Days of McLarin

Last fall, I had been excited to see the movie Ford versus Ferrari.
Of course last fall was the heart attack,Aorta rupture and essentially my death.
Not going to forget Halloween Day anytime soon!
And last night, that movie was on the boob-tube!

So, I had to watch it.
Why?
Well, my first job was with McLaren Racing, mic'ing parts on tracing engines.
It was only a part time job,
And paid all of $ .30 an hour!
Yeah the good old days when tiy were just lucky to find a job as a teen ager!

The movie was a fun romp through my memories.
Of course everything covered was prior to my getting on with McLarin.
Carroll Shelby had made his splash on the world racing scene,
But he was a legend!
The GT-40 the fastest car I ever worked on.
Fun times!

The film follows the development of the GT-40,
The interpersonal clashes within Ford Motors.
And a general white washing of some of that history!
Plus an understanding of what happened to Shelby's friend Jeff. (sp?)

I would recogmend the film to anyone interested in the racing era: 1964 to 1969,
Politics of racing,
Or why Ford deserves its reputation as an abusive sponsor.
It is why I have driven either VW or Toyota my why life!

All I can say,
Is that the GT-40 was the scariest car I ever worked on!
It was also amongst the finest cars I ever worked on!
My racing days ended in 1977,
Except for a blast from the past in 1980's when a GT-40 was found in the rafters of a Garage in Renton, Washington!

I was working on a HP system in Idaho at the time,
So on one of my trips to Boise, I diverted for a weekend to the Seattle area!
Arned with grubby clothes and a flashlight, I crawled through this dump of a garage!
And there it was!
Areal GT-40!
It had actually never even been raced!
Rich man's boy-toy.

I got it out of the "upstairs" of the garage.
Inventoried the parts,
It was mostly there!
And the property owner decided to keep the car!
Yeah, it seems Kris works for free a great deal of the time!

Last I heard, it was offered for sale for millions!
(not sure what they were smoking!)
And remains unrunning and unsold!
There are just fewer whom are qualified to work on it, with time.

Good film to watch whether you like racing or not.
GG would not give it a thumbs up since she slept through most of it!
She wanted to warch Star Trek, yet, again!

And, no, the film did not sully any reputations!
Which says something given the deviants involved in the story!