Ford Honker II

With the GT40 finding so much success on the international sports car racing scene, Ford wanted to expand that success to include a series closer to home, namely the SCCA‘s burgeoning Canadian-American Challenge Cup (Can-Am for short). So in 1967 Ford, along with its most trusted racing partners at the time, John Holman and Ralph Moody, created the Honker II (a moniker derived from Holman’s nickname), a sleek, open-top prototype powered by a 351 cubic inch (5.8L) V8 and painted in an eye-popping shade of purple. Despite being shaped in the wind tunnel, having Mario Andretti behind the wheel and having Paul Newman‘s name on the nose (He wouldn’t get truly serious about racing until he shotWinning the following year.), the Honker II just couldn’t get the job done against the Chaparral, McLarenand Lola onslaught.