A Returning Retro-Legend

The late 90's through early 2000's was a retrospective in motion era for the automotive industry.

I believe Volkswagen kicked things off when they brought back the Beetle. BMW introduced the Z8, which borrowed every design influence from the legendary 507. The Fiat 500, Dodge Challenger, the relaunched Chevrolet Camaro and on and on.

Ford was also on the bandwagon, with the short lived return of the Thunderbird, the 5th Generation Mustang and lastly, the Ford GT. I hardly see 11th Generation Thunderbirds, 2005 to 2014 Mustangs are plentiful enough, since there are just another mass produced, used car at this point (with exceptions to Special and Limited Editions) and I catch a time-or-two glimpse at the few Ford GT's that are running around where I live.

The one pictured at the top of this page was at a local car show this past summer, the other was literally parked on the side of a street. It was the Gulf livery inspired GT that I was thinking about when I saw Ford v Ferrari (also know as Le Mans '66 in other countries)....

It turns out that seeing the movie might have been a bit of a "memory correction" for me, I had always thought the first Ford GT40's used those colors. Technically, the car driven by Ken Miles shared similar hues, just not the Gulf look.

Then again, I could be letting the memory of one of my favorite "track movies," 1971's Le Mans with the late, great Steve McQueen, leak into my movie watching experience. I do love that Gulf-Porsche 917K.

Perhaps I will do a side by side comparison/review of both movies someday.

Real Racing 3 doesn't currently have the original 1966 Ford GT40, so I went with the 2005 version. Sadly, there was an option for the Gulf livery and I didn't feel up to the task of trying to replicate it with my humble set of vinyling skills, so I selected the State Farm livery and hit the same track used in both movies mentioned above....