We went to a small car show this evening. There were about 10 Ferrari's, 6 Ford GT's, and several other cool cars.
My 2 year old son was walking around with his grandma. She would ask him questions about the cars and he would say, "That's a Ferrari" or "that's a Ford GT", etc. He knows his cars pretty well.
As they were walking by a Ford Mustang GT500 grandma said, "See the horse on the grill? That is a Ford Mustang." Will turned to his grandma with an angry look and said loudly, "NO, IT'S A FERRARI". Then he pointed to the back of a Ferrari F355 and showed his grandma the Prancing Horse.
Will was pretty upset that his grandma didn't know that only Ferrari's had horses on them.
After we left it got me to thinking about the horse on the front of a Mustang and the Ferrari horse. Did Ford put the horse on the front of the Mustang to piss off Enzo Ferrari? Or was it just a coincidence that Ford named their new car "Mustang" a year after Enzo Ferrari ticked off Henry Ford II?
We all know the story. Henry Ford II had wanted a Ford at Le Mans since the early 1960s.
In the spring of 1963, Ford reportedly received word through a European intermediary that Enzo Ferrari was interested in selling to Ford Motor Company. Ford reportedly spent several million dollars in an audit of Ferrari factory assets and in legal negotiations, only to have Enzo Ferrari unilaterally cut off talks at a late stage. Ferrari, many commentators have surmised, got right to the point of signing the deal and realized he simply could not let go of the entity that carried his name.
Henry Ford II, enraged, directed his racing division to find a company that could build a Ferrari-beater on the world endurance-racing circuit. This was the birth of the Ford GT40. Ford contracted with Lola to further develop the Lola Mk6 into a car that could beat the Ferrari's at Le Mans and the Ford GT40 was born.
If Ford did use the horse on the grill to tick off Enzo, that was pretty clever.
- Bill
My 2 year old son was walking around with his grandma. She would ask him questions about the cars and he would say, "That's a Ferrari" or "that's a Ford GT", etc. He knows his cars pretty well.
As they were walking by a Ford Mustang GT500 grandma said, "See the horse on the grill? That is a Ford Mustang." Will turned to his grandma with an angry look and said loudly, "NO, IT'S A FERRARI". Then he pointed to the back of a Ferrari F355 and showed his grandma the Prancing Horse.
Will was pretty upset that his grandma didn't know that only Ferrari's had horses on them.
After we left it got me to thinking about the horse on the front of a Mustang and the Ferrari horse. Did Ford put the horse on the front of the Mustang to piss off Enzo Ferrari? Or was it just a coincidence that Ford named their new car "Mustang" a year after Enzo Ferrari ticked off Henry Ford II?
We all know the story. Henry Ford II had wanted a Ford at Le Mans since the early 1960s.
In the spring of 1963, Ford reportedly received word through a European intermediary that Enzo Ferrari was interested in selling to Ford Motor Company. Ford reportedly spent several million dollars in an audit of Ferrari factory assets and in legal negotiations, only to have Enzo Ferrari unilaterally cut off talks at a late stage. Ferrari, many commentators have surmised, got right to the point of signing the deal and realized he simply could not let go of the entity that carried his name.
Henry Ford II, enraged, directed his racing division to find a company that could build a Ferrari-beater on the world endurance-racing circuit. This was the birth of the Ford GT40. Ford contracted with Lola to further develop the Lola Mk6 into a car that could beat the Ferrari's at Le Mans and the Ford GT40 was born.
If Ford did use the horse on the grill to tick off Enzo, that was pretty clever.
- Bill
