The result is “Ford v Ferrari,” a film that comes out
later this year focusing not only on the American
manufacturers’ unlikely upset of the Italian
juggernaut but on those who made it happen.
Bale portrays Ken Miles, an engineer and driver,
and Damon plays Carroll Shelby, one of the
most famous American car builders in history.
Together, they took the financial backing of
Ford and created the GT40, a car that not only
conquered Le Mans but swept the 1966 podium.
“Racing is not just about oil and gasoline. It’s
about blood and sweat as well as the people
inside those cars as well, and that’s what makes
it so thrilling,” Bale said Saturday at Indianapolis
Motor Speedway, where he will join Damon in
waving the green flag for the Indy 500.
“Ken Miles was a purist,” Bale said. “He’s someone
that would try to win every single battle but often
lose the war, and he’d shoot himself in the foot
again and again and again. And it wasn’t until
Shelby came along and gave him an opportunity
that he finally made it on the world stage.”
While Miles was the British-born driver with the
sardonic sense of humor, Shelby was essentially
his foil: a down-to-earth Texan who had a
successful driving career of his own before
reaching iconic status as the creator of the
Shelby Cobra, a series of Ford muscle cars and,
yes, the GT40.
His relationship with Miles serves as the
centerpiece of Ford’s dogged pursuit of Ferrari.
“He was a really, kind of a bigger-than-life guy,”
said Damon, “but I didn’t know this story about
their friendship, and that’s why I wanted to do
the movie. It’s such a great underdog story.”