Ford Vs Ferrari Ending Explained | Movie Spoilers
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Today I am going to explain and recap a true story-based film, called Ford versus Ferrari. The film begins with a voice-over by an American car driver named Karol Shelby. He narrates how it feels while driving the car at 7000 RPM. Shelby was the only racer from America to win the Le Mans race. He was a member of the 1959 winning team. His heart was weak due to high-speed racing, so doctors had advised him to quit racing. After the 1959 race, Shelby founded an auto company called Shelby American Inc. Where he used to put engines brought from Europe on American cars. Shelby was converting ordinary cars into racing cars. He also had his racing team which participated in many races.
One of the drivers of these racing cars was Ken Miles. Shelby and Miles were good friends. Ken Miles was a racer and mechanic. He had his garage business. This was his livelihood. Car racing was just a side income for him. He was a British citizen, he volunteered in world war two. He was a staff sergeant of the Tank Division of the British Army. He took part in the famous D-Day of 1944. The Normandy landings. After the war, he came to America and settled. His wife's name was Molly and his son's name was Peter. Ken Miles was angry by nature and used to tell people his thoughts about them directly on their faces.
During one race a racing official does not permit his car to race. As its dicky's height was above the permissible limit. Ken now angrily starts arguing with that officer. Shelby tries to persuade him. During the heated argument, Miles throws a ranch at him. Later he beats the car with a hammer and brings its dicky within the limits. He drives the race in anger and wins the race easily. Later, Shelby keeps that ranch in his office as a memento. Here, Clearly, Miles was an unpredictably angry man. After some days, IRS raids Miles's business and seizes his garage. Miles had not paid taxes so he had lost his garage. That garage was his livelihood, hence now he had to support his family somehow. He starts working as a mechanic in another garage. Time was the big issue for him hence he quits racing.
On the other side, Henry Ford Second, at Ford Motor Company, was troubled by his company's declining car sales. He felt that his father's company would be closed in his time. That's why he called a meeting of his officers to improve the sales and any new bright ideas. A young marketing officer, called Lee Luck, shows him the reality. He says that today's boys want new cars, race cars, fast cars. It should be sexy in appearance. Like Ferrari. No one wants 50's boxed cars. People like Ferrari as it's fast and constantly wining "24 hours Le Mans race". If we buy Ferrari and market it as Youngsters friendly then the sales of the company will skyrocket. In 1963, Ford did not have racing cars, they only made cars for ordinary folks. Mr. Ferrari's financial condition was also not good as he had both demand and supply problems. His was a small company compared to Ford since he was making only luxury cars many couldn't afford it.
They had spent tons of money on R and D. Now Henry Ford decides to buy Ferrari, and he sends his team to Italy. There, Mr. Enzo Ferrari welcomes Ford's team by studying their condition for sale. In it, it was written that Ford would control Ferrari's racing team and they will brand it as Ford's. Mr. Ferrari had sent a copy of this offer to Fiat, a big car manufacturing company in Italy. He was hoping to get a better deal from them. In Fiat's deal, Ferrari was getting full control of the racing team. Enzo Ferrari was a nationalist who was never ready to sell his company to Americans. He tells Ford officials, that no American can make such great cars, Americans can only make cars with boxes, he also abuses Henry Ford personally. This news makes Henry Ford very angry, he owes to defeat that Italian in his own race. That is in 24 hours Le Mans. Ford was now ready to shed money like water for this. Ford Company has now started forming its new race team. According to one record, Ford had budgeted 100 million dollars for this.
Lee now pays a visit to Shelby and asks him to be in charge of Ford's new race team. Shelby also agrees. He now proceeds to Miles and asks him to join the new team. But Miles was not ready hence he asks him for some time to think. Meanwhile, Miles's wife Molly sees them talking. She angrily asks Miles if he's going to race again. Miles was not getting good money in Shelby's racing, he was also busy with his work, if he started racing again then he could lose his job. Miles tells her about the offer in detail. I will have to test the cars and race them if Ford wants me to do it. For this, they are offering 100 dollars a day. This amount was very high at that time, more than 50 times Miles's job. Seeing the money, Molly permits him. Now Ford brings its G T 40 race car from England to America. Engineers, Miles of Shelby Company starts working on it. During a test, the car catches fire, and Miles narrowly escapes. After doing a lot of tests, and upgrading they make it a race-ready. But it wasn't up to the mark for international racing. A few days later, there was going to be a big race in France, in which Ford's officials wanted to test this new car.
Now, Leo Baby, the vice president of Ford, takes center stage. He orders another experienced racer to join the race instead of Miles. He believed that Miles's personality and anger issues are not compatible with Ford brad. Such a man cannot join the Ford brand. Shelby tries hard to convince Leo but he fails. This makes Miles very angry and he leaves the job. Ford loses badly in the 1964 race. The car's gearbox was knocked out in the race. Henry Ford was furious at losing the race. Shelby tells him that the quality of the car is as important as the driver who drives it. He also talks about the bureaucracy at the Ford company, and how the files go up to 20 tables to make a decision. How non-technical staff are taking the technical decisions? He asks Henry Ford for a free hand and talks about hiring Miles again.
Later Shelby sees Miles, he asks him to come back and promises him that he will definitely be on the next team. Miles agrees. Again engineers, Miles, and Shelby were engaged in the design and testing of the car. One day his son Peter and Molly see Miles's testing. That day, Miles was testing at full speed. The car fails at that speed, its break was down. This leads to a big explosion. Miles was wearing his fireproof suit and hence survived. In such an accident, the drivers have to get out of the cars as quickly as possible, or else they will die instantly. Airbag technology had just arrived, it needed lots of improvement. After a few months of hard work, the car was now completely ready. Now the next race was in the US state of Florida. Like Le Mans, here too the race was going to run continuously for 24 hours. Its name was Daytona 24 but nowadays it is called Rolex Daytona 24.
Shelby wanted Miles on this race. Now Lee tells Shelby that Leo will not allow Miles to race under any circumstances. So if he wants to get Miles to race then he has to do something different. Leo still believed that Miles was not a Ford material. One day Henry Ford & Leo arrive at the testing center to see the progress. Shelby put Henry Ford in a G T 40 and took him for a round at 6000 RPM speed. Henry Ford's condition deteriorates in the car. He starts crying loudly as he was completely shaken. An ordinary body can't tolerate such high speeds. It needed nerves of steel to drive such cars. After the ride, Henry Ford gets the idea of what high-speed racing really is. Now Shelby makes a deal with him. If Miles wins the race then, he will go to the race in France. If he loses then Shelby will cell Shelby American Inc to Ford. Ford agrees, he sends two teams to race at the Daytona 24. one for Shelby and the other for Leo. Both the cars belonged to the Ford Company.
This race was happening in Feb 1965. The race goes on wonderfully. Ford fixed the top speed at 6000 rpm for safety. But Shelby wanted to win the race under any condition. That's why he tells Miles to run at 7000 rpm for the last couple of laps. At full capacity. RPM means revolution per minute, it tells how many times the crankshaft of the engine is rotating in a minute. 7000 rpm means speed above 180 miles per hour. This was the record at that time. Miles easily wins Daytona 24 races hands down and secures a ticket to France. Shelby and Miles celebrate victory. Peter was also happy with this.
Three Ford teams take part in the France Le Mans race. Out of which Leo also had a team. Henry Ford and Enzo Ferrari both were there to see this race. Molly and Peter were watching this on TV at their home in America. Now the 24 Le Mans race starts at 4 pm. Ferrari cars had V12 engines. Apart from this, cars of Porsche, Alpine, British Motor Company, and Chevrolet were also in the race. Cars from other models of Ford and Ferrari were also participating in the race. Miles's car was standing ahead of the rest of the Fords by about 8 meters. At the start, Miles's car's door was not getting close properly. At the end of one lap, he comes to the pit where an engineer hits the door with a hammer and fixes it. Miles drives it away as soon as it got fixed. He sets the first record in the race. He had completed one lap in 3 minutes 20 seconds.
After a few laps, a Ferrari car faces a brutal accident and goes out of the race. In the evening Henry Ford leaves in his helicopter for dinner, which is mocked by Mr. Ferrari. It was now 11 o'clock at the night and it started raining. Lorenzo Bandini of Ferrari was holding the top spot. Shelby sneaks into Ferrari's pit and steals all their stopwatches. To harass them obviously. Miles drives the cars even in the rain. His brake fails during one lap so he gets it replaced with the help of his pit crew. On this, Ferrari's team expresses their concern but the organizers of the race allow him.
The rules of the race were not strict, it could be interpreted in many ways. Ford's team takes advantage of this. Later we see that Mr. Ferrari was very angry, he was shouting at his driver. Miles was beating them. By the morning, Miles was clearly in the lead. Ferrari's Lorenzo Bandini's car engine fails at high speed. He too was out of the race. All Ferrari cars were lost in the race this year. Miles was on his way to finish his perfect race. Here he sets another lap record of 3 minutes and 30 seconds. Molly and Peter were happy to see the whole program on TV.
Two other Ford teams were also completing the race. Leo now goes to Henry Ford and says that if all the three teams finish the race together, then Ford's image will increase even more. Henry Ford agrees and asks Shelby to cooperate. He wanted Miles to slow down at the last lap so that the remaining two teams can catch up with him. Shelby was furious he says that Miles is winning this race on his own merit, he deserves the glory. But under pressure from Henry Ford, he tells Miles.
After thinking for a while, Miles slows down his car at the finish line. So that they can finish all together. All three finish the race together. Due to technicality, the driver of the other team, Bruce McLaren, was declared the winner. At the start of the race, his car was 8 meters behind Miles's car. His team is declared the winner for covering 8 meters more. Miles gets the 2nd position. Both Shelby and Miles happily accept their win. Miles was happy here as Shelby had kept his promise. Mr. Enzo Ferrari also salutes Miles with respect while on his way out. Two months later, during a car test, Ken Miles had an accident and dies. Later Shelby pays a visit to his son Peter and hands him his ranch. He says Miles was a good man. In real life, Shelby could not emerge from this tragedy. The film ends here. Ken Miles is posthumously inducted into Racing's Hall of Fame.
So, this was the story of the film Ford vs Ferrari. This clearly is the story of a beautiful underdog. Despite the difficulties, Shelby & Miles made their dream come true. How enmity sometimes leads to good side effects too. Ford then went on to win the 24 hours Le Mans race for the next four years in a row. Ferrari too was able to save its brand and its cars are a status symbol.
