Ford vs Ferrari Film

[bertvorgon]

I heard this film was coming out soon, so we must as a group here go see it like we did for The World's Fastest Indian. Lets hope it is at least better than Le Man's ,which still cannot be beat for that opening 10 minutes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_v_Ferrari

It's also timely for me as I am in the midst of reading another BS LEVY book, The 200 MPH Steamroller, where it is fiction..BUT...he is actually telling the story of Ford as they head towards beating Ferrari in their back yard, with what is to become the legendary GT40.

Will be fun!

One trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjjsQG7VjqY

[datzenmike]

I remember my car model building years. I got a Ford GT-40 when friends were building anything muscle car. I loved that car. Had to mix black and blue testers paints to get the right color on the hood. Mine had the SOHC 427 'cammer' in the back with fuel injection stacks from some other model. It was one beautiful car, and still is.

[bertvorgon]

So I did go and see the movie, it was pretty good all things considered. It really was focused on Ken Miles as the driver, which was ok.

I had hoped to see more of the actual development of the the GT40 itself, but, as a "hollywood" movie, that would not have flown as well.

All in all I would recommend that you see it, it was an interesting time.

If you have NETFIX, this documentary really is for us car/race people and it is done like the homage to Paul Newman, by Adam Carrolla...THE 24 HOUR WAR

https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-cultur ... -hour-war/

Funny enough too, I am reading a book by B.S.Levy, The 200 MPH Steamroller, which is his "fictional", nudge nudge, wink wink, story of the Ford company both wanting to beat Ferrari, and, the potential release of the Ford Mustang, as a major departure for the usual Detroit Iron. Unfortunately he has NOT written the sequel yet.

He is also the author of: THE LAST OPEN ROAD, which any motorhead should read, it is beyond funny and that Mr. LEVY is a racer, for me, absolutely captures who we are as automotive people. It reminded me so much of my story: GARAGES, which documented my early days.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Open_Road

When I was at Sonoma for Collins GT race I just sucked up the history and ambiance of the track, and, the treasure of old race cars in those garages.

[510rob]

The movie called "Ford vs. Ferrari" is the Ken Miles story of being ripped off at the 1966 Le Mans.

[icehouse]

I thought the movie was great! I mean it's no Worlds Fastest Indian. I liked it though. It was cool to see on the big screen too.

[bertvorgon]

You got that right Rob! I got cheated out of a major win many years ago by a stupid time factoring thing that some of the SLOW guys came up with, really pissed me off.

[510rob]

That sucks Keith.

The movie was a good one and regardless of the H. Ford vs. E. Ferrari or whether it was really about Ford or Ken Miles or whomever, I thought the portrayal of Carroll Shelby was pretty decent in spirit - I can't imagine the amount of crap had to shovel in order to get things sorted out and get Ken Miles to Le Mans etc. I'm sure what we are seeing in the movie is only the tip of the iceberg. Plus, I doubt that Lee Iacocca looked as tough as the guy who was portraying him in the movie. That was good humor and terrible casting.

[gooned]

It was surprisingly good...could’ve been much worse, I think they did a decent job of trying to portray the intangible things that make a perfect lap.

[bertvorgon]

Some of the things that resonate with me in these "car" movies are the very subtle points that says the producers really talked to racers.

When Senna went to walk the course, to see every bump and nuance of a corner, is when you get fast.

Ken Miles talks about what it was like at high speed, the vision. Getting a mental image of a track where you do NOT even have to think about where you are, it becomes automatic.

I like to think that when we did the Knox walks we were imprinting in our brain all the subtleties of 2.2 miles of pavement.

[anguso]

I really enjoyed the movie, except for a few bits that grated. Flat knacker down the straight, looking across to the other car and then putting the foot down to get ahead... really?
Besides the silly accommodations made for storytelling, it was very entertaining.
The sound design, particularly, made me happy, seeing the film in a theater with a good sound system. Shortly after I saw it, a podcast came across my feed, where the sound designers talked about their work on the film. If you're at all interested in production, it's a good listen (and probably if you're not too!)
It's the "Behind the Screen" podcast from the Hollywood Reporter:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/f ... 0456893492

And I just noticed a new episode where they talk about other parts of the production. It'll be next on my listening list:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/f ... 0462897279

Enjoy!

[bertvorgon]

Those parts always drive me crazy...200+ MPH and your looking at the other guy.....how silly....

I can tell you from my experience, the LAST thing I did was look over at who was beside me and I was only going maybe 115 MPH..

The other night, for the 1st time ever that I watched one, one of the Fast & Furious movies was on.....beyond stupid.....I watched it for a bit, just curious as to How STUPID it would be.....No wonder the Tuner Crowd crashed and burned here in Vancouver.

I went to see 1917 last night and being a bit of a military historian, it was pretty good....except for some "Hollywood licence" that grated some on me.

[510rob]

On the notion of any of the movie 'characters' not being on full throttle the entire time...

Years ago, a friend ran the Honda Michelin series at Westwood. There was one of the drivers whom was frequently getting passed, which puzzled the other drivers because it was a spec series: spec times, spec suspension, spec cage, spec engine, etc = everyone is equal so no one should be getting passed like that!

One of the drivers went and chatted with the slow guy and it came down to the guy asking him 'we can't figure out why we are all passing you. Is there maybe something wrong with your car or something?' A bit of a discussion ensued and the slow guy said 'you mean you guys have it on FULL THROTTLE the WHOLE TIME?!?" in a flabbergasted manner, as though that was crazy.

So it actually does happen.

But I agree with your comment anguso, that was a bit of a lemon in the movie. You are kind of going along with some of the silliness, and then shit like that gets slipped in there for drama but it immediately loses anyone with any idea of what is going on. But then again, I guess they have to put that kind of stuff in there to sell the movie en masse so that people like us get to have the odd movie that is fun to watch. Storytelling at its best/worst.