How do you evaluate the movie "The King of Speed"?

While staying at home during the Chinese New Year to avoid the epidemic, I finally watched this movie.

The quality of this film is very high, and the director almost perfectly recreates the slightly primitive but adrenaline-fueled racing scenes on the track in the 1960s. In this year's Oscars, which was just announced today, the film won two awards for Best Editing and Best Sound Editing with its breathtaking visual arrangements.

The two leading actors also performed excellently as Carroll Shelby and Ken Miles, two very famous figures in the history of racing. Especially Ken Miles, this film allows a wider audience to know this somewhat buried uncrowned king in the history of racing.

However, the title of the film seems a bit off-topic. Whether it is the English name or the Chinese translation, I feel that it should not be called Ford vs. Ferrari, but Ford vs. Ken Miles...< /p>

As a Ford fan and Aston Martin fan, I will share with you some side stories as a condiment when watching the movie.

There are minor spoilers, please read at your discretion.

1. Carroll Shelby was not the only candidate for the Ford GT40 racing project from beginning to end.

Brother Qiang has explained this before. Carroll Shelby's acquaintance with Ford was not a visit from Lee Iacocca after Ford failed to acquire Ferrari as shown in the film. His connection with Ford came from an almost empty-handed racing anecdote:

After Carroll Shelby won the championship in 1959, he ended his career as a racing driver due to a heart attack. In order to continue his beloved racing career, he found the boss of AC Cars in the UK and said to him: I have the latest Ford V8 engine in my hand. If you give me a chassis frame, this car will definitely be awesome! Then he returned to the United States and found Henry Ford II (Henry Ford II) and said: I now have the most top-notch racing chassis in Europe. You just need to give me your latest V8 engine, and I will I'll give you a championship! In this way, Shelby created the legendary AC Cobra.

▲Shelby Cobra 427 50th Anniversary Reissue

This performance is very legendary. However, in fact, Ford was not Shelby’s favorite at the beginning. It was a Chevrolet engine, but Chevrolet refused to cooperate with Shelby because it already had a Corvette. Shelby turned to Ford. At this time, Ford was suffering from not participating in sports events, and was "Today's Winning Championship" by Chevrolet. , The marketing strategy of "Win on Sunday, Sale on Monday" caused the market share to decline continuously. Therefore, Lee Ayka tried his best to persuade Henry Ford II to start participating in sports car racing, and the two parties hit it off. Therefore, , Henry Ford II had actually decided to enter Le Mans in 1962, and Lee Ikeka and Shelby had long been old acquaintances.

The GT40 project was originally handed over to Lola. It was developed by Eric Broadley, the chief engineer, and John Wyer, who led Aston Martin to the championship, was invited to serve as the team manager due to his consistent performance in 1964. Unsatisfactory, Ford made an emergency change of manager and handed the project over to Carroll Shelby. However, John Weir later established his own racing company JWA and used GT40?MKI to help Ford win again as a private team. The car that won Le Mans in 1968 and 1969 also became a classic. John later switched to Porsche.

▲1963?Lola? Mk6?GT

The project still showed no improvement in 1965. All three GT40?MKIs retired from the race at Le Mans. Shelby also suffered a crisis of confidence. He did not convince Henry with a speech like in the film. Ford II, but under the control of the villain Leo Beebe in the play, split the project among three teams, consisting of Shelby American and Holman-Moody in the United States and the Alan Mann team in the UK To ensure victory in 1966, Carroll Shelby and Ken Miles developed a lightweight 7.0L V8 engine for the model to replace the previous 4.7L V8, and the model evolved. For GT40?MKII.

So in 1966 Ford sent a strong lineup of 8 GT40?MKII and 6 private team GT40s to compete with Ferrari's 13-car lineup. , in fact, there is no real Ford factory team

▲The starting line of Le Mans in 1966 was full of GT40s

2. Aston Martin< /p>

Friends who are familiar with cars may know that Aston Martin was acquired by Ford in the 1980s and was later sold on the eve of the financial crisis.

In fact, Aston Martin and Ford are inextricably linked since the 1960s.

As explained at the beginning of the film and as everyone knows, Carroll Shelby was an Aston Martin Racing driver before the GT40 project and once drove an Aston Martin. Such as DB3, DB3S, DBR4, DBR1 and other classic racing cars, and drove DBR1 to win the 1959 Le Mans 24 Hours.

At that time, Ford wanted to enter the European arena. If the acquisition of Ferrari failed, it would definitely need the help of a team that understood the essence of the European arena. During the 1950s and 1960s, if you include Super luxury attributes, throughout Europe, apart from Ferrari, the only one that can truly compete with Ferrari is Aston Martin. Don’t forget, it was Ferrari that Aston Martin defeated at Le Mans in 1959.

The American cowboy Carroll Shelby, who retired honorably from Aston Martin, cleverly connected the two brands.

GT40 is modified based on Lola Company's Lola? Mk6, because Lola? Mk6 is equipped with Ford's V8 engine, which is the most convenient to modify. In 1967, Aston Martin also released the Aston Martin Lola based on the Lola T70 Mk3 racing car. What a coincidence, right? Later, in 2008 and 2011, Aston Martin teamed up with Lola to build prototype racing cars, which originated from that time.

The first team manager of the GT40 project was John Wyer, who had been running the Aston Martin team since David Brown acquired Aston Martin in 1947

The driver lineup of the Ford GT40 project is packed with experts, many of whom were Carroll Shelby’s teammates in Aston Martin. For example, Phil Hill, Graham Hill, Lucien Bianchi, Innes Ireland, Maurice Trintignant (forgive me for not translating the names one by one)

It is said that in the 1980s, Ford acquired Aston. ·In Martin's operation, Carroll Shelby was also the one secretly pulling the strings...

3. Ken Miles, the uncrowned king

As a car fan, really It's great to have such a quality racing feature film telling the story of Ken Miles to audiences. For the specific story, please go watch the movie.

In a large amount of information, including Ken Miles' friends, biographers and the media, they unabashedly expressed their indignation and regret about what happened to Ken Miles back then, just like in the movie Said:

"They?robbed?you."

▲Video screenshot

Because if Ken Mai He will become the first person in history to win the Daytona 24H, Sebring 12H and Le Mans 24H in the same year. Grand Slam riders in famous endurance races. And he played a decisive contribution to the success of the entire GT40 project.

In fact, although this conflict has been extremely intense in the movie, it is still not as embarrassing as it is in reality.

In order to make the confrontation more prominent in the film, Ken Miles failed to participate in Le Mans in 1965, but in fact he went, and his partner was Bruce McLaren (Bruce McLaren), yes, that is the McLaren that has now become a brand.

In the video, near the end of the race, the No. 1 car driven by Ken Miles is only 4 minutes ahead of the No. 2 car of Bruce McLaren. The No. 1 car only needs to slow down to let the No. 2 car catch up. Can. In reality, Car No. 1 leads Car No. 2 by as much as 4 laps, which is something that can never be lost. However, at the last moment of the race, Car No. 1 actually installed the wrong brake assembly during a pit stop. . . I had to stop again to replace the assembly, and the 4-lap lead was instantly wiped out.

And Ken Miles reluctantly agreed to cross the line at the same time on the condition that ACO "promise" that he could be recognized as tied for first in the competition. Unexpectedly, after crossing the line, he was ruled as a "difference of 8 meters". Second, the loss of the Grand Slam.

▲In the 1966 Le Mans 24 Hours, Ford successfully fulfilled its promise of defeating Ferrari in the European arena by taking all the podiums.

And just over 2 months later, Ken Miles died in an accident while testing the GT40 MKIV prototype J-Car. To this day, no one has achieved a Grand Slam feat.

Also share 2 little easter eggs:

4. Early car wind tunnel tests were actually made of wool?

The film also restores the scene of early cars being tested in wind tunnels. In your mind, the wind tunnel test should look like this:

However, in the absence of computer simulation, it is difficult to obtain the aerodynamic characteristics of various locations on the body surface.

So automotive engineers came up with this method:

▲Video screenshot

Yes, it is to stick wool all over the car body, and determine the surface of the car body based on the direction in which they flutter in the wind. Aerodynamic properties. However, in actual work, driving on the track with wool attached like this makes it difficult for the driver to drive, and it is also inconvenient for engineers to observe carefully. It is obviously unreliable to look at it from a distance with a telescope. This work is generally performed statically in a wind tunnel.

And this tool should not have been used when developing the GT40 MKI, MKII and MKIII. This wind tunnel testing method was only used when developing the new MKIV.

▲Ford engineers test the shape of the GT40 MKIV prototype in the wind tunnel

5. The pioneer of spraying champagne when winning championships - Dan Gurney

As mentioned earlier, the driver lineup of the Ford GT40 project is very strong, and one of them is also full of stories. His name also appears many times in the film, he is Dan Gurney. He is also a famous driver in the history of racing. As early as Shelby's time serving Aston Martin, he was Shelby's old rival in the European arena.

Later, after Shelby established his own team with Shelby Cobra, he became Shelby's driver. This is described at the beginning of the film.

In the 1966 Le Mans, the GT40 MKII driven by Dan Gurney unfortunately failed to finish the race due to mechanical failure.

After the GT40 won the championship in 1967, because the body came from the British manufacturer Lola and the winning driver was the British Bruce McLaren, it was criticized that this was not a victory for the Americans, so Shelby's team built Got GT40? MKIV. The GT40?MKIV adopts a new shape and uses an aluminum body, which is 30kg lighter than the GT40. It also sends a pair of American drivers Dan Gurney and A.J. Foyt. Winning the championship in one fell swoop made it possible for an American driver to "perfectly win the championship" driving an American car, and became the only one in history. There is no other script like this.

▲GT40?MKIV won the overall championship in the 1967 Le Mans 24 Hours

What is even more talked about may be the two "patents" owned by Dan Gurney .

One is that in the above finishing photo, you may have noticed that there is a special bulge on the top of the driver of this car. This was a tweak made specifically for Dan Gurney. At 1.93 meters tall, he couldn't fit into the 40-foot-tall GT40, so he had no choice but to slightly modify the roof. This modification has become an iconic design, known as "Gurney Bubble". The car on the roof is undoubtedly Dan Gurney's car.

The other one is even more iconic. Nowadays, when all kinds of racing cars win, drivers will spray champagne to celebrate their victory. When did this tradition start?

"I was so excited that when they handed me the big bottle of Mo?t & Chandon, I shook it and started talking to the photographers, the other drivers, Henry Ford II, Carroll Shelby and their wives sprayed. It was a truly wonderful moment, but little did I know that I would start a tradition that continues to this day among racing leaders around the world. "

Yes, it was on the top podium of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1967 that Dan Gurney's magic touch added more wonderful memories to the victory that day. It had a profound impact on subsequent motor sports. Later, the shoe drink invented by Daniel Riccardo was an evolved version.

▲Dan Gurney sprayed champagne on the 1967 Le Mans podium

In fact, the story of the Ford GT40 has been repeated by people in the history of world automobiles and racing. taste. What is even more legendary is that after 50 years, Ford once again built a GT to compete in Le Mans and once again defeated Ferrari to win the championship. For this story, interested friends can go to my column to continue exploring.

A car connects the past and the future - the inheritance and transformation of the Ford GT (/p/20954909)

"Return to Le Mans!" How the Ford GT uses an Ecoboost? V6 heart Continuing the Legend (/p/20940410)

I hope these little stories above can make your friends enjoy the movie more interestingly.

Original link:

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Text | Zhang Xingyu

Pictures | Internet

This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.