Ford v Ferrari

[Inkriql]

Perhaps the appropriate title, summarized, broad and opportunistic for this time in Argentina, is the abbreviation: "F v F". For a change, here we will have another, more forgettable and tasteless: "Against the Impossible." I keep the chosen one to exhibit it in Europe: "Le Mans 66".

Yes, we have a good performance of the two main protagonists. Matt Damon is Carroll Shelby, and Christian Bale is Ken Miles. Seconded by other well-executed roles, the film is a dramatic comedy (now called "biopic"), which may have some bump in the middle, but is well endowed with complex action scenes, on different circuits.

It installs you from the very beginning in a recreation of the triumph of Shelby in Le Mans 1959, with an Aston Martin, and the appearance of the fearsome ghosts that the traditional gala test interposes so that you do not take it from above.

It is known that Le Mans decides for himself who wins; and he usually does it at the last minute. There is no sure win (ask Toyota). Since always, since it was first disputed, making a car that can last without breaking, and completing a race day traveling as far as possible is a technological nightmare.

It starts, and it takes you to the final triumph of Ford in 1966 (it was not easy or immediate) and that victory was not without controversy.

The film shows you that only with guts and delusional doses of unconsciousness those pilots could handle four-hour shifts, fighting each other, against cars of other categories, against the night, against the rain and against fatigue. That is Le Mans.

But the final scene did not reveal it to you. You know the story, but maybe not its protagonists. I leave it for you to find out.

Watch it at the cinema, if you can. If you saw Grand Prix with Ives Montand, if you saw 24 Hours of Le Mans with Steve McQueen, if you saw Indy 500 with Paul Neuman and if you saw Rush with Daniel Ruehl, how are you going to miss this one?

Then there will be your criteria to order them. Autoblog readers, present at the cinema, gave us their car movie rankings in this note. Now, there is one more to add.

The technique for the big screen

So we could find out in the special effects magazine VFX Voice, for this film 30 different cars were built, with special designs each, to mount the camera devices and movements and thus give the true driving sensation, without resorting to Green screens or digital effects in action scenes with cars. Yes, the picture was completed with the images of environment and context of the time, as was done in the other epic film of Formula One, the great Rush by Ron Howard.

The director James Mangold and his director of photography Phedon Papamichael have already been working together for five films, something essential to achieve that non-verbal communication that allows to anticipate and project what will be needed, and in what way it should be shown, to get the viewer into history .

When it comes to racing cars, and more when a distant situation must be reflected for more than fifty years, it must be introduced to the public in a world where the sound was the heady roar of eight and twelve cylinder engines. A technological war that confronted two schools: the European and the American.

A huge complication was to recreate that Le Mans of 66, a scenario where the challenge takes place, since in the current circuit it is impossible to record and it brings absolutely nothing. According to its producers, they had to rebuild the old French semi-permanent circuit with action sections shot in other locations in California and Georgia today, and assemble everything as a Frankestein.

A nightmare of planning for the production, since they also had to have continuity in the shots and add the climatic or hourly condition, since in a 24-hour race there are situations of rain, night, sunrise and noon. Here the visual effects and postproduction equipment have been worn, which have had long hours of work in terms of correction and masking of defects and discontinuities. A feat only possible with the technical and artistic arsenal that is counted today.

Without going any further, an example of this is the trees next to the circuit. In Europe they have cold colors of rainforest, and are different species from those of California or Georgia, which tend to warm or yellow different tones. Another challenge, which is common in vintage productions, is to eliminate cell phone communications towers, or advertisements.

Filming was carried out with Arri Alexa cameras, for digital information capture; and with the optical quality of the Panavision T Lenses, refined instruments that combine the legendary analog photography with the digital image processing of the current cameras, to which the postproduction processes are added, which operate miracles.

Another great protagonist in Le Mans in all its editions is the public, so it has also become a logistical challenge for other production departments. Production design, extras management, and costumes, among others. For this purpose, royal stands were built, to which both the architecture and the crowd in them were cloned. Thus they have had to place royal stands with a certain amount of people occupying them, and surrounded by racks with blue fabrics of 15 x 15 meters, as background, and constantly moving them between take and take, so that they function as parades.

The same has happened with certain period buildings that were built in 1959 and remained similar to the years in which the action took place. All a job of finding suitable locations, something that in the cinema is the daily bread.

It is remarkable the recreation of the time of the town of Le Mans, where the pilots lived in hoteluchos, and the improvised garages of the visiting teams were erected in chicken coops. The vision of the director and his power of conviction is to take you to that year and that career, to a place with a basic technology that only expressed itself very brutally in the car and around it barely. All human and corporate conflicts could well be set in medieval times. And they would be the same.

For certain scenes that were to take place in the North American stage, circuits were recreated such as its configuration of yesteryear, so that old Daytona was filmed using the current location of the Fontana circuit.

Maybe finding out about all this disappoints you a little. I try to be illustrative and to refer you that beyond the criticism that we are doing about this film and about the story itself, it is to tell you that the film of today and always is a great deception to which we all look above, accepting that what is seen and happens there is real, while we are experiencing it.

If that pact is maintained during the screening, and the director manages to get you into his artistic work, the cinematic phenomenon has occurred and you accept the deception. The article of marras perfectly defines that a spectator accepts in a Marvel or Star Wars production the creation of infinite worlds, planets or technological states, since that is fantasy and science fiction; This is why here, in the world of Le Mans 66, the commitment of the people who do it is to take you to a hyperrealistic world, that puts you in context in a world and a past tense and that will not come back.

This degree of detail should transport you to subtleties such as the typefaces of the commercials and the signage that was seen in those times. A thorough and detailed investigation that successfully fulfills its mission, if it goes unnoticed. If there were an incompatibility or a temporary disorder, certain sharp spectators and error professionals would point it out.

Another difficulty in the perception and appreciation of the public perfectionist of these films is when race cars circulate in different circuits. On those tracks that are surrounded by trees, such as Le Mans itself or to name another, Monza, a car launched at 70 km / h is perceived as going to 150. On the other hand, in the inverse relationship, a car that marches through a track nestled in a desert, as are many in the United States, you throw it at 100 km / h and it seems to be dragging at 50. To overcome this deficit you have to manage with wide-angle lenses and objects (especially those that may be motionless) ) near cars; as well as providing cameras on board with controlled movements so that they can develop travellings or approaches to pilots while driving.

The director's slogan was very simple. This should not occur or be seen as an advertising spot for a car, or as a Transformers movie, where the effects and speeds reach an unbeatable figure. That is for popcorn movies.

Here the challenge was another: give realism and present the difficulties of those times. It is one of the minimally enforceable likelihood commitments for a creative team that deigns to respect the protagonists of those years.

Each specially built auto camera could carry up to six Arri Alexa Mini cameras and an Insta 360 Pro camera used to be installed at the top, to capture environment vision at the same time. In addition, old Panavision T or C anamorphic lenses were used to cover the huge sensors of the current Arri Alexa cameras

The V8 and V12 were silenced, the projector was turned off, the room was silenced by applause, and we climbed wearily to our four cylinders parked in the garage of the mall. You have to rework.

If you want to read more, the excellent note of Gabriel Tomich, recently appeared. Or the note on the Ferrari 330 P4

Or the note I produced about Ford's foray into Le Mans, for the Salvat collection of the Ford Falcon.

Ford and Le Mans

Ford had defeated the fearsome Ferrari on the North American tracks with the Shelby Cobra, but that didn't seem enough, they had to beat them in Europe and especially in Le Mans, the traditional 24-hour event.

Started as a few, Henry Ford II wanted to gain the automotive prestige of the Maranello house, so he used a subtle tactic: he offered a little less than ten million dollars at the time for the purchase of Ferrari.

In May 1963, representatives of both brands sat down to negotiate; the American giant was going to buy from the small Italian manufacturer that dominated in Le Mans. At the last moment, Ferrari objected that his decisions (and budget) on the team depended on Detroit, and the operation reached a point of no return.

Faced with this scenario, there was no other option but to invest in engineering and development to go to the field and compete equally with the best cars, the best drivers, and more: much, much budget.

Such the bet in its magnitude, they got to work, Ford completely lacked experience in competition (due to an old American law that prohibited automakers from participating in competitions, and in making use of power as an advertising argument), something that was abundant in Ferrari and a reason for existence; So they went out in search of talent and experience. Ford had already won in the Daytona 500 of 1963 with an impressive 7-liter V8, so it was well pointed in the right direction.

That same year, in June at the 24-hour appointment a Cobra Ford came in seventh place behind six Ferrari (3rd in the GT category)

The Ford GT 40 is born

A special sports division was created to create a car that should have a central rear engine, with a wide wheelbase to develop good stability in rectilinear, (especially suitable for the long straight that dominated the La Sarthe circuit) and a height no more than 40 inches from the ground (hence the figure 40 in the name).

For the direction of everything they summoned John Wyer (someone who would eventually become a legend in himself), who summoned rookie Bruce McLaren (another called to make history) and the American and Le Mans expert Phil Hill.

The team's base was operating near London's Heathrow Airport and there the Ford GT40 / 101 was introduced and in its first foray into Le Mans in June it did not work out. During the race they left the three cars for lack of reliability, although they were quick. It was under the direction of Carroll Shelby (who was commissioned to develop) that the model would evolve, proving to be a contender to consider.

But that was not the case, the Ford GT40 Mark II version also ended up failing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans of 1965. Only in 1966 was there a car that could end the five consecutive wins that Ferrari had (the Italian brand would not return to have an absolute victory in the mythical race, and still remains the third most winning brand, behind Porsche and Audi).

In a race in which Ford led from the beginning; towards the end of the 24 hours the advantage over his rivals was undeniable. The three positions of the Le Mans podium were occupied by three Ford GT40 Mk II. The victory was for number 2 piloted by Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon. Then the GT40 No. 1, led by Ken Miles and Denis Hulme, and the one with the number 5, which Ronnie Bucknum and Dick Hutcherson piloted were located. Ford had not only got a deed for posterity, he had defeated Ferrari in his temple.

And then?

By 1967 Ford returned recharged, this time they had developed a new GT40 version Mk IV that had reduced by 130 Kilograms using a tubular frame built in aluminum. The Ford Navy had seven cars and began leading the race; but when arriving at the feared night of Le Mans three cars were lost in two accidents. On the other hand, the number 2 car driven by Dan Gurney and A. J. Foyt remained fast and regular (so he could beat the Ferrari that were 2nd and 3rd) after making lap records and averaging 218 km / h for 24 hours.

Gurney and Foyt's Mk IV gave Ford his second Le Mans victory; something that was repeated in 1968 and 1969. This last one was very disputed since the duel this time was with Porsche and it extended during the 24 hours. The GT40 Mk1 of Jacky Ickx and Jackie Oliver beat them for only two seconds at the Porsche 90