for bringing it back to life. 

Such a disaster would be a heartbreaking thing to know happened to your beauty.

BTW:  Nice and pretty-rare Sport Fury ragtop next to it.

That is rough day for the superbird!

I would suggest that is a hardtop Sport Fury with a sunroof.
Maybe even more rare than a convertible. I'm not familiar with the Mopar land yachts

A few weeks after the first clay design (pictured in the original post), on July 11, 1963 we see pictures of a revised Ford GT design.

This next version is labeled as S-6500 –1 through at least -11. (I'm missing the images for -1 and -6) They revised both sides to include the three strakes as one single design. The Ford designers added an intake vent above the rear tires and push the exhaust tips out further away from the center of the rear. Otherwise it looks very similar. It still appears to have the canopy where the driver entered the cockpit, as shown in the cut lines. No doors ...yet.

The next revision of the design does not appear publically until early October 1963.
By then it appears to have lost the canopy, gaining the famous winged doors.

Thanks for the reply Jim,

That image needs to be renamed, as you said we know Lola was NOT yet involved with the FORD GT development, at that point

I agree the Lola MK6 was developed independent of the Ford. They were both built to meets the GT race class requirements in Europe. The Lola appeared at the January 1963 London Motor show in what appears to be a complete finished street car. There are photos of it racing in May at both Silverstone (11th) and at the Nurburgring (19th) ) before Le Mans in June. I have no doubt Ford was studying it as they designed their own GT version.  According to 'Racing Sports Cars', the last race Lola itself was in, was Le Mans in June, where it was a DNF. After that the car was raced by others outside the company.

A four page blue letter 'Ford Executive Communication' from December 1963, concurs with your post on the time frame of the development. It appears Ford start developing the working Ford GT version around September 1963. By the end of October 1963, Lunn , Mclaren, and Wyer are pictured tested the Lola bodied car at Monza.

photos of revised July '63 clay model in next post

The first clay mock up had two design versions. A different design on each side (typical for the clay models)
One side strake on the left side and three strakes on the right side

It had the one piece canopy at the beginning, as we see in position of the body cut lines.


EDIT:
REMOVED FILE WITH 'LOLA COLLABORATON" NAME. Remaned as just ford date and code and attached same photo

Thanks Van, great to see your post!

It does have a Testarossa feel to the design. That Ford designer must have gone crazy in '84.
Maybe those side strakes would have helped slighly in the Mulsanne straight.

It's no secreat I have hunted for all development photos (Ford) that can be found on the web .

Attached is a photo dated from June 11th, 1963 showing the start of the full sized GT40 clay model.
On the same date there are about 4 renderings that were relaseed, with a red backgound.
They don't look like the same design, so I imgine there were more renderings made.

A few days later, on the 19th, the finished clay design is photographed completed in light blue metallic.
There apeear to be at least 10 images of that design per the identification numbers 1 - 10.
(I usually just find 8 views per designs from Ford)
To date I have only found S-6453 -1,-2,-3,-5,-6, &-10 (missing -4,-7,-8, &-9 and no others after -10)

These are the earliest photos found, so far, over many years of looking

A document shared with me, by the seller, notes it was exported March 28, 1967.
Here is a rear view of the car on the same day as the above photo.

There were NO Factory black painted 67 GT350s or GT500s ever completed with a '5U' parchment interior

Only 3 black GT500s were completed and all with '5A' comforweave black interior (#01060, 01882, 03190)
Parchment was a rarely used color interior (237 units) and only availible on some of the paint colors

More info on paint and trim can be found on our attached SRG post;
   https://groups.google.com/g/shelbyresearch/c/xMh2RMLAXdc

That must be farmland humor from the midwest. Yes, it's wasted on us suburbanites in the northest.
My family in Cunningham, PA has a horse farm with acres of corn fields, but cows are not familiar to me.

Is that supposed to be related to Dan Gurney?

I don't recognize that name either. What is the CSX number so we can look up the history

Don't the car manufacturers use 'Dynock" for covering the clay models n glossy paint colors.
Is that what we are seeing in this photo with the peeling paint?
I've never run into any photos like that before from Shelby American.