Ford v Ferrari

First off, yes, I'm a fan of motor racing (but not auto racing - that sounds too American).

My father is a big fan and many friends and members of my family share the love of the sport, albeit for perhaps different reasons.  For me, I love witnessing the pinnacle of engineering, seeing highly talented drivers pushing the limits of a machine to the breaking point, buying into the drama and controversy year after year and all of that wrapped up into a beautiful adrenaline rush.  I do enjoy go-kart racing on occasion, but that's as far as I've gone past the point of driving a family car over the speed limit.  So when a big movie like Ford v Ferrari comes out with top-draw acting talent wrapped around motor racing and real life sporting events, that's hard to resist.

You can read all the history and background yourselves and there's lot of it and there's some great YouTube bits about what they got right and wrong in the movie and there's a full length documentary about the event's 50 year reunion and the associated new technical challenges of repeating Le Mans 1966.  Superb stuff.

I really enjoyed this historical drama, it followed a true-to-life plot, but made some creative turns along the way.  The race sequences were perhaps a little overdone, so there was no lack of noise, power and track drama to get the heart racing.  I thought Bale and Damon were spot on and seemed to really love their characters.  I know a little history of Ford and Le Mans, but the movie filled in lots of interesting historic notes.  Probably not for everyone, but someone who is drawn to stories about the competitive drive for victory, historical innovation and technology and getting to know a little about some very interesting real people, you'll will be very entertained.  

8/10 

The photo above is the revamped version of the GT-40 that I saw at last year's Detroit Auto Show.  The one below is an older model in the neighbourhood back in 2008.