Story in Florida paper back in 2020 o Ford v. Ferrari cars, downloadable off net

[HistoryBuff]

Shelby's name rumbled 'round Daytona as film races toward possible Oscar wins
Dan Scanlandscanlan@jacksonville.com


(The net version has color https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/2020/02/07/shelbys-name-rumbled-round-daytona-as-film-races-toward-possible-oscar-wins/112227860/)





Florida Times-Union
Until now, if someone mentioned Carroll Shelby, only car geeks would know the wily Texas race car driver was behind the epic top-3 finish by Ford GT40s at the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans, some racy early Mustangs and a lot more.

Now Sunday's 92nd annual Academy Awards could mean many more know his name as 2019's "Ford v Ferrari," based on Ford's attempt to win Le Mans to spite Ferrari, stands nominated for four Oscars: Best Picture, Best Sound Mixing, Best Film Editing and Best Sound Editing.

As modern race cars screamed around outside the Daytona International Speedway media center a few weeks ago at the Rolex 24, we sat down with Jeff Bucknum, who played his father, Ronnie Bucknum, in the film. His father was in the third GT40 to cross the Le Mans finish line in 1966. So when the son got to drive an exact replica of his father's gold No. 5 GT40 on film, that "was the moment."


"We did a lot of driving, and that just felt like my racing. It didn't feel like I was part of my dad's history," he said. "When we did the finishing scene, having that moment when you pull up and stop and get out with the fans, done the same way they did it at Le Mans, that was pretty emotional to know that your car had that history. I kept looking back at the original picture as we were filming to see how they came a cross the line."


We also spoke to Robert Nagle, a veteran stunt coordinator who guided actors and stunt drivers through the film's racing action, calling the Le Mans action like a "gritty kind-of a street fight."

"I think I pinched myself a few times to see if I was dreaming," he said. "It had been around for a while and I was really glad that it came back around. I'd been hearing about it off and on. ... It was as arduous as it was fun. It was quite a monster to deal with, but it was fun and exciting to do."

"Ford v Ferrari" stars Matt Damon as Shelby, and Christian Bale as British-born driver Ken Miles, as they join forces to develop the GT40 into the Ferrari killer at the legendary 1966 Le Mans race. The film hit digital services on Jan. 28, and comes out on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD on Feb. 11.

After Enzo Ferrari rebuffed the Dearborn auto giant's bid to buy it, Ford fought back by entering eight GT40s in the 1966 Le Mans race, becoming the first American automaker to sweep the famous endurance race. Ford's documentary of that feat is "This Time Tomorrow," viewable at bit.ly/2u0PbXA.

Producers wanted to make "Ford v Ferrari" as realistic as possible, so two accurate continuation models built by South Africa's Superformance, licensed by Shelby to build Ford GT40 and Cobras, were used for close-ups inside and out. Many of the Ferraris used in the scene at its factory were real, and their total worth "exceeded our film budget," Nagle said. Replica Ferrari 330 P3s, Porsche 906s and others filled in the Le Mans racing action.

"The Superformance felt somewhere between a complete, full-blown race car and an older vintage car because the technology just wasn't that great back then," he said. "The Superformance cars were quite amazing. The other cars were good, but not nearly as good as Superformance.

"The Superformance was fantastic. The other ones were awful," Nagle added.

Bucknum has competed at the Rolex 24, Le Mans, and in IndyCar, and won the 12 Hours of Sebring. And while his father's GT40 was third in line in the real race, Bucknum said he had some fun filming that scene.


"I told all the stunt guys, I'm going to gas it and I'm going to take first in the first cut" Bucknum said. "So when they said, 'action,' and we got close to the line, I gassed it and I won. The director said, 'cut, cut, you are supposed to be third."

Along with the epic GT40s, there were other cars that have Shelby's mark on them. And fans flocked to see two of those iconic Shelby GT350 Mustangs run hard at the Rolex Legends high-speed demonstration before Jan. 25th's recent Rolex 24 at Daytona.

Jacksonville driver Darek Stennes' 1965 Shelby GT350 Mustang started as a basic white fastback at Ford's California Assembly Plant, then was modified at the Shelby operation. Stennes has driven it from Watkins Glen and Road Atlanta to Daytona and Sebring, most recently November's HSR Classic 24 at Daytona, as we wrote about at bit.ly/2S3kJ6W. And Shelby signed the dashboard in 1992, then drove it around Road Atlanta.

Stennes worked it hard for a lap or two, even dicing with the other GT350 on the famed super-speedway during the Rolex Legends, as seen in our video at youtu.be/ERWrUb2baOY.

"It has been vintage raced since 1978 on, so it's probably got 400 races on it and it has raced here for over 40 years," he said. "If people see it, it keeps the fire burning, especially with the movie out, so it's good," Stennes said. "A lot of people are noticing his signature there, which is about 30 years old. He drove it. He sat in the car when he signed that."


Parked nose-to-nose with Stennes' GT350 was another Jacksonville-based race car with some serious Ford inside - a 1981 Mercury Capri raced in the IMSA RS series. Brian Walsh's coupe was based on the Mustang of the period, with a 2.3 liter 4-cylinder making 220 horsepower, built by Craig Waldner. It raced between 1982 and 1984, when his late father, Jerry "Racer" Walsh, was racing a purple Ford Pinto his son still campaigns in vintage events.

"That was how it came from the factory. This car ran in the IMSA RS series in the '80s, and was run normally aspirated," he said. "My dad had one that was turbocharged he ran at the same time, 1979 to 1983."

As to the actors who drove the GT40s in the movie, Bucknum called Bale and Damon "fairly humble because they had a expectation for what it took to do the driving." And they made sure he got to drive the replica of his father's car.

"There were two lines that my dad had in the movie. It didn't make the final cut. But Nagle and Tanner Foust made sure I did all the driving in my dad's car," Bucknum said. "Plus I drove at least six other cars in the movie, mainly because my dad's car doesn't really show up until the end, and that's part of the 1-2-3 finish."

Much of the film's race car action was real, with Le Mans' famed Dunlop Bridge recreated at Road Atlanta, and more at America's Grand Prix Track in Savannah. As for how close to reality the film was, Bucknum said some "isn't just like racing." Nagle said "its exactly what we wanted." And Stennes said, "A lot of it's accurate. A lot of it's not really so accurate."

"But once you get past that, it's a good movie. It's a Hollywood take on what happened," he said.

Dan Scanlan: (904) 359-4549

[Kent]

Great Movie, I can feel the movie from the beginning to the end maybe the best car movie that was made.

And I´m proud to own a piece of the Movie

[98SVT - was 06GT]

They didn't use any of the Superformance GT40s for engine closeups - if they had you'd see Chevy LS engines.

[98SVT - was 06GT]

Great Movie, I can feel the movie from the beginning to the end maybe the best car movie that was made.

And I´m proud to own a piece of the Movie

One of the rare GT 350 Coupes - the wrecked one is sitting at OVC on top of the office where CS had stored all the old SA records he gave to SAAC so many years ago.

[gt350bp]

They did use one with a BBF 427 for all the sounds. The car was run for a couple of days at Nelson Ledges in Ohio so the movie company could get all the sounds.

Don
gt350bp

[98SVT - was 06GT]

They did use one with a BBF 427 for all the sounds. The car was run for a couple of days at Nelson Ledges in Ohio so the movie company could get all the sounds.

Surprised our own George Watters didn't volunteer to be the sound guy.

George Watters II was born on September 19, 1949 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is known for The Hunt for Red October (1990), Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) and Pearl Harbor (2001). See full bio »

Won 2 Oscars. Another 1 win & 31 nominations. See more awards »