TR8owner wrote:In reply to moTthediesel:
That's absolute nonsense. The rules changed for 1968 to favor 3.0 prototypes which eliminated the big block 7.0 Ford J cars as well as the larger engined Ferrari V12's. The rules allowed the older 5.0 litre cars since more than fifty examples had been produced. Ford officially withdrew from the program due to the rules change but John Wyer privately campaigned older 5.0 GT40's for the next two years and soundly DEFEATED the factory Porsche 908's and early 917's for 68/69. Not bad for a five year old design now running without factory development. The 917's only became dominant during 1970 at which time the 5.0 GT40 was now quite obsolete. Ford had accomplished what he wanted - destroy Ferrari. Porsche only became a major player a few years after Ford had officially ended the program. Prior to then they were only competitive in the 2.0 class with the 904's, 906's etc. The 904's could occassionally challenge the Cobras in the GT class for an over all win, but only under certain conditions.
Those pushrod V8's kicked a lot of Euro ass back then.
You're absolutely right of course, although I wouldn't say Ford destroyed Ferrari so much as outspent them (by what? 20X maybe?) in a Lemans "Space Race" --
As for the 917's - yes they had teething troubles the first year, but clearly John Wyer saw the writing on the wall, as in '70 it was the Panzers that sported the Gulf colors. Hardly surprising either that 904's didn't consistently beat Cobra's as the snakes had twice the cubic inches. But anyway, this thread was about illogical automotive bias, and as such, pushrod V8's will still always be the Walmart of performance engines.
When I open the hood of a new Mustang, or Camaro, the first thing I expect to see is a geriatric greeter.
and in a way, I do --- 
