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The racing history of the Daytona Coupe
The year was 1964, and something was needed to take care of the pesky Ferrari's in the GT class...
The GTO's were cleaning up at the race tracks of Europe - but a storm was brewing in the form of the Daytona. The open-topped AC Cobra's had been kicking everyone butts on the tracks of America, but couldn't quite cut it on the long straights of Europe. Especially at Le Mans, extreme speeds were needed for the legendary Mulsanne Straight.
A new design was needed and the closed cockpit idea quickly materialised into the Daytona Coupe. It battled with Ferrari all season long. The Daytona took a lot of wins but Ferrari claimed season honours when the last race was cancelled. The Daytona cleaned up in '65, taking the championship with ease. But the project was short lived and closed at the end of the year so Ford could concentrate on other projects.
The Daytona Coupe was certainly a landmark in car design and paved the way in race car development.
Did you know...
In 1964 AC Cars developed their own coupe much like the Daytona, so they could go racing. This was the car at the centre of the famous 'M1 Incident'.
It was an early morning start for the crews and drivers at the test session and with the car readied Jack Sears took the controls and promptly powered the beast to over 180mph. The story hit the headlines in the newspapers for quite some time, right up until Le Mans where the AC was destroyed after a tyre blow out.
In 1967 the Minister of transport introduced a 70mph speed limit on our motorways and some folk believe that the test sessions of AC (and various other car companies) were at the root of its introduction.
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