All it started with a Ford Cortina. Alan Mann persuaded a Ford dealer in the South Coast of England to make a few cars ready for competition. The goal was to race on Sunday and sell on Monday, according to the old saying.
According to Mann’s son Henry, the Cortinas were successful enough to catch the attention of Ford’s head office, which invited Mann and his Cortinas to the U.S. to compete in some 12-hour endurance races.
They beat Ford Factory Teams with some British drivers and the NASCAR professional drivers using V8-powered Falcons.
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“These little English, boxy saloons weren’t supposed to do that,” says Henry Mann. “So, I think it caught their attention, a little bit, that outside of America, there were people who knew how to prepare cars as well.”
Ford awarded Alan Mann, based on this performance, the task of prepping a Falcon to the Monte Carlo Rally, 1964. He had to establish a workshop for the event.
Ford was delighted with the success of this race and it sent the Mustang to Mann, who prepared two Tour de France Automobile vehicles. The cars finished in the first and second places, ending an extended period of Jaguar dominance.
Alan Mann even participated in the preparation of the GT40’s follow-up after the 3.0-liter displacement limits were set at Le Mans. By the ’70s, though, Ford slowed its motorsports funding and Mann decided to take a step back from racing.
Alan Mann’s son claims that he quit cold turkey like an addict. However, not long after his death, Mann fell off the wagon again and began racing again, thanks to the Goodwood Revival and vintage racing.
Today, the shop is being run by his Henry, who has the benefit of not only his father’s guidance but the help of some of the mechanics who were there in the ’60s. It’s just another piece of history that can be experienced today thanks to vintage racing.
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