Over the years, there have been many Ford GT special edition models, or Heritage Editions, to be more specific. Most recently, that includes the 2022 Ford GT ’64 Prototype Heritage Edition, which pays tribute to the 1964 Ford GT prototypes that gave birth to every GT that has followed. Now, The Blue Oval is teasing the next limited edition model in this already illustrious lineup – the Ford GT Alan Mann Heritage Edition.
The automaker hasn’t yet released any sort of details about the Alan Mann Heritage Edition, but did give us a couple of teaser images via Twitter to whet our appetites for now. “The Ford GT Alan Mann Heritage Edition is a limited-edition inspired by the lighter experimental ’66 GT40 race cars that Alan Mann Racing built that would help Ford GT to become America’s only Le Mans-winning supercar,” FoMoCo said in the tweet.
Alan Mann Racing Ltd. of Byfleet, Surrey, served as a Ford factory team from 1964 through 1969 in Europe as the automaker sought to bring home a Le Mans win. At the time, Mann was quite familiar with Blue Oval race cars, having fielded them in a variety of races including the Monte Carlo Rally, Tour de France, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In 1965, the outfit turned its attention to the GT40 and began developing its own version of the legendary racer.
The Ford GT Alan Mann Heritage Edition is a limited-edition inspired by the lighter experimental ‘66 GT 40 race cars that Alan Mann Racing built that would help Ford GT to become America’s only Le Mans-winning supercar.#FordGT #LeMans pic.twitter.com/SenAEUvwJS
— Ford Performance (@FordPerformance) December 13, 2021
Alan Mann took delivery of two MK1 GT40s and proceeded to test them and figure out how to make the cars better, which it accomplished via weight reduction and suspension enhancements. A pair of lightweights were built with thin aluminum bodies and other enhancements, becoming the lightest Ford GT models ever built at just 2,160 pounds. Ford’s decision to switch all of its cars to its larger 427 cubic-inch powerplant ultimately sealed the project’s demise, but today, the Alan Mann lightweight GT40s remain cool pieces of history that certainly deserve a tribute like this one.
We’ll have more on the Alan Mann Heritage Edition GT as soon as it’s available, so be sure to subscribe to Ford Authority for more Ford GT News and around-the-clock Ford news coverage.
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