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Running to their cars
in the traditional Le Mans start,
51 drivers take off for the 24-hour grind
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that will end tomorrow, almost 3,000 miles later.
It's a race around eight miles of public roads,
a grind that always takes a heavy toll
of both man and machine.
Since its inception in 1923,
the 24 Hours of Le Mans has stood
as the ultimate test of endurance, innovation,
and sheer willpower in the world of motor sport.
This race is not just a challenge of speed,
it's a battle of strategy, resilience,
and engineering excellence.
No moment in Le Mans' long and storied history
is as legendary as the battle that unfolded
between two automotive titans, Ford and Ferrari.
This was not just a race, it was a clash of cultures,
of pride, of vision,
and of determination.
In the 1960s, Ferrari ruled the world of endurance racing,
dominating Le Mans year after year.
But in 1966 and 1967,
Ford, a company known more for mass market automobiles,
came to prove their worth.
What followed was one of the most dramatic
and celebrated moments in Motorsport history.
Ford had a goal, to beat Ferrari at their own game.
And they did in back-to-back years.
In 1966, the legendary Ford GT40 claimed victory,
breaking Ferrari's winning streak.
But it didn't stop there.
In 1967, Ford cemented their dominance
with the revolutionary Mk IV.
The Mk IV crossed the finish line in 1967,
not just as a victor,
but as a symbol of American innovation and determination.
Le Mans remains, to this day,
the pinnacle of international auto racing.
And the story of the Ford versus Ferrari showdown at Le Mans
will forever be etched in the hearts of racing fans
as one of the greatest rivalries.
I fell in love with a Mk IV and the J-Car
early on in my life.
Growing up in Detroit,
I knew my dad was involved with those cars.
I always wanted the J-Car or the Mk IV slot cars or Sizzlers
for Christmas or my birthday.
There was never a doubt in my mind,
since I was five years old,
I knew that I was gonna be involved in racing.
I remember seeing the Ford Mk IV in real life
at the Henry Ford Museum and thinking to myself,
that is the most beautiful car I've ever seen,
and it still is.
I believe Bill had mentioned to me
the idea of us building a continuation of the Mk IV.
I thought, that's a great idea,
I wanted to do it, let's do it,
where can we start?
Few names in Motorsport engineering resonate
with the same timeless impact as Bob Riley.
From the roaring era of the Ford GT40 Mk IV,
a car he helped engineer to victory at Le Mans in 1967,
to the precision built coyote chassis
that carried A. J. Foyt to victory in the Indy 500,
Bob's fingerprints
are on some of racing's most iconic moments.
His innovative designs spanned generations,
from the nimble Lynx Formula V
to the ferocious Trans-Am cars
that dominated circuits in the 1980s.
Whether crafting the speed
and agility of the NASCAR machines driven
by legends like Dale Earnhardt and Ricky Rudd,
or pioneering the modern era of endurance racing
with the Daytona Prototype,
Bob Riley's vision helped define Motorsport excellence,
winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Indianapolis 500,
Daytona 500, and Daytona 24 Hours.
Bob Riley's legacy extends far beyond the track.
It lies in the relentless pursuit of innovation
and the artistry of speed.
He not only shaped race cars,
but entire eras of motor sport,
creating machines that pushed the boundaries of possibility
and left competitors in awe.
From the Saturn IB rocket project
that showcased his engineering genius
to his groundbreaking work
with the Riley LMP cars in the 21st century,
Bob's contributions are etched into
the DNA of motor sport history.
His influence continues to inspire designers,
drivers, and fans alike.
A testament to a man whose life was fueled by a passion
for speed and a drive to build perfection on four wheels.
So the first time I even became aware of Bob,
I worked at Roger Beck Racing after I got outta the military
and we were making Trans-Am air intake boxes,
And I knew about Bob, I'd never really met him,
I just knew about him, and what the hell,
the success of that car as a Riley Scott car.
And I was making those.
And years later I found out
that Roger Beck had been Bob's fabricator
at Patrick Racing in the '70s.
So a small group in racing, small family.
Actually, one of the reasons
I joined Riley Technology and Bill
is because the building of the new continuation Mk IV.
I mean, it's the opportunity to work
on a piece of history, and here I am, and here it is.
It's been quite a project for sure.
Yeah, I mean,
I'd say working on a project like this,
as a mechanic, it's quite stimulating,
because most of racing nowadays, unfortunately,
is kind of like a one make series.
You know, it's a glorified go-karts I should say,
which is unfortunate, but it's still good for TV.
So you work on something like this,
it's where motor racing started.
I was racing my car and I decided
I'd just send a resume to Ford, Chrysler, and GM,
you know, give 'em my resume.
And I remember GM saying, if I was ever in town,
to come see us, and Chrysler said the same thing.
And Ford sent me money right away
to come up and see 'em right away.
Well, at Kar-Kraft,
I remember they advertised for some engineers in the paper.
I thought, that's the weirdest thing.
So I applied right away and I got the job,
and that's how I ended up working for Kar-Kraft.
I think that's really how we were able to beat Ferrari
is that Ferrari actually had more horsepower
and a lot of car, but we had the geometry was was right on,
because we had massaged it quite a bit.
So I think that was really a biggie.
When you look at the car now,
you see the tub out of a honeycomb,
and aluminum, etcetera.
Since I came from combat aircraft, etcetera,
you know, that was very common for 'em
to use that type structure.
But it was very unique, you know,
to have on a car at that time.
Truly, winning at Le Mans,
getting the information, basically over the radio,
'cause it listened to it, the whole world of sports,
and being in the lead and then winning,
it was just the greatest thing for me to hear that.
It was just wonderful that we did it.
To make a long story short,
I was Carroll Shelby's first employee, this is late 1959.
Carroll Shelby had just won Le Mans as a co-driver
with Roy Salvadori driving for Aston Martin.
And he had come back to California to look at
any number of business possibilities,
one of which was to build a sports car of his own.
Ford's main interest was stock car racing.
They had no interest, really, corporately,
no interest in road racing or anything.
But with the success of the Cobra program
against the Corvettes,
they began to get some interest on it.
At the same time, at the top end,
Henry Ford was looking to expand the Ford name worldwide,
and had gone over to Europe
and seen what was going on with racing over there,
and realizing there was a whole different,
much higher level that would be very,
very important as far as creating an image
for Ford Automotive Company.
And he decided the best way to do that
was simply to buy Ferrari.
Because at that time,
Ferrari was the overall leader of all racing in Europe.
So in the end, he turned Ford down,
and Ford was, of course,
not used to having his wishes reversed.
So he decided,
"Okay, we'll build our own car and we'll beat Ferrari."
And that is really the whole basis of how
the Mk IV Ford came about.
We were having lunch, Mexican lunch,
and Jim Matthews, longtime friend,
longtime competitor that's done a lot of work with us,
wanted to look at doing something back in motor sports.
And he kind of said, "You know,
boy, it'd be great to build Mk IV's,
'cause no one does a good continuation
of a Mk IV right now."
And that's what kind of started it.
We were just talking about, you know,
how beautiful the cars were in the late '60s especially,
right before aerodynamics,
before they started looking at airplanes.
And so they were still kinda swoopy, and sensual,
and they were feminine looking.
And we were talking about the best looking cars.
Of course, you know,
there's the Mk IV, the P4,
the 917, and the Lola T70.
I'm sure I missed something, but for me,
that was what was on my wall, you know?
And Bill, as Bill often does,
when you start talking about something,
"I know a guy."
I know the guy that has all the original blueprints,
all the castings, and a good amount of spare parts
"that he picked up from Holman and Moody."
And I reached out to Tony Ave,
who worked at Kar-Kraft was at the time.
And then through that connection I went
and visited Kar-Kraft and their assets,
and then they made us a quote, and Jim bought on it.
So Jim Matthews was kind of the synergy
that started us down this path
of building these continuation cars.
I grew up in Farmington Hills, Michigan,
and my father had a drawing office in our basement.
So typically he would design one IndyCar a year
and one sports car project a year.
So, for example,
he'd be either designing a car for Foyt,
you know, a coyote,
or he'd design a Wildcat for Patrick,
or you know, he did his own IndyCar in '74.
So he was always designing an IndyCar
during the fall/winter and then usually
some sort of sports car program in the summer.
Whether that would be a Greenwood Corvette,
or the Kemp Mustang, or something like that.
The relationship between my father and I
was always very strong, he was always teaching me.
I was also craving to learn.
So, you know,
it kind of worked out pretty well the way we worked together
and complimented each other.
Maybe if it's an area thing, 'cause we could cut this out.
Yeah. - And go straight across
and get rid of it,
'cause I feel like that's gonna crack there anyway.
Yeah, I would think
that'd be alright because... Yeah, I remember
that IMSASSA did a poster, you know,
for their 50th anniversary
and it had about 10 cars on it,
the iconic IMSA cars, and six of 'em Bob was involved with.
I think overall he's probably been involved
maybe 70 to 75 in that range.
Somewhere in there.
I mean, 30, 35 at Riley & Scott/Riley.
And then all the stuff before that,
whether it was Formula vs Super vs Formula Atlantic,
IndyCars, and then all the Trans-Am cars.
So it might be closer to a hundred,
but you know, we've never really counted 'em.
I mean, we count the big wins,
you know, like I would say the Daytona wins,
the Sebring wins, the Le Mans wins,
but we don't really have counted
how many overall wins he has.
And you see some people doing that.
But I think Bob has more,
when you look at all the stuff he's touched.
And then obviously then there's all the NASCAR stuff
he's been involved with too.
Riley Technologies is the company that designs
and builds cars and restores cars.
And Riley Motorsports operates race teams.
For nearly three decades,
Riley Technologies has stood at the forefront
of professional road racing, blending engineering precision
with relentless innovation.
Founded and helmed by Bill Riley and his father Bob Riley,
the company has been
a cornerstone of motor sport excellence,
consistently redefining the boundaries of performance
and reliability.
From the grueling 24 Hours of Daytona
to the storied 24 Hours of Le Mans,
Riley Technologies' designs have dominated
the most demanding endurance races in the world.
Their cars have brought home wins in championships
in IMSA, ALMS, NASCAR, IndyCar,
and Grand-Am, earning a reputation for resilience
and speed that few can rival.
Under the visionary leadership of Bill Riley,
the team has masterminded cutting edge race cars
for Trans-Am, IMSA, LMP,
and Daytona Prototype categories.
Leading professional road race teams since 1996,
their designs have powered some of the greatest teams
in motor sport history to victory,
proving their medal on tracks across the globe.
With every race and every triumph,
Riley Technologies has cemented its legacy
as a leader in engineering excellence and racing dominance.
A testament to the power of passion, precision,
and a relentless pursuit of perfection.
Riley Tech does a lot of work for Riley Motorsports,
you know, whether it's carbon repair,
or gearbox service, upright service,
or you know, design when needed and engineering when needed.
But then Riley Motorsports runs the teams at the track.
Typically we have two main programs.
We have an an IMSA WeatherTech program with LMP2,
and our lead driver there is Gar Robinson.
And so we run the IMSA WeatherTech series
right now with that car.
And then we run a AMG and SRO for CrowdStrike.
And George Kurtz is our lead driver on that program there.
Well, there's quite a few trophies around here
from our success, you know,
mostly at IMSA, and then in SRO,
and Ferrari Challenge, and what have you.
But if you look around this room,
you won't see any second place trophies
or third place trophies,
because we're expected to be winners,
not second placers and not third placers.
And we pride ourselves on winning races
and I feel with Riley Motorsports,
we're kind of expected to win.
We're not going there trying to win.
But the philosophy should be that the clients,
or customers, or our friends are here
because we win, and that's why they are here.
When we purchased Kar-Kraft,
it came with a fair amount of some parts, some tooling,
mostly body work tooling, and came with a stack of drawings,
a lot of drawings.
And Bob went through the drawings one by one and could say,
"Okay, this is a Mk II, this Mk IV,"
this is a Group 7 car, this was a Can-Am car,
"this was development, it never got built."
So he went through every drawing one by one
to pick out what we needed to recreate the Mk IV,
to continue it.
We wanted to make it exactly like,
I believe the last chassis they made,
I believe it was 19 I think.
So this be chassis 20.
It was just like if we were at Kar-Kraft
and we built the next chassis.
So it is exactly the same.
We went to great length to make it the same,
with the exception of safety items.
One of the safety items was the fuel cell.
So there's been a big improvement
in the quality of the bag themselves,
and you know, a lot of bonded in pieces.
So they're just so much better.
Bob hates every race car he ever designed.
Yeah, we had to hold Bob back a bit,
'cause he really wanted to do a lot of updates.
You know, he doesn't like any of his designs
he's ever done, 'cause he always can do better.
Significant historian in Ford racing, or you know,
in Mk IV's or Mk II's was talking about how great
the geometry was on these cars.
And Bob said, "No, it's not."
And the historian said, "Oh, yes,
it's a very good geometry."
And Bob said, "No, it's not.
I did it and it's not right."
So it was pretty hard for him
not to want to do a lot of updates, I think.
But then he finally realized we're making a continuation
and we need to make it historically accurate.
The cars today, the only way that they really sell
is if they win races.
You know, that's what makes a race car sell.
So you have to look at the rules
and you have to make the car best of the rules
so it wins races, and therefore you sell cars.
That's the business.
Because the race cars,
they're really instruments to win trophies.
They're tools to win trophies.
Just like the Mk IV was a tool to win Le Mans,
and that was that.
But back then, you know,
with the aro development where it was, you know,
the cars still have the beautiful look to 'em, you know,
it hadn't really got to the point
where it's all aro driven and so be it, you know,
they still had the style on 'em.
Well, the continuation of the car
is a bit of a blend of some modern tools
and modern materials.
The Mk IV is one of the first race cars to use a fuel cell.
But obviously fuel cell materials are a lot better now.
On the safety side, you know,
the seat belts are a lot safer than they were back then.
On the safety side of the vehicle,
there's not like a whole lot that's extremely different
than what it was on safety for impact.
You know, you have the big crush structures on the side.
The fuel cells, as I mentioned,
are safer, and the glues a lot better
and the chassis to hold it together.
So that's probably the main thing.
I think the biggest challenge going into it
was finding the gearbox and then getting
the magnesium castings redone for the uprights
and for the wheels, that was a challenge.
But we have a good source for that.
To actually getting the steel brake calipers recast.
So we try to obtain as many original pieces as we can.
What you can't buy, we have to make,
and in some cases that's not always possible.
So we have to have a good balance
to make sure the car stays true to its spec.
So Tim Stephens,
I'm the parts and inventory and procurement specialist
for the Kar-Kraft Mk IV project.
I do the quality control
of all of our in-house manufactured pieces.
And then I am part-time historian,
because everybody on this project has to be
to make sure everything is historically accurate.
Everything that we procure has to be within the proper era,
the proper construction, proper color, coding.
And I make sure everything I get in
is vetted to make sure it is consistent
with what we're trying to accomplish.
I'm very passionate about this program.
I first learned about the Mk IV
in the early 2000s as a teenager.
Read a very, very informative article,
lots of pictures, and fell in love with it.
And a couple years later had the opportunity
to go to the Henry Ford Museum and saw a J-5 in person,
and just stood there and stared at it.
I think the rest of my family went to tour the rest museum.
I said, "No, I need to stay here and look at this car.
This is definitely something special."
And to come here to Riley
where we are continuing those cars,
it's an experience that you don't get
with any other vehicle.
So to replicate everything that they did in 1966
and 1967 on this car, if we didn't already have the drawing,
if we didn't already have the data,
we had to recreate it based on the original cars.
So we had access to the five race cars that ran in Sebring
and at Le Mans, and reverse engineered.
We had Bob Riley's brilliant mind,
who actually remembers doing these things
and we could fill in some of the holes with his expertise,
and redrew it, recreated it.
In 1967, racing was very different.
While safety was at the forefront,
it wasn't what it was today.
It was a raw, visceral experience.
When you drove that car, the sounds,
the smells, the feeling,
you can't replicate that in anything that is made today,
and that's what we're doing here.
Hi, my name's Chad Boyd,
I'm an engineering manager here at Riley Technologies.
So I've been working with Bob Riley,
one of the original designers
for the 1967 Le Mans winning Mk IV.
We've been privileged to have some of the original drawings,
and you know, copies of the original drawings,
and to see drawings
that were literally worked on in the '60s
that have Bob's name, and then to be going through them
to convert them into modern day CAD
so that we can manufacture the car again in the real way,
the way it was put together before,
but just in a more repetitious fashion.
So this is my full assembly
that's got pretty much everything, you know,
some stuff may be hidden here and there,
but yeah, we had to go through and draw uprights
and all the control arms, and I mean,
really, the amount of original parts on the first build,
'cause you don't want to use them if they're original,
you kind of want to keep those for reference at that point.
So I think everything on the new car is new.
A lot of sheet metal parts, a lot of gussets,
and angles, and things that get fabricated,
and you know, we kind of went back
and forth between trying to, you know,
water jet a panel with the whole pattern in it
versus putting the pattern in on the shop floor,
and kind of went with a hybrid
where somewhere where there would be an outside angle
we would maybe put a guide hole,
and then they would drill through
the rest of the thicknesses so that it goes through,
just so everything lines up.
It's pretty cool.
It's interesting to see all the old drawings
and old details, and to hear Bob's stories
on how they would've done it back then versus, you know,
minor nuances of what we might do
to end up with the same product.
But yeah, it's kinda like a little bit of a time travel
just to see full scale drawings of things
that worked on however many years ago at this point.
And to get to go down that path again.
This is more of an aircraft construction, you know,
that this construction on the Mk IV,
it's the same construction that was used on the Porsche 962.
You know, I mean,
when people talk about the Mk IV, and you know,
where it was, I mean,
the 962 was built the same way.
And I mean, when you look at that car's pedigree,
and the Mk IV's, you know,
that's pretty hard to beat.
Well, I remember the J-Car when I was a kid seeing it.
I never had a model of it or anything like that,
but I love the shape of it,
and I think, I don't know of anybody that does it,
it's just a beautiful, sexy car.
And fortunately, when I started my career in racing,
I got to do Monaco chassis for the fabcar,
the 962, 956 chassis.
And that gave me the skillset
that later on when this came along I knew how to do it,
and I looked forward to doing it,
because we built two frame cars for so long,
and I love this chassis building.
So having that experience in the past
really helped out in figuring this car out.
And this was especially challenging,
because we had to make this just like it was.
It has to be exactly like it was in 1967,
and we did pretty good.
I mean, I don't think we missed out on anything.
And the challenge there too is that every car
is a little different from each other.
So we tried to get the '67 Le Mans winner
as close as we could, and we did pretty.
Okay, well,
this is how we make an aluminum panel,
a bonded honeycomb panel.
And it's one of many panels
that make up the Monaco chassis on this Mk IV.
It's an aircraft technology,
it got adapted back in the '60s for building race cars.
And as you can see, this whole car,
just really lightweight, it doesn't weigh anything hardly,
but it's super strong.
So what we do, we start out with raw honeycomb,
and we water jet this into a pattern that we have
for a certain panel.
And we water jet the two panels, inner and outer,
and then we bond it with this glue, it's an aircraft film,
got a Gerber machine back over here that cuts it.
It's actually a fabric cutting machine,
but it cuts this glue in any shape we want.
So we cut all that and what we do is we prep this with a DA,
take all the oxidation off of it, and degrease it,
and wipe it down with MEK.
We put down the glue film,
and then we put the honeycomb on top of that,
and we put another sheet of metal on top of that,
and we bag it all and make it sure
it's all sealed and vacuum it.
And I think we vacuum it as one atmosphere, 15 PSI.
And then we put it in an oven,
cook it at 250 degrees for about an hour and a half,
and it comes out as a panel
that starts out as pretty flimsy components,
but it's a super strong lightweight panel.
And then we trim that up and clean it up,
and we put it all together with these angles in there
and rivet it together with more glue.
And what you get is this end product
of triangulated structurally strong, lightweight chassis.
Well, being part of this team and company
with Bill and Bob Riley all these years,
you lose sight of it, 'cause I talk to him
on a personal level every day of what they've achieved.
I mean, I know that,
but it's also a personal interaction that we have.
So you lose touch of how big it is on the outside,
of somebody looking in.
So I don't know what else to say about that.
It's just, I know 'em on the personal level as human beings,
but I also know what they've achieved,
and it's an honor to have been working here for this long.
It was his shop, he did it his way,
and everybody knew that's what he wanted.
Right, wrong, or indifferent, didn't matter,
it's his shop.
And if he made a mistake, which is rare,
he'd admit it and say, "Let's do something else.
That didn't work quite well, did it?"
And that kind of thing.
He loved designing stuff.
I mean, little stuff too.
Like, he had a whole folder up there of water traps,
to let water or air into the car to cool the driver,
but trap the water in case it's raining.
Building the Mk IV as a continuation car
and knowing the history of that car
and who drove it at Le Mans,
and the first all-American team to win,
and being a part of that,
that's gotta be one of the highlights of my career.
That's just the cherry on top.
I mean, for him to be involved with Carroll Shelby
and all that group back in the day,
and now he's here, was here,
to be able to work with him on that and get his insight,
and little stories about what went on back there,
and how Ken Miles really was, and this and that,
that's pretty cool.
It's hard to top that.
You know, you look back on it,
it's hard to appreciate it now.
I mean, I imagine looking back on it in a couple years,
I'll be like, wow.
The Mk IV was such a big project.
When we bought Kar-Kraft, we got some of the body molds,
that worked out pretty well.
We scanned quite a few of the original cars
to make sure the molds were correct,
and then we had to recreate the tub
from all the drawings we received.
Bob was pretty up on all that
and recreated all the suspension.
Then the hard part, you know,
is the roof skin on the car is actually aluminum,
so we had to form that.
And then obviously the body work is all built here,
whether it's out of fiberglass
or carbon, whatever the client would want.
This one is all fiberglass.
So it was really just a labor of love
on how much work there was to make to the continuation
as accurate as possible
and as period correct as possible.
My name's Corey.
I work here at Riley, I've been here for about 12 years,
and I'm the manager of the Composite shop.
We make any kind of body parts for the car,
anywhere from carbon chassis to block off hammers,
to helmet visors, anything of that nature.
Yeah, seats, well, you name it.
What it means to me working on the Mk IV projects,
is just a huge honor.
There's a lot of history in this car
and I'm just glad to be a part of it to keep continuing.
So this is our pre-thread, we keep in the freezer.
At that point, we get ready to lay it up onto the molds,
we pull it outta the freezer, let it thaw out.
But this is what the parts originally start out as.
It's just a sheet of fiberglass,
it's woven with epoxy on both sides of it.
As it thaws out, you're gonna see
it becomes a lot more like a piece of paper.
This is what gets placed into the mold tool,
then becomes that magical piece
you saw out front with the nose.
So the molds for the tail section,
you see 'em up here on the right.
Those actually make this tail section
that we have conveniently stored.
So what we do, we start out with prepreg,
which it's a pre-impregnated fiberglass.
It comes out soft.
We put that into the mold tools,
and we have the mold tools up here for this guy.
We place that in, we vacuum bag it,
we run it through the oven,
goes through a cure cycle for about 16 hours.
Once it's done, we pull it out
and you roughly get this shape here.
Quite light, but super strong,
tons of durability.
To work here, it's like the history of the company itself,
like, of the Riley family,
goes back so far.
You know, much further than I've been around really.
And even from the start when I started working here,
you know, as a kid playing Gran Turismo,
my favorite car was the Viper.
And then coming here and being, like,
"These are the guys that built the Viper.
It is like, that thing was so cool."
My name is Kyle Bussard.
I've been involved in racing since I was eight years old.
It's hard for it to sink in on how much this place
has like affected the racing world.
I don't know how you would ever get that across to anyone.
And it's like, I don't even know if I understand it myself.
Like, it is really cool.
Like, it's everywhere,
you're surrounded by history at this place.
So I'm the Mk IV fabricator.
I kind of do everything from bodies to outer panels,
roll cage, sheet metal,
to I've done the suspension work, the mounting points,
there's really not a whole lot on this car
I haven't touched.
By being a '67, you look at it,
you work on it, and it's like,
everything from the rivets, to the glue,
to the way things are done, it's like,
you're going back to the '60s.
And there's some challenges to that.
It's like on, you know,
on the other side of the building
there's one of the most modern day awesome cars
sitting over there and it's like,
this is kind of what you're used to.
So when you're bringing it back,
you almost have to break yourself of habits
that it's just, like,
this is naturally how you go about something.
But then it's like, no, this isn't what they did.
And so trying to recreate everything
and just the ways they did things
is kinda what we go for on this.
I think whoever ends up with this thing in the future
just understands like the nuance that went into it,
you know, the every little detail picked apart,
and it was never someone was telling us to do it,
it was every individual person
finding that extra little thing,
it's like, "Oh",
yeah, there's one more thing here",
and then going through that extra effort
to make sure it was just perfect.
And it's, like,
whoever ends up with his car is a lucky person.
Yeah, I mean,
you definitely miss Bob.
And it is the quirks, I guess.
The coming down and just wanting to change everything,
and having no problem that it's gotta be done in two days,
and he wants to cut the entire front part of the car off
to make it better, you know?
For him to be like that involved constantly,
it was super cool, and it could also be a pain in the ass,
you know?
And you know, my wife,
going home, I'd be like,
"Oh, I got Bobbed today."
And she's like, "I love Bob's stories."
And I'm obviously very fortunate to do that.
Well, to sum up this entire program and this car,
it would be pride.
Not just proud of the history that Bob was able
to achieve when this car was first introduced.
You know, being proud of not just bringing it back.
But bringing it back in a way
that I'd like to think did it justice.
Received a text from Bill, you know,
out of the blue, and some encrypted message about,
"Hey, we were thinking about doing a project,
would you be interested?"
And almost before I read through the whole thing
I mentioned, you know,
"Hell, yeah.
I don't know what we're doing,
but Bill, you're calling."
In the world of motor sport and engineering,
one name stands above the rest, Jack Roush.
From his early days as a Ford engineer in 1964
to his dominance in pro stock drag racing during the 1970s,
Jack's innovative spirit
and passion for performance set the foundation
for an automotive legacy.
In 1976, Roush Performance Engineering was born,
delivering cutting edge engines and components to racers
across drag strips, road courses,
and even offshore waters.
What started as a quest for personal racing success evolved
into a powerhouse of innovation and excellence,
with every project embodying the relentless spirit
of a true automotive pioneer.
We've always had a relationship with Roush,
I mean, obviously we raced hard against them also.
So the relationship was rough for a while,
'cause we were competitors, fierce competitors.
But they were the logical choice for building this engine.
And Bob Corn, Dennis Corn's father,
Dennis Corn is still very active at Roush Industries.
And so is his father, Bob Corn,
Bob Corn worked at Ford Development.
And at the time we started Mose Nowland was still alive.
So Mose Nowland, I think,
was helping Roush on the engine side.
So he had that resource on the engine side,
along with Bob's resource on the car side.
Well, my name is Bob Corn,
and I'm currently one of the partners in Roush.
And so I help Jack start the engineering side
of what has become Roush Enterprises.
As a component design engineer,
I was involved in some of the structural concerns.
I was part of the development of the Le Mans connecting rod
that got released for racing these,
to doing the experimental stress analysis,
and several other things like that.
Well, at the time the program manager was a guy
by the name of Gus Scussel.
And Gus had done several engine programs,
but he was a kind of a manager of that department,
and he was one of those who was supportive
of putting this big block
in a racing application other than just NASCAR.
At the time they were doing the NASCAR engines,
and now they had to do these road race engines.
And while Dan Gurney was one of the guys that said
"That's what you need to do is put the engine
that ran NASCAR", which he had won,
as you know, Riverside several times,
knew that it could road race.
And so he was one of those who suggested
that they use that NASCAR engine for the powertrain,
because the small block was not good enough
to do what they wanted to do.
And so that's how the evolution then,
and Gus Scussel, who I became good friends with as well,
was behind saying,
"Yes, that's the right thing to do,
but we don't need to make more power.
We need to make it durable."
And so right from the beginning,
his efforts were to push durability,
which evolved into the dynamometer cell
that ended up doing the 24 Hour race twice.
They had a 48 Hour Le Mans cycle in the dynamometer
of the engine and transmission
in the dynamometer building here on campus to do that.
Well, in 1966,
Ford Motor Company did a bunch of SAE papers that explained
what the 1966 package was, particularly in the engine.
There's a whole section on the engine itself
in these papers.
Through Mose Nowland who was quite specific, saying,
"The only difference between the 1966 Le Mans engine
and the 1967 Le Mans engine was the implementation
"of the 24V Carburetted Medium Riser induction system."
And so if you had the information of what a 1966 engine was,
you just simply upgraded to the 24V induction system
and you had a '67 engine.
Well, that engine is laid out in this book,
and so there's no question
about what the engine was at the time,
and the 24V induction system was commercially available.
Oh, it's extremely rewarding to work with my son
on projects like this.
My name is Dennis Corn.
I've been employed with Roush Jack
for a number of years since 1981.
And I'm an engineer by training
and get involved with many projects,
both on the engineering side of the company
and through Jack's motor sports efforts.
So my father worked at Ford,
I got to see what he brought from that aspect of his life.
And we also, as a family,
then went sportsman drag racing.
And I thoroughly enjoyed the aspects
of what motor sports brung, the problem solving,
the camaraderie, the people,
and trying new and different things.
As Bill and I started to sort through, you know,
what his vision would be for this portion of the project,
the engine project, one of the first things
that he had made mention is, "It needs to be durable",
I don't want to build museum pieces,
I wanna build something that really runs.
And as it became clear this was a Le Mans era Ford vehicle,
you know, 48 hours of durability at Le Mans
was the requirement, which meant that permeated
a lot of the decisions moving forward.
Bill showed up and we had a good sit down
to go through the requirements as he saw them, you know,
needed to be durable.
We're going to replicate the performance of these engines
that are now, you know, from 1967.
Original connecting rods, they were cutting edge technology,
they were doing everything they knew
how to do up to that point.
They were given materials, given processes.
They had known failures, or weaknesses,
I should say, really not failures.
The Ford engineers were limited
to what they were able to do, what they knew at the time
for how to do pistons, for the materials,
the process, skirt design,
you know, the weights,
piston ring technology, all were cutting edge at the time.
Some of the parts that we had to make custom for
and to support what Bob and Bill Riley have put together
for this Mk IV, just some of the things
that were interesting to us, you know,
working with Peterson for valve springs,
the requirements for today are so much different
than what the cars were back then.
So, you know, parts and pieces,
retainers, springs, it's easy to say it's something to do,
but it wasn't on the shelf
that we could just go off and pick something.
So as we were doing camshafts, everything,
again, is so different
than what the aftermarket offers today.
So performance of the engine was spot on.
The metric was 500 horsepower,
as defined by Ford in their own words.
And when we went to finally at the dyno testing,
it was 501, it was remarkably close.
I mean, we followed a recipe,
filled in the blanks, the expectation was there,
and we nailed it.
How did that work out?
Yeah, making power,
the mannerisms of the engine met the expectations
of what the originals were.
We followed a recipe,
there was a lot of documentation that was available
through Ford, through the SAE papers,
through the memories of my father, Mose,
and people like that.
So when we finally got to going on the engine testing,
it was almost a given that it would do
what it needed to do, and it did.
Bill invited us down, we had to create a carb kit.
Because no one had this stuff anymore to adjust carburetors.
It's kind of a bygone era.
So we were down in Kershaw, South Carolina,
and Jarett Andretti was behind the wheel.
Car had never run, this was just out of the box.
Everything on paper said it would do really well.
And he got on it,
and the sound that it made was reassuring to all
that were in attendance it was doing the job.
In fact, I overheard
some of the mechanics nudging each other saying,
"Did anyone tell him how expensive this car is?
Be careful."
But Bill wanted to run it, and it was running.
And to see the car at the track at its first shake down,
it was pretty emotional to see that car run,
hear it go through the gears,
hear the driver feedback on it, you know,
I mean, it brought back a lot of memories
and kind of put yourself in a little bit of the shoes
of people that came before you, you know,
and what they went through and that type of thing.
'Cause we were doing it again.
So it was pretty emotional to see it go.
Yeah, Bob obviously was involved
in a lot of very important motor sports projects,
cars that he designed, you know,
the Mk III, the DP,
I think this was probably one of the early achievements
that he was involved in that I would think probably
helped propel his career afterwards
and gave him opportunities
that maybe he wouldn't have gotten, you know,
except for the Mk IV project.
So to be in a position to know Bill and Bob,
to help Bill and Bob bring this car back to life,
to continue the legacy of the Mk IV and Bob Riley,
you could tell how pleased Bob was with it,
and that made everybody happy
to see Bob that full of life at his age,
just like a teenager.
The last time I saw this tub on the track
was we had just completed the car at Kar-Kraft,
and we took the car to a Ford test track.
So the Mk IV was built specifically to win Le Mans,
obviously a lot of people are familiar with that,
the storyline in the movie "Ford v Ferrari",
but this is kind of a continuation of that.
Kind of where that movie ends
is kind of where this picks up,
at least is my understanding of the history.
But yeah, this was built to win Le Mans,
and it ended up winning Seabring with my grand uncle Mario,
and then Bruce McLaren, and then it won at Le Mans,
I believe it was with Gurney and Foyt.
So it's win two for two.
And so it's got a lot of history.
Really, really cool.
It is a really cool program
and it's honorable to have, you know,
Bob here that helped design the original car
and here while we're running the test.
Yeah, the first time on the track was just this morning,
and it was so fun to drive.
And it's got a lot of power, a lot of torque,
which is really fun to drive.
I mean, it's like a big go-kart,
and you know, it's got the H pattern still,
which is not something that we're used to anymore.
You know, we have the paddles,
and you know, it does all the shifting basically for you.
So this is really fun.
It's more manual,
you feel like you're driving it,
probably more than some of these other cars of today.
And it is cool.
And you look at the seat, and you look at all the switches,
and everything, you know,
it's a step back in time,
and it's just really cool to be a part of that,
you know, anymore and you have stuff flashing
at the dash all the time at you,
and this you don't have anything.
If you have oil pressure problem,
there'll be a light that comes on, but that's about it.
And so, just go out there and drive it.
And so that's pretty cool.
For me, what was as special as sitting in the car,
driving the car was having, you know,
a couple of the original folks involved, you know,
Bob Riley, obviously,
and then the guys from Roush came down.
So bringing these guys together is,
you know, that's as special as actually sitting in the car.
Having said all that, you know,
it's fabulous.
I mean, it's the beginning of the end,
you know, we had a dream,
we gathered all the materials,
Bill and all the guys at Riley, you know,
put the car together.
I watched and asked stupid questions, you know,
and they'll patiently answer 'em.
And here it is, you know, it's alive.
And now the next big milestone is when the next person says,
"I'll have one of those."
You know, to see this thing actually come to life.
Here it is, in the flesh,
to fire it up, to drive it to the track with Bob there,
you know, I can't describe how that feels.
I don't have enough superlatives.
It's literally a once in a lifetime,
once in a many lifetimes.
I can't imagine many people
ever got to do anything like that.
And you know, how lucky I personally am.
How lucky everybody at Riley Technologies,
Bill, Bob, everybody involved,
all the Roush guys.
What a great, fun project.
Especially, like I said,
to come, you know,
near the end of Bob's life,
and to have something so awesome to be involved in,
there's no describing it.
Yeah, we have 50 full-time employees,
and a lot of them touched this car,
you know, in our building.
And it really showed all the craftsmanship,
all the craftsmen that we have, and all the people
in the composite department and in the metal fab,
and to be able to make the aluminum skin roof,
and make the chassis again, and duplicate the parts,
and go through the assembly shop,
and have everything assembled correctly, and you know,
all the way to the design office
to all the contractors that came in and helped.
So it was a lot of people pulling in the same direction,
which kind of gave the project the same feel
that it probably had a little bit back into the '60s.
It's pretty incredible.
I mean, when you see the car at the shop
and you walk by it,
it's hard not to feel a little something for me to feel it.
I drove it around our industrial complex
just to make sure it shifted.
And I was in it and I'm like going,
"This is it, this is real."
So it was kind of interesting
all of a sudden that it's real.
You know, this isn't a dream any longer,
you know, we did it.
And the craftsman we have back at Riley's,
they just did a great job building this car.
The fabrication is just great.
So the car really turned out quite well.
And it's quite exciting to see it run again.
Shortly after filming for this documentary,
Bob Riley passed on at 93 years young.
Loved by friends, respected by competitors,
and cherished by all who knew him.
Bob's legacy lives on in every car he touched,
every life he inspired, and every story he helped create.
Though he may no longer be with us,
the spirit of Bob Riley continues to race on forever.