To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Ford’s first win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, in a fiercely high-octane battle with Ferrari that remains one of the motorsport’s most iconic stories, the carmaker has announced its 2019 Ford GT Heritage Edition, a tribute to the GT40 that won Le Mans in 1968 and 1969.
The car’s paint scheme harkens back to Gulf Oil’s Heritage Blue and Heritage Orange, the very same colors that have adorned many a race car for decades. It gets an exposed carbon fiber trim, special 20-inch wheels, orange brake calipers, and silver exterior mirror caps. The interiors feature blue and orange stitching to match the exterior, with various cabin components covered mostly in black alcantara. Of note is the seat embossment, which is said to be inspired by the No. 9 GT40 of 1968.
The 2019 Ford GT Heritage Edition boasts no mechanical changes whatsoever — not that it really needs to. It has the same 3.5-liter twin-turbocharged V6 engine as the original, which produces 647 horsepower and 550 pound-feet of torque, channeled to the rear wheels through a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission.
Ford’s latest GT Heritage Edition will have a two-year run: The 2019 model will get the No. 9 graphics based on the 1968 Le Mans winner, while the 2020 model will get the No. 6 decals of the 1969 winner.
As always, you can’t just phone up Ford and have them deliver a newly-minted GT to your home; customers will have to prove their loyalty to the brand before they can purchase the vehicle. An application process is expected to open later this year, so keep an eye out for that.
Photos courtesy of Ford
