The Jensen Owners' Club

if there is any spare time left after working on your winter resto projects. This is a must read for the truely gasoline blooded:
GO LIKE HELL - A.J. Baime
Ford, Ferrari and their battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans.

Henry Ford II took it quite personal that Enzo Ferrari had sneaked out of a handshake takeover deal. Revenge driven he put the best men on the task to end the overwhelming dominance of Ferrari on the race tracks in the late 50s to beginning 60s. V12 vs V8 big block...

This story is in the make for a movie script. Scheduled release 2015.
First talent attachment is the Carol Shelby's character... played by Tom Cruise... hmm, we'll see.

I went to see the Ford v. Ferrari movie last night with John H Horsman, a friend of mine, who was Chief Engineer for JWAE. JWAE successfully campaigned the GT-40s at LeMans in 1968 and 1969, after Ford retired from the LeMans program.

John H, his wife Janet and my wife and I went out and saw the film.

When we went to the theatre, I cautioned John that no outbursts of laughter during the film would be tolerated!

It was quite an enjoyable, and exciting film. John, being associated with the GT-40 program as he was, said that he was impressed, and that it was a much better film than he was expecting. He gave it 1 ½ thumbs up (our of two)! I think that is pretty high praise.

He definitely stated that there was quite a bit of "Hollywood" in it, and he disagreed with the on-screen portrayal of Ken Miles - who (John stated) was completely dedicated to the Carrol Shelby programs, and wasn't (as portrayed in the film) in an on-again / off-again relationship with the Shelby. He also stated that Ken Miles was refined, well-bred, and articulate, and Ken was not the erratic character as portrayed in the film.

He also said that the actor who portrayed Phil Remington didn't look anything like him!

He also stated:
•In real LeMans racing (and even the test driving) there is a lot less tire squealing than there was in the film. Burnouts just take life off the critical tires.
•The LeMans pit area was well done, and just like it was back in "his day".
•In real LeMans racing, the drivers don't typically drive beside each other for extended periods, giving each other evil and contentious looks.
•In real LeMans racing, the drivers, whenever they get to some exciting point in the race, don't always jam down the throttle, and shift (either up or down) as they showed throughout the film.
•In real LeMans racing, you generally do not see red-hot brakes glowing when driving in rainy conditions.


Anyway, it was great fun, and a great film.

Here's a few pictures of the event, and some backup material.

I didn't see Tom Cruise anywhere in the film!

What a brilliant experience and to go with the man!
I'm looking forward to seeing the film very much
Thanks for your and John's thumbs up

We all know that there's artistic license in Hollywood even if based on a true story, it's 'American Hollywood truth' after all, the world wars were only just over two years long and was won by them single handed, but it's a film I'm looking forward to seeing knowing some about the story anyway.

Rocky,old darling, one must have some theatre otherwise you only get unvarnished truth and the punters (inc me) don't want that. It's all about the final polish. Which one was you in the pics? kenny38

Saw it Saturday. Good, clean fun.

I too went to a showing here in the states. We have a local club and once a months have Cars and Coffee meeting. At the Cenema we’re two speakers. One was part of the Shelby group at the time the other was a member of Holman and Moody race group that prepped the motors for Shelby General consensus was good. I liked it and am going to see it a second time with my wife and daughter and her husband. Racer Joe

i also really enjoyed the movie and was curious about the british roots of the first GT40 prototype. The respective Lola Mk6 looked simply stunning ... https://www.ultimatecarpage.com/img/Lol ... 66437.html
rgds
Thomas

Kenny, I'm the one in the blue shirt... Can't you tell the resemblance between the picture on the wall of the museum, and the younger-looking guy?

JHH is the good looking, studly one in all the pictures!

I'm just a hanger-on!


There were some questions about the origins of the design, which were answered above, but here's a couple of historical pictures of the same thing...

John told me the name of the shop that fabricated the coaches, and they kept building them for Ford Advanced Vehicles. I'll ask him again - it slipped my mind.

Rocky


PS> Note the bird peeking out the windows of the building behind the car. Reminds me of "Cool Hand Luke"!

Being in New Zealand, I was (in vain) hoping for a bit more of McLaren, Amon and Hulme. Oh well.

I have avoided seeing it so far because I feared that it would get the full U-571 treatment.
But one and a half thumbs up from the legendary John Horsman is good enough for me! Now looking forward to lots of mentions of Eric Broadley, Lola, John Wyer and Slough. Not to take any credit away from Shelby and Miles, but it would be a great shame to over Hollywoodise the American side of the story to the detriment of some fine men that preceded them.

My curiosity did make me seek out a review or two, though, and this is what I found:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... -left-dead
Still not sure what it is meant to be, but, regardless of the worthiness of its intention and agenda, that is not a film review in my book.

Now looking forward to lots of mentions of Eric Broadley, Lola, John Wyer and Slough.

….

Prepare yourself to be disappointed, then...

The only mention is when you first see the car at LAX Airport, and they say something like - "This baby has just arrived from England!"

My uneducated guess is that this could be the cause of the half of a thumb that John didn’t provide!

JamesE wrote: My curiosity did make me seek out a review or two, though, and this is what I found:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... -left-dead
Still not sure what it is meant to be, but, regardless of the worthiness of its intention and agenda, that is not a film review in my book.

That review reminded me of the criticisms of the movie "Dunkirk" complaining that the whole movie only contained a bunch of white guys.

Anyway - I heard that they are going to do a remake of "Dunkirk", and are recasting it...

Oprah Winfrey is going to play Winston Churchill
Neil Patrick Harris is going to play Eva Braun