Manufacturers  /  Ford

Ford

Dearborn, USA · est. 1903

Mass production built Ford; Le Mans defines its collector-car peak.

Models
2
Top value
€5.5M
Period
1903–
Explore modelsManufacturer profile
Ford — manufacturer stage

Curated entry points

The essential Fords

Three cars that explain the manufacturer: its origins, its engineering peak and the shape of its modern ambition.

1964–1969

GT40

Four straight Le Mans wins — the definitive American racing car.

Collectibility
97 / 100
Indicative value
€5.5M
2017–2022

GT

The carbon-tub anniversary GT — application-only, class win on debut.

Collectibility
85 / 100
Indicative value
€850k

Complete catalogue

Every Ford on file

2 models · 1 families

Le Mans Bloodline

2

The cars built to beat Ferrari at Le Mans — the original GT40 in all four marks, and the 2017 GT that repeated the class win on the anniversary.

The house

Mass production built Ford; Le Mans defines its collector-car peak.

When Enzo Ferrari walked away from Henry Ford II’s buyout in 1963, Ford built a weapon instead. The GT40 won Le Mans in 1966, ’67, ’68 and ’69 — the 1-2-3 photo finish of 1966 remains motorsport’s most famous corporate revenge.

Just over a hundred were built across the four marks, from raw racers to the road-trim Mk III. Genuine cars trade in the millions, with works race history multiplying the number.

In 2016 — fifty years after the first win — the carbon-tub GT returned to Le Mans and won its class on debut. The road version was sold by application only, and the special editions already clear seven figures.

Founded
1903
Ford Motor Company was incorporated in Michigan on 16 June; the first Model A sale followed in July.
Model T output
15 million cars
Ford built and sold that total from 1908 until production ended in May 1927.
Production method
Moving assembly line
Introduced at Highland Park in 1913, it reduced Model T chassis assembly from 12.5 hours to 1.5 hours.
Documented sale
$11 million
GT40 P/1074 sold at RM Sotheby's Monterey auction in 2012, supported by period Gulf competition history and its use as a camera car for Le Mans.

Selected milestones

A bloodline, not a list.

  1. 1903

    Ford Motor Company is incorporated

    The company begins in Detroit with the Model A and a production-led approach to the motor car.

  2. 1908

    The Model T enters production

    A simple, durable car designed for broad use gives Ford the product around which it can build mass production.

  3. 1913

    The chassis line starts moving

    Highland Park applies an integrated moving assembly line to automobile production, cutting time and cost at scale.

  4. 1963

    The GT programme receives its brief

    Ford creates a unit to develop a purpose-built racing GT capable of contesting Sebring and Le Mans.

  5. 1966

    The GT40 sweeps Le Mans

    Three GT40 Mark IIs finish first, second and third, beginning four consecutive Ford victories at the 24 Hours.

  6. 2015

    The carbon-fibre GT is presented

    Ford returns the mid-engined GT as a carbon-fibre, twin-turbo V6 programme developed for both road and endurance racing.

What defines Ford

Engineer for production

Ford treats manufacturing method as part of the car, from the Model T line to the repeatable carbon construction of the modern GT.

Develop through competition

The GT40 and later GT programmes use endurance racing to test aerodynamics, structures, powertrains and reliability.

Rework the formula

The modern GT keeps the two-seat, mid-engined brief while replacing visual imitation with a carbon tub, active aerodynamics and a turbocharged V6.

The hands

Who drew and built the Ford files

One name in the register stands behind this manufacturer. Their own file follows the work wherever it went.

The whole register of people

The mark

The script came first.

Dearborn, 1907: Childe Harold Wills, Ford’s first chief engineer, had earned pocket money as a teenager printing calling cards, and when the company needed lettering he set the name in the same Spencerian script — the flowing capital F, the tail under the d. Trademarked in 1909, it has never been redrawn.

The oval began in Britain, where Ford’s agents stamped the name into a “hallmark for reliability and economy”; the blue arrived in 1927 on the Model A’s radiator. Script, oval, blue: three decisions, all made before 1930, still on every Ford built today.

Ford script: Childe Harold Wills, 1907 · trademarked 1909

Ford crest, 1903–1907

1903–1907

Art-nouveau filigree around “Ford Motor Co. Detroit, Mich.” — the badge of a start-up.

Ford crest, 1909–1912

1909–1912

Wills’s script stands alone — the lettering that outlived everything around it.

Ford crest, 1912–1917

1912–1917

The winged triangle: “The Universal Car”, navy and white — dropped within five years.

Ford crest, 1927–1957

1927–1957

The blue oval arrives with the Model A — script and shape finally united.

Ford crest, 1976–2003

1976–2003

The chrome-rimmed oval, standardised on every plant and product worldwide.

Ford crest, 2003–

2003–

The Centennial oval — polished for the hundredth year, flattened since for screens.