The long transatlantic journey lands the fleet of race-ready Mustangs in France.
Ford’s historic involvement in the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race is a heroic tale fueled by passion, competition, and performance. Most notably, it is portrayed through the Academy Awards-nominated hit film Ford v Ferrari. It conveys Ford’s aggressive re-entry into one of the most demanding and rigorous races ever, with Carroll Shelby and Ken Miles leading the team to a 1-2-3 finish in 1966 with the Ford GT40. After a long 47-year hiatus from the race, Ford would later return in 2016 with the addition of the newly re-engineered Ford GT. This year, Ford is scheduled to compete at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Mustang Challenge Le Mans Invitational. While fans are excited to see how the Mustang will perform on-track this week, the bigger question is, “How does Ford get 40+ Mustang race cars over to France in time for the big race?”
Diving into the logistics behind transporting a fleet of race cars across the globe, Ford Performance recently uploaded a YouTube video documenting the incredible feat. It all began at Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport in South Carolina, where Ford’s partners at Scan Global Logistics organized a massive Magma Aviation B747-400F freighter for the journey to Europe (24 cars by air and 18 cars by boat). Scan Global Logistics worked closely with each of Ford’s race teams to walk them through the ins and outs of international shipping. That meant hands-on training on what they could and couldn’t pack, not just the race cars but all the gear, tools, and spare parts they’d need for the week. It was a big shift from their usual routine of loading up haulers and driving from track to track across the U.S.
After months of planning and a great team effort from everyone involved, the 10-hour journey was a complete success, and all Mustang Dark Horse Rs safely arrived at their final destination. What really made the international trip even smoother is that each car came attached with a carnet (Carnet de Passages en Douanes(CPD), which is essentially a passport that allows you to import a vehicle into countries temporarily along with anything noted within its documents (i.e., spare parts and tools.) The Ford Performance team celebrated the monumental accomplishment with a group photo of all 40+ Mustang Dark Horse R race cars lineup up at the starting grid of Circuit de la Sarthe. Catch all of these cars in action on Friday, June 13th, and Saturday, June 14th, as an opener for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Source: @fordperformance Instagram