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The SHELBY AMERICAN
Fall 2016 90
JACQUE PASSINO
August 17, 2016
Jacque Passino was the head of
all of Ford’s racing ventures from
1957 through 1970 when Ford
withdrew from racing. He was born
on September 4, 1920. During
WWII he served in the Army Air
Corps as a major. After the war he
returned to his hometown of
Toledo, Ohio where he completed a
degree in mechanical engineering
at the University of Toledo. He
worked at Willys Motors promoting
the Jeep for a few years before join-
ing FoMoCo in 1957 where he
worked sales promotions. When a
position opened up in the special
vehicles department he applied for
it because he thought it was more
appealing that holding down a desk
in Dearborn. Little did he realize he
was moving into a round-the-clock
job. In 1957, racing in the U.S. was
primarily NASCAR, Indianapolis
and all of the smaller tracks around
the country. He learned about rac-
ing quickly and eventually rose to
Director of Special Vehicle Activi-
ties where he oversaw all aspects of
Ford racing.
When Ford began it’s Total Per-
formance campaign in 1963, Passino
was in the right place and had the
right attitude. He believed that racing
sold cars and Ford’s goal of winning in
NASCAR, Indianapolis, drag racing,
endurance racing and off-road racing
was in step with his philosophy. His
job was to oversee all of Ford’s differ-
ent racing aspects. In an interview in
Hot Rod
magazine in 1968, he was de-
scribed as, “the cunning impetus be-
hind Ford Motor Company’s successful
racing ventures.” Passino’s close re-
lationship with Holman Moody
came into play when the Ford GT
MK II was created. Shelby Ameri-
can did not have a lot of experience
with the 427 engine at that point,
and Passino did not want them to
climb the learning curve, so Hol-
man Moody was brought in for en-
gine development. In 1966 they
were given a team, along with Alan
Mann, to create intramural compe-
tition. Passino felt this would make
each team work harder.
According to Glen Wood of
Wood Brothers Racing, Passino felt
that race fans were having trouble
distinguishing between cars that
looked alike (think about eight
Ford GTs at LeMans) so he came
up with the idea of painting them
all different colors. He wanted the
cars the color of candy and em-
ployed George Barris to develop the
various colors used on the Ford GTs
in 1966 and 1967.
After leaving Ford he remained
in the automotive field until he re-
tired at age 78. He moved to
Florida where he passed away at
95.