I don’t think the “now” was when to accelerate out of a turn, but when to go for the pass.
Saw the film this weekend and really enjoyed it. I knew a bit of the story beforehand (I enjoy motorsports, though I don’t know as much of Le Mans). I thought it was done really well.
Okay, my memory isn’t what it was, but in any case, my reaction to that scene was the same: “Obviously.”
I won’t claim to be quite as good a driver as those two, but I have driven on the California track shown in the first scene. Here’s me at Willow Springs in March 2009.
I saw it last night. Apart from nice cars, some tension in the racing scenes and a good performance by the dude playing Enzo, I was not terribly impressed for most of the reasons previously cited.
Carroll Shelby was an elite driver, but any personal impact his forced retirement had on him seemed underdeveloped and/or neglected by the film. He also comes off as a dick in the scenes where he takes over a plane for landing (I found this less than credible), steals stopwatches from the Ferrari crew, and psyches them out with a casually tossed nut. More critically, I found nothing ennobling or praiseworthy about the goal of beating Ferrari at Le Mans so the Ford Motor Co. could sell more cars. As such, I felt little or no connection to or caring about what the characters were trying to accomplish.
Also, from Wikpedia: “Enzo Ferrari… seldom left Modena and Maranello and never went to any Grands Prix outside of Italy after the 1950s.” He was most certainly not in attendance at Le Mans in ’66.
Enzo’s wife likely was at Le Mans in '66, she was certainly there five years prior, but I suspect the vast majority of moviegoers would think she’s just some little old lady and not recognize the relevance.
But the problem with that idea is that if you’re not driving the car, you honestly don’t know when to try to pass unless you’re sitting in the driver’s seat. There’s far too many variables about the car that would be important to consider that Shelby had no truly obvious method of knowing. Tire health, engine heat, tire health, how are your brakes doing?, and tire health were things that were not being transmitted back to the pits before radios were being installed, so only the driver really knew what might be possible on any given corner (tire health is very important, it’s where the literal rubber meets the road). Being able to see the corner in the third person could be helpful, but it would be a poor substitute, and Shelby almost certainly didn’t have even the third person view necessary to be helpful even if the driver could have heard them.
His saying “Now” might have been satisfying for himself, but it had no impact on anything else, and was otherwise meaningless in the titular conflict. I imagine he probably took a satisfying poop that day, and that satisfaction aside, it also didn’t have any impact on the race, and they wisely didn’t include it in their story.
the documentary 24 hour war is also very good. One thing the movie left out was in the 66 Le Mans Ford sent 8 cars and Ferrari sent 7. Movie gave the impression Ford only sent 3.
ABC did show the beginning and the end. The MGA was a bit of a shitbox, just two short steps beyond the TC. Like most Ford execs Beebe was a horse’s ass. I mean, he worked with Deuce, DeLorean, and Iacocca. And Shelby and Miles. And the Lotus 38 had a DOHC engine at Indy and all Ford GTs used pushrods.
I finally saw this today, and enjoyed it. One thing that I noticed that had nothing to do with the plot or the racing was the suggestion by Lee Iaccoca that Ford sell a sports car to appeal to the earliest of the baby boomers, who were now 17 years old and had some money. I was thinking how today (and even the past few decades) cars have been far too expensive for a teenager to afford.
"The Douche bag Ford Executive…, " Leo Beebe. Everything I can find regarding Leo Beebe makes me think this movie just made up the* douche bag *part of him wanting to do everything possible to sabotage poor old Ken Miles. Friends and family that knew Leo Beebe are outraged by his treatment in this film. Google him up.
A few things about this type “racing” that wasn’t explained by the movie. It’s an endurance race. Cars almost never raced. Drivers were given team orders. Lap times which weren’t to be exceeded or the driver could be pulled in and fired during the race. All that downshifting and speeding passed the Ferrari while Lorenzo Bandini is sneering at you through the window… I get the Full Hollywood Treatment. The 1st two Fords traveled 3,011 miles. The third place Ford was just over 100 miles back. The next highest finisher was a Porsche 75 miles behind the 3rd place Ford and 176 miles behind the winner.
The 3 new, state of the art Ferraris all broke down. The best of them dropped out 7 hours before the finish, 1121 miles behind the winning Ford.
That’s endurance racing. The last few hours when a team has such a huge lead, Team Orders are given to slow down, stay away from all other cars on the track and bring her home in one piece.
I’ve never been to Le Mans but I saw all these actual cars and drivers at Sebring and Daytona. Those 2 races were the 1st of the season and as a Florida boy I went to both starting in 1966. I had press passes at least twice at Daytona, 1971 for sure and maybe 1970. Had a team pass at Sebring one year. Am no expert but did live some of that movie. I have much to say about The 66 Le Mans finish later.
Here is a pretty good article from Hagerty.com: “The real story behind “Ford v Ferrari”.
