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The SHELBY AMERICAN

Fall 2016 11

ROY LUNN INDUCTED INTO AUTOMOTIVE HALL OF FAME

The man who led the Ford teams

that designed, engineered and devel-

oped the Ford GT40 that won LeMans

in 1966, 1967, 1968 and 1969 was in-

ducted into the Automotive Hall of

Fame in Dearborn, Michigan on July

21, 2016. Roy Lunn, an Englishman,

was the Assistant Chief Designer at

Aston Martin from 1947 to 1949 and

built the two DB2s that ran in the first

24-Hour LeMans race after WWII. In

1953 he joined Ford as product plan-

ning manager. Five years later he

moved to the U.S. and took the posi-

tion in Ford’s Central Advanced Engi-

neering.

Lunn became the head of the Ad-

vanced Vehicle Department and Ad-

vanced Concepts Group and headed

the project that developed the original

mid-engine Mustang I. When Henry

Ford decreed that Ford would beat

Ferrari and win LeMans, Lunn was

put in charge of GT40 engineering.

The results speak for themselves.

Roy Lunn left Ford in 1969 to be-

Don’t we all have a room like this?

Photos

by Marty Schorr.

come Vice President of Engineering at

Kar Kraft. He oversaw the production

of the Boss 429 and development of

Mustang concept cars mounting Boss

429 engines amidship.

In 1971 he was recruited by American

Motors as technical director and later

Chief Engineer of AMC. He served as

Chairman of the Society of Automotive

Engineers (SAE) in 1982-1983 and

was elected as a Fellow of the Society

in 1983. He retired from AMC in 1985

but his retirement was short-lived. He

joined AM General as Vice President

of Engineering, heading the HUMVEE

compliance program for the Pentagon.

He retired again in 1987. At 91, he

presently lives in Florida and contin-

ues to work on automotive projects.