It seems as though hardly a day goes by where we don’t hear something new about the 2017 Ford GT or the historic race car to which it pays homage: the Ford GT40. The supercar will grace the cover of the next instalment of the Forza Motorsport video game series for the XBox One, and next year will mark the 50th anniversary of Ford Motor Company’s first overall victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Besides, it was recently announced that a race car version of the new Ford GT will run in the GTE Pro class at next year’s Le Mans.
So, Ford Motor Company certainly has plenty to commemorate, and commemorate they did at the recent Electronic Entertainment Expo, showing these custom, one-off XBox One controllers which celebrate the marque’s past Le Mans triumphs.
These XBox One controllers can be seen in the photo above, each wearing their respective race cars’ color and number. The controller to the left, painted in blue and wearing the number 26, commemorates the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe piloted to a GT class victory in the 1964 24 Hours of Le Mans. Motor Trend reports that the car bears the distinction of having been the first American car to win the GT class there.
Of course, the Daytona Coupe was powered by a 4.7-liter Ford small-block V8.
The XBox One controllers to the right of the No. 26 example celebrate the Le Mans-winning Ford GT40s from 1966 and 1967, respectively. The black number 2 controller pays homage to a Ford GT40 Mk. II, which placed first at the 24 hour race. The Mk. II accomplished a podium sweep that year, placing 1-2-3 when the timer ran out.
Amazingly, the red number 1 XBox One controller celebrates an even bigger deal: the Ford GT40 Mk. IV which won Le Mans the following year in 1967. The reason the car is so notable, reports Motor Trend, is that it’s the first all-American race car ever to win the race. In other words, the team, drivers, tires, engine, fuel, and chassis were all American in origin.
Unfortunately, one can’t actually purchase any of these three commemorative XBox One controllers. It’s a crying shame, because they’d look great in any American livingroom. But if Ford and Microsoft were shown enough fan support, we imagine they could be persuaded to actually produce them for sale…
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