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The SHELBY AMERICAN
Winter 2016 4
GURNEY/FOYT MK IV NOT BEING RESTORED
Ok, it’s a trick headline, used to
get you to read the text. Is that really
necessary? Probably not, but you can
only fit so many words in a headline.
“Not being restored” is accurate be-
cause the car is actually undergoing
“conservation.” J-5 is owned by The
Henry Ford. Following its 1967 victory
at LeMans, the car was returned to
Shelby American. The engine was re-
moved and dyno-tested where it was
observed to have actually gained 5
horsepower.
It was thought that the car then
received a replacement 427 but Ford’s
legendary engine engineer, Mose Now-
land, who was responsible for the Le-
Mans engines, identified it as the
original engine that was in the car
when it won the 24-Hours. And he
should know. Nowland, now 88 years-
old, is still the sharpest tack in the
box. He is a virtual encyclopedia of en-
gine details and part numbers. He re-
tired from Ford in 2005 after a mere
57 years with the company. He contin-
ues to be a living legend.
An on-line article about J-5’s “con-
servation” was posted October 27,
2015 on
Hemmings’ Daily Blog
, writ-
ten by Kurt Ernst. The
Hemmings
blog gets our attention every day and
often carries something like this, that
points us towards an interesting topic
we can weave into this magazine. Con-
servation, as opposed to restoration, is
what you do to a survivor car. You can
restore a car over and over again, but
it is only original once.
Following the post-LeMans in-
spection at Shelby American in 1967,
the car was displayed at the Auto
Expo International in Los Angeles in
September. After that it was returned
to Dearborn because Ford recognized
it as an important artifact of their rac-
ing history. The car was placed in stor-
age before being donated to The Henry
Ford in 1972. It was put on display in
the museum, on and off, usually
parked next to the original Mustang I.
It was also occasionally displayed at
concours and vintage events that the
museum felt important enough to war-
rant its appearance.
Mose Nowland [
left
] in the fall of 2014, in-
specting the rebuild of a 255 CID GT40
motor. He appears used to working with
kibitizers looking over his shoulder.
The old girl cleans up pretty good. J-5 was
brought to the Monterey vintage race
weekend in 2003 when Ford was the Hon-
ored Marque for its 100th anniversary.
Once the car was spiffed up Ford was
more easily persuaded to send it out for
displays. Here it is at Amelia Island in
Florida with Rob Walton’s CSX2286 in the
background. No matter what other cars
surrounded it, J-5 was always the star.
On display at the Henry Ford, J-5 looked
great from ten feet away. However, polish
and wax weren’t enough to cover some of
the normal storage wear and tear rough
edges. They were not convinced a total
restoration was the answer.