How many gears did the 1966 GT40 have?
The 1966 GT40 had four forward gears in a manual transmission.
The 1966 GT40, best known for Ford’s Le Mans triumph as the Mk II, used a traditional four-speed manual gearbox integrated into its mid‑engine, rear‑drive layout. This setup provided four forward gears plus a reverse, aligning with the race-focused engineering of the era. The configuration remained a defining feature of the car during its famous 1966 campaign, before later variants moved to additional gears.
Gear configurations in the GT40 timeline
Below is a concise look at how gearbox counts changed across notable GT40 variants, with emphasis on the 1966 Mk II and the evolution that followed.
- 1964–1966 GT40 (Mk I/Mk II): four forward gears in a manual transaxle, plus a reverse gear.
- 1967–1969 GT40 Mk IV: five forward gears in a manual transaxle, reflecting an evolution toward greater flexibility at endurance speeds.
- Note: While the standard configurations centered on four or five speeds depending on the variant, some race-prepped or one-off examples experimented with different arrangements; the widely documented production-era GT40s settled on these four- or five-gear setups.
In summary, the 1966 GT40 used four forward gears in a manual transmission, a hallmark of the Mk II configuration that helped shape its competitive performance at Le Mans. Subsequent variants introduced a five-speed option to augment long-distance pacing and top-end capability.
Summary
