For Want of a Shaft

Before last week's 24-hour Daytona Continental road race even ended, a group of grim-faced Ford Motor Co. officials boarded a plane for Detroit, carrying a dozen battered 14-inch rods of steel. The rods were power output shafts for the transmissions of six 490-h.p. Mark II racers that Ford had entered in the season's first big sports-car race--with high hopes of retaining the world manufacturers' championship it had wrested away from Italy's Enzo Ferrari last year with victories at Daytona, Sebring and Le Mans. Ford had earmarked $6,000,000 for the campaign. The transmission output shafts accounted for less than $750--but for want of a shaft the first battle, at least, was lost.

Ford's woes actually started last August, when Ace Driver Ken Miles was killed testing a new "J" car at Riverside, Calif. The J was intended to supersede the Mark II, but it developed bugs; so Ford had to go into Daytona with last year's Mark IIs. Even so, California's Dan Gurney won the pole position by clocking 119 m.p.h., and all six company Fords qualified among the twelve fastest cars on the starting grid--despite the fact that Ferrari had entered three new "P4s," 900 Ibs. lighter than the Mark IIs and with only 40 fewer horses under their hoods.

Speed in the trials is a far different thing from speed over 24 brutal hours of competition around a 3.81-mile track with 13 gear shifts per lap. Hardly an hour after the start, one of the Mark IIs turned into the pits with a ruined transmission. To their horror, Ford mechanics discovered that the output shaft had broken because the steel was improperly tempered--which meant that the shafts in all six company Fords were probably faulty as well, along with the nine replacements in the pits. Sure enough, one by one the other Fords dropped out. Finally, all but one Mark II fell from the race--and the Continental became a Ferrari parade.

Averaging only 105.703 m.p.h., New Zealand's Chris Amon took first place in his P4, followed by two other Ferraris and two hardy little German Porsches. The sole surviving Ford Co. entry finished seventh. Ferrari Manager Franco Lini dashed off to telephone the news to Maestro Enzo in Maranello. Reported Lini: "Ferrari is pleased."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.