Le Mans Winning GT-40's 427 FE's

[chuckbrandt]

Hey Folks,
As I said, I'm sure there are many here who know a lot more about it than I do. I'm really just parroting back the info ford was putting out in their booth. Who knows how accurate it is.

Since the tunnel port was released to the public in '67 it stands to reason the high priority factory effort could have had them in '66. I'll try and research this further.

A low compression tunnel port combination (if that's what they did) is really interesting to me, I'm wondering what they did special to make that work.

There was a GT-40 at monterey, J-11 that had a tunnel port in it. This is a spare chassis that was finished later. It sounded NICE

Thanks, this is a very interesting thread.

Chuck

[marcocsx3121]

In the 70s, the lightweight pieces that were developed for the GT program were in demand for Cobra 427s. I managed to find an aluminum water pump and vibration damper, which were on CSX3121's engine when I sold the car. The heads were another matter, since they were fitted with smaller valves than used on the iron medium risers.

[Anthony]

I think the early MKII's used med riser heads, and the later MKII's had tunnel port heads, but with smaller valves ( ? 2.05's) to limit top end HP/RPM's to make the engines durable. They were not built for maximum power, but reliable power. I had always assumed the MKIV's had tunnel ports as well. After 1967, due to increasing speeds, there was a 5 liter limit placed on engine size, and therefore the GT40 MKI that won in 1968, '69 had a small bloick.