1965 24 Hours of Le Mans - Pre-race

Pre-race

For the 1965 season, the development and racing of the Ford GT40 was entrusted to Carroll Shelby. On Shelby's initiative, the GT40s were fitted with the same engine as the Cobras — an iron cast 4.7 L V8, and the Colotti gearbox that proved unreliable was replaced by a German-made ZF.

In parallel, Ford developed a new version of the GT40. The Mark II was developed by Ford subsidiary Kar Kraft in Dearborn under the direction of Roy Lunn. The Mk IIs were powered by a 7.0 L engine based on a Ford Galaxie block. As there was no gearbox available on the market which was able to sustain the torque, the car featured a new 4-ratio Kar Kraft gearbox. Two Mark IIs were entered by Shelby. The cars were finished in a hurry; as there was no time to run a fuel consumption test, Shelby did not know the real fuel consumption of the 7.0 L Mk II.

Scuderia Ferrari entered two P2s, a new version of the prototype, featuring a new DOHC V12 engine. Strangely, Ferrari dispersed some of his effort by entering a 1.6 L Dino 166. Two 365 P2s were also entered, one by NART, the other by Maranello Concessionaires. The 365 P2 was built around a previous year's P chassis with updated aerodynamics and featured a 4.4 L SOHC V12.

Several 275LM prototypes were entered by Ferrari customers. Ferrari developed the mid-engined LM for homologation in the GT category but was refused by the CSI. These cars are often mistakenly designated as 250LMs, as the first car built was fitted with a 3.0 L engine. The cars delivered to customers were 275LM powered by a 3.3 L. The performance of the 275LM was far from "real" prototypes but as the engine was a close derivative of production Ferrari engines, the car had proved very reliable.