I know many of you are not true believers. Some of you even drive electric cars and, even worse, motor bikes. And some of you have been saying we should have more arts coverage in this column. Sort of WAMAS — Weekend Australian Motoring Arts Section.
Anyway, all of this brings us to the greatest art form of all. Film. And what better example than the best car racing flick of all time that actually doesn't feature all that much racing. Yup. It's Ferrari vs Ford.
Friends and readers, this epic has it all. An evil American capitalist company, Ford. An evil American capitalist Henry Ford the second. An evil but very stylish Italian capitalist, Enzo Ferrari. A capitalist salesman who didn't invent the Mustang, Lee Iacocca. The world's greatest salesman, Carroll Shelby. The world's greatest driver, mechanic, father of one but not great husband, Ken Miles.
Now the film's PR people say Fezzer vs Ford is based on a true story. Translating Hollywood-speak that means Ford did beat Ferrari in 1966 and the people portrayed in the movie did have something to do with that win but most of the rest is about as real as a trip on ayahuasca.
Fifteen cars finished in 1966. Forty didn't. Ford did win the next two Le Mans. Naturally the unintended consequence of the movie will be to raise the price of anything vaguely resembling the Ford GT40s.