When Ford stepped back into the fast car game, they wanted to bring a product to market that rivaled the glory days of Lemans and a stretch of road race wins that out-competed Europe’s racing teams.
Ford sent the race teams packing in 1967; from their fi rst L e m a n ’ s appearance it was apparent a new kid was on the block, the GT40, and it wasn’t going to step down. Ford went on to beat the teams from Porsche, Ferrari, and Mercedes, BMW, only to pull out of the racing venue after fi nishing on top.
Since the green light from Bill Ford Jr., a team of engineers set out to create another GT40 that was even faster and better than the original. By undertaking this project, Ford incorporated the Cobramatic® wire feed
technology into the production
system for welding the frame.
Because of the heat exchange between the welding process and the frame, an alternating weld pattern was created. With the use of robotics, the application would be placed into a fi xture and rotated through a positioner allowing the previous weld time to cool while the other side of the frame was being welded. |
