Goofs

Early in the Le Mans race, Ferrari #20 swerves to avoid a crash and spins out. A medium length shot then shows the horrified driver getting T-boned on its right side by another car. The camera then pulls back in a long shot and the right side of the Ferrari is now undamaged.

In the diner scene where Shelby is trying to convince Miles to come drive for him, the positions of Miles' hands change between the shots looking over the shoulders of each character.

When Ken Miles is driving at Le Mans in the rain the shots switch from inside the car looking forwards and outside the car looking backwards multiple times. The interior shots all show the wipers moving at a different speed to the exterior ones.

At 59:08 as Carroll Shelby is speaking to Leo Beebe he is wearing dark tinted sunglasses. As the camera angle turns from facing Shelby to facing Beebe, the glasses Shelby has on have clear lenses, then when it goes back to face Beebe are dark again. Happens again at 59:21.

During the opening lap at the Le Mans race when Miles was having trouble with his door, his GT40 starts the race clean then is shown being quite dirty, and then it reverts to being clean once again.

In real life, Enzo Ferrari sold 50% of his company to Fiat S.p.A. in 1969, not in 1963 after declining Ford Motor Company's buyout offer.

Ken Miles' winning margin in the 1966 Daytona 24 Hours was 8 laps over the second Shelby entered Ford. The Holman & Moody entry driven by Walt Hansgen finished in third place, 1 lap further down.

The famous picture of the three Ford GT40's crossing the finish line at Le Mans in 1966 has them staggered a few yards from each other, not in a straight nose line.

Ken Miles is shown listening to the 1965 Le Mans 24 hrs in a workshop in California. In reality he was driving one of the two 7 litre Ford GTs in the race.

In real life, Enzo Ferrari was not in attendance at the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans.

In selling Ken Miles as a driver, Carroll Shelby says that Miles drove a tank from the beaches of D-Day to Berlin. The first part is true, but the second is not. The British Army never reached Berlin since the Red Army got there first.

In fact, British Prime Minister Churchill presided over a British military victory parade in Berlin on 21st July 1945. Berlin had been divided in to Soviet, French, American and British zones from July. So there were plenty of British soldiers who did reach Berlin.

The movie shows Ken Miles had already won 24 hours of Daytona and Shelby mentions that he also won the 12 Hours of Sebring. Miles was denied the unique achievement of winning Sebring, Daytona, and Le Mans in the same year. Since the McLaren/Amon #2 car had started some 20 yards behind the Miles/Hulme #1 Car, it had traveled a further distance, and Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon were declared the winners.

The track announcer at the Le Mans race refers to "an incident on turn six". In actuality, the turns at Le Mans are referred to by name, not number.

On the ticket booth downtown Le Mans, the French word billetterie, meaning ticketing, is misspelled billeterie, with a t missing .

Miles is shown at the end of the Mulsanne Straight braking somewhat, then taking the sharp right turn quite easily. This is outrageous. The Mulsanne Straight is famous; over 2 miles long, lined with tall poplar trees right next to the road on both sides. Speeds well over 200 mph are reached here. It is followed by a very sharp right turn, which is (typically) taken about 35 mph. There is no way he could take it as fast as he appears to be going.

There is a city transit bus with two doors shown painted with Greyhound livery. Greyhound operates (and operated at the time) only inter-city buses with one door.

When Shelby locks Leo Beebe in the office you can clearly see there is a second door leading out of the office behind Leo which he does not even look for or try to open.

At the press conference, a cover is dramatically pulled off to unveil the new Mustang, but another Mustang has been on display through out the event.

Ken takes a Typhoo tea bag (that launched in 1967) from a tea bag tin from the 1990s. This was supposed to happen in 1966.

The cowboy hat that Damon wears throughout the movie has the brim rolled at the sides in parallel; in way that no self-respecting Texan would ever wear it (or any cowboy, for that matter). Shelby rolled his brim in a wedge shape. In many instances, it was rolled almost to a point in front. As seen in the film, the hat looks like it's being worn by a five-year-old or a foreign tourist.

Matt Damon's cowboy hat is shaped in a truly dorky fashion - flat, with the sides perfectly parallel. Perhaps this is a native Bostonian's idea of a cowboy hat. During those days Shelby shaped the brim a bit like a tricorn, later moving to a more conventional shape. In any case, he always hat his brim rolled with a wedge shape to some degree or other.

During the night before the race, when Ken and Carroll are talking at the pit, the moon can be seen just at the horizon. During their conversation the moon should have moved enough to be noticeable but it never changes position.

Trackside catch fencing was not in use at Le Mans in 1966, as shown in the film.

While pitching his racing idea, in 1963, Lee Iacocca notes that James Bond does not drive a Ford and shows a photo of The Animals next to an Aston Martin DB5. However, James Bond did not acquire the Aston Martin until Goldfinger (1964). In addition, the slide show includes a still of Bond and Domino from Thunderball (1965).

When Shelby and Miles are brawling across the street from the Miles home, among the scattered groceries one can clearly see a loaf of Wonder Bread Classic. Classics are intended for nostalgia appeal, something from the old days-- but this IS the old days! Wonder Bread was just Wonder Bread in the 60s, and wasn't labeled 'Classic' until the 21st century.

When Ken Miles is at Le Mans in 1966, Mollie Miles talks with her husband using a telephone handset with a modular jack. Phone companies did not use these jacks until the 1970s and 1980s.

At the night portion of the 24 hour race, Daytona appeared to have modern LED floodlights with modern high capacity grandstands. Daytona did not have floodlighting until the late 1990s, therefore the races would had took place in the dark, unlit except at the pits.

Also, usual to any 24 hour endurance races, grandstands tends to be sparse at night and Daytona's grandstands were much smaller to how it is now.

At 9:10 while Henry Ford II is speaking to the plant, you hear him state "65 years, and 47 million vehicles later, what shall be his legacy?", his mouth shows he actually said "85 years" but this was dubbed over with "65 years."

During the Le Mans Race, American style telephone poles and street lights are visible. The telephone poles in France are made of metal while the ones seen are made of wood.

It's obvious the airport used in the film was the Ontario international airport. The Los Angeles International Airportbuildings were CGI. The hangars they used are at the west end of of Ontario and the terminal and control tower are also seen. The 727 used has been sitting at the old terminal for years and used in other movies.

"Daytona" in the movie is not Daytona. The filming location was Autoclub Speedway in California, which accounts for the major differences in the track's size and infield layout.

Henry Ford II points out a nearby factory to Carroll Shelby and says it produced bombers during the Second World War. Ford's Willow Run Bomber Factory, which produced B-24 Liberator bombers during the war, was located a little over 18 miles (30 kilometers) away in Ypsilanti, Michigan--too far to be seen on a clear day even from the highest floor of the Ford World Headquarters building in Dearborn.

The original chassis were made by Lola who sold them to Ford. Ultimately Loia of Bromley under Eric Broadley made the T70 mid engine racer on similar principles. The name Lola is never mentioned but Peter Miles (Ken's son) has a plastic kit box on his shelf to make a Lola T70. In homage presumably.

Dialog in the film between Shelby and Miles leads us to believe that Shelby didn't know why the GT40 had that name. That is absurd as Shelby was involved in the development of the car and well aware that the windshield height limitation was 40 inches.

As the PA announcer counts down from 10 to begin the race, he says (in French) six, five, *forty*, three, two, one.

The French announcer says "Henry Ford le Second" (Henry Ford the second) for Henry Ford II, when he should have said "Henry Ford, deuxième du nom" (Henry Ford, second of the name) in proper French.

Ken Miles moved to the US in 1952, when his son was still a baby, so Peter should have an American accent. He doesn't even have a Midlands accent, like his parents, but speaks with a London "Estuary" accent.

Henry Ford showed Carrol Shelby the river rouge plant stating that 3 out of five bombers were built there in ww-2 In fact they were built at the willow run airport about 20 miles west of Detroit.

Lee Iacocca, Marketing Manager at Ford, knew Shelby before the GT40 program. He agreed to provide Shelby engines for the Cobras in 1962. Cobras are clearly already in production and being sold at Shelby's Venice facility when they "meet" in the film.