REEL FACE: | REAL FACE: |
Matt Damon
Born: October 8, 1970 Birthplace: Boston, Massachusetts, USA | Carroll Shelby
Born: January 11, 1923 Birthplace: Leesburg, Texas, USA Death: May 10, 2012, Dallas, Texas, USA |
Christian Bale
Born: January 30, 1974 Birthplace: Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK | Ken Miles
Born: November 1, 1918 Birthplace: Birmingham, England, UK Death: August 17, 1966, Riverside International Raceway, California, USA (test driving crash) |
Caitriona Balfe
Born: October 4, 1979 Birthplace: Dublin, Ireland | Mollie Miles
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Jon Bernthal
Born: September 20, 1976 Birthplace: Washington, D.C., USA | Lee Iacocca
Born: October 15, 1924 Birthplace: Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA Death: July 2, 2019, Los Angeles, California, USA |
Josh Lucas
Born: June 20, 1971 Birthplace: Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA | Leo Beebe
Born: July 20, 1917 Birthplace: Williamsburg, Michigan, USA Death: June 30, 2001, Jacksonville Beach, Florida, USA |
Tracy Letts
Born: July 4, 1965 Birthplace: Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA | Henry Ford II
Born: September 4, 1917 Birthplace: Detroit, Michigan, USA Death: September 29, 1987, Detroit, Michigan, USA (pneumonia) |
Remo Girone
Born: December 1, 1948 Birthplace: Asmara, Central Region, Eritrea | Enzo Ferrari
Born: February 18, 1898 Birthplace: Modena, Kingdom of Italy Death: August 14, 1988, Maranello, Italy |
Ray McKinnon
Born: November 15, 1957 Birthplace: Adel, Georgia, USA | Phil Remington
Born: January 21, 1921 Birthplace: Santa Monica, California, USA Death: February 9, 2013 |
Alex Gurney
Born: September 4, 1974 Birthplace: Newport Beach, California, USA Portrays his father in the movie. | Dan Gurney
Born: April 13, 1931 Birthplace: Port Jefferson, New York, USA Death: January 14, 2018, Newport Beach, California, USA (complications from pneumonia) |
Yes. In the early 1960s, Henry Ford II's love for car racing was part of the reason that he decided that the Ford Motor Company would start competing. The other part had to do with the fact that Ford needed a marketing boost in the face of slipping sales and stiff competition from GM, especially when it came to attracting younger buyers. The only problem was that Ford didn't have a sports racing car in its fleet. By 1963, Henry Ford II (the grandson and namesake of the company's founder) decided that the quickest way to get Ford on the racetrack would be to buy Ferrari. Ford sent a group of dealmakers to Modena, Italy to hash out a deal with Enzo Ferrari, which took months of meticulous negotiation. The negotiations are expedited for the sake of the movie.
The Ford v Ferrari true story reveals that Ford's offer was $10 million. At first, Enzo Ferrari agreed to the deal, but there was a clause in the contract which stated that Ford would control the racing budget (and in turn the decisions). Enzo Ferrari (also known as "Il Commendatore") couldn't handle the idea that anyone else would control the decisions regarding his race team, so he bailed on the deal. Ferrari using Ford to leverage more money out of Fiat is fiction. Fiat didn't buy a stake in Ferrari until early 1969, well after Ford's first Le Mans win. It's true that an angry Henry Ford II sought revenge by directing his company's finances toward putting together a racing team and building a sports car that could beat Ferrari, specifically at the most prestigious car race in the world, the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Yes. Shelby (portrayed by Matt Damon) had been only the third American driver to ever win at Le Mans, co-driving an Aston Martin DBR1 (with Englishman Roy Salvadori) to victory in 1959. A Ford v Ferrari fact check confirms that a life-threatening heart ailment, angina pectoris, prompted Shelby to retire as a race car driver. Like in the movie, he was prescribed nitroglycerin tablets. He also wanted to put his focus into building cars. He received a heart transplant several decades later in 1990.
Yes. The Ford GT40s (they stood just 40 inches high) that competed at Le Mans in 1964 and 1965 were far from perfect. While exploring how accurate Ford v Ferrari is, we learned that Ford failed to finish the race both years. Though the cars were fast, they broke down. Gearboxes failed, head gaskets blew, and the front brake rotors heated up to 1,500 degrees in seconds and stopping working. The aerodynamics were also dangerously bad. At over 200 mph, the cars developed so much lift they'd encounter wheelspin. While test driving the vehicles in 1964, two aerodynamically unstable GT40s crashed. The accidents prompted Ford test driver Roy Salvadori to quit. "I opted out of that program to save my life," he commented. -Popular Mechanics
No. Other than providing certain archival materials for research, Ford didn't participate in the production of the film. The movie is based on A.J. Baime's 2009 book Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans.
Not exactly. The Ford v Ferrari movie depicts automotive designer Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) and British driver Ken Miles (Christian Bale) as mavericks who fight corporate interference, namely from Ford's racing director, Leo Beebe (Josh Lucas). In order to create a more compelling story around its two main characters, Shelby and Miles, the movie largely omits the vast cast of participants who were responsible for the success of the GT40 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. A Ford v Ferrari fact check reveals that in addition to Shelby and Miles, many other talented Ford employees and contractors worked to solve the complex set of engineering hurdles in an impossibly tight time frame. This included the Ford bureaucrats at the Dearborn, Michigan headquarters, nicknamed the Glass House.
Yes. Though it's not in the movie, investigating the true story confirms that this actually happened. Gurney's car expired on the final corner and Ken Miles passed him, taking first place. Gurney then pushed his car across the finish line. His son, Alex Gurney, also a racer, portrays him in the Ford v Ferrari movie.
No. During our exploration into Ford v Ferrari's historical accuracy, we learned that the race at Willow Springs Raceway in California never actually happened in real life. It was created to help develop the personalities and relationship of race-team leader Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) and his driver Ken Miles (Christian Bale). -Car and Driver
No. Carroll Shelby never bet Henry Ford II his entire business so that Ken Miles could drive at Le Mans. Ford's right hand Leo Beebe (portrayed by Josh Lucas) did object to risks that Ken Miles took on the track, but the tension between Shelby and Beebe in the movie is significantly dramatized. Shelby also never carried a sign over to the shoulder of the track that read, "7,000+ go like hell."
Yes. Not included in the movie, this happened several weeks before the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race. Ford wrote the message on a business card and handed it to Beebe, who kept it in his wallet for the rest of his life. In the film, Leo Beebe is portrayed by Josh Lucas.
The Ford GT40 brought Ferrari's dominance at Le Mans to an end in 1966, when the Ford GT40 Mark IIs captured first, second and third place. Ford also took the top spot at Le Mans the following three years - 1967, 1968 and 1969. Factory support was withdrawn after the 1967 win. Privately owned GT40s captured the top spot in '68 and '69.
The film's intense racing footage is 100% real with no computer generated effects. One of the only things that is CGI is the shots of the crowd, due to the enormous size of the audience, which would have been difficult to recreate.
No. The cars that still exist are worth millions and are far too valuable to be used in a movie. Instead, period-correct replicas were built for the film, including the Le Mans-winning Ford GT40s and Ferrari 330 P3s. The Ford GT40 that takes first place at Le Mans in the movie is a Superformance GT40 Mk II replica that was borrowed from Shelby collector William Deary. It is an exact copy of the original (pictured below), both inside and out.
Yes. Ken Miles, who is portrayed by Christian Bale in the film, died two months after the 1966 Le Mans. He was killed during a freak accident while test driving the Ford J-car, which was to be the successor to the Ford GT40 Mk II. Miles was approaching the 1-mile, downhill back straight at the Riverside International Raceway in Southern California, going over 200 mph. Rear end lift caused the car to loop, flip, crash and catch fire, breaking into pieces and ejecting Miles. He died instantly.