Enzo's Ferraris

The Ford-Ferrari Wars

Ferrari continued its winning ways through the 1960s. However, from 1963 to 1967 a fierce battle was joined on the race courses of the world between Enzo's Ferraris and upstart racers powered by Ford engines. In 1963, Californian Carroll Shelby fielded his Ford-powered Cobra roadsters in the endurance races at Daytona, Sebring, and Le Mans. Although they were outclassed by Ferrari's 250 Testa Rossas and 250 GTOs, Cobras managed to finish 4th in GT class at Daytona, 6th at Sebring, and 4th at Le Mans.

1963 Roger Penske's Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa leads Pedro Rodriquez's 250 GTO at Le Mans

The "war" heated up even more in 1964, when Ferrari fielded a new 250GT to counter Shelby's new Cobra Daytona Coupe. Ferraris won GT class in the races at Daytona, Targa Florio, Spa, Nurburgring, Reims, and the Tour de France, while Cobras won GT class at six other races, including Sebring and Le Mans. What would have been the deciding race at Monza was canceled, giving Ferrari the World GT Championship by 84.6 points to Cobra's 78.3 points. The Ford-Ferrari war escalated even further in 1965, when Shelby mounted an all-out attack, led by redesigned Daytona Coupes, that resulted in Cobra winning the World GT Championship by 124.9 points to Ferraris 61.6 points.

1964 Pedro Rodriguez, in the Ferrari 250GT, leads a Cobra roadster at Daytona

Meanwhile, Ford introduced its GT-40 in 1964 to do battle with Ferrari's sport prototypes (like the 250P, 275P, and 330P) at the 24-Hours of Le Mans. The GT-40 was fast but unreliable in 1964 and, although the GT-40 won the races at Daytona and Sebring in 1965, in both years Ferrari sports protoypes won the Le Mans races.

1965 This Belgian Ferrari 275LM was the sister car to the Ferrari that won at Le Mans

In 1966, Ferrari introduced the 330P3. But Ford's all-out assault on Le Mans produced victory for Ford, with a 1-2-3 sweep by its GT-40 Mk. IIs. In 1967, the Ferrari prototype racer was upgraded to the model 330P4, but Ford again won Le Mans, with the GT-40 Mk. IV of Dan Gurney and A.J. Foyt holding off to win over the Ferrari 330P4 of Mike Parkes and Ludovico Scarfiotti.

1967 The Ferrari 330P4 of Mike Parkes and Ludovico Scarfiotti place 2nd at Le Mans

With the rules changed to limit engine size for the 1968 sports car championship, Ferrari withdrew factory support that year. But, Ferrari re-entered sports car racing in 1969 with the new 312P model. In both 1968 and 1969, however, Ford GT-40s fielded by Gulf Racing won the race at Le Mans.

1969 The Ferrari 312P of Pedro rodriguez and Chris Amon at Brands Hatch

Despite the World GT Championship victory of Shelby's Cobra and the four consecutive Le Mans victories of the Ford GT-40s, during the decade of the 1960s Ferrari still dominated sports car racing. The prancing horse won 23 World Sports Car Championship races and the championship itself in every year except 1966, 1968, and 1969, which were won by the Ford GT-40.

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Last Updated: January 1, 2003