reference I could to do the drawing for
the art. It turned out the engineering
company doing the design and con-
struction was Kar Kraft. I was famil-
iar with them from my following the
initial debut of the first Ford GT in
1964. This was the beginning of Henry
Ford IIs desire to win the World
Championship of Manufacturers and
beat Enzo Ferrari after he backed out
of Ford’s offer to buy Ferrari.
Kar Kraft was Ford’s skunkworks,
an inconspicuous building located in
an offbeat area of Dearborn, about
four or five miles from Ford’s World
Headquarters. I was greeted by Roy
Lunn, the head of Ford’s Advanced Ve-
hicle operation and father of the first
Ford GT. This, in itself, was very re-
warding. He showed me the car and
explained its elements. The car was in
a basic build form and had no wing
structure but I could photograph the
chassis with the wheels on and off and
with the fiberglass front section held
in place.
There was nothing available on
the wing but with Roy’s help I was
able to make a crude sketch that gave
me enough to draw a finished version
for him to approve later. While I was
there I also met Karl Ludvigsen, an
outstanding auto journalist and au-
thor of many books. He was gathering
references for his upcoming book, “The
Inside Story of the Fastest Fords,”
which later joined my collection of au-
tomotive books.
My drawing was completed and
approved to finish the art in ink-line
and color elements highlighting the
cars components such as brakes, sus-
pension, engine, cooling, etc. in differ-
ent colors. The project was completed
with the approval of Ford and Car and
Driver.
Dick Soules’ story ended there but
we can add a little more detail to the
J-9 narrative. After Ford won LeMans
in 1966, Henry Ford II was disturbed
that the winning GT40 MK II was an
English-American hybrid. He wanted
an all-American Ford to win, and to
that end work began on a new car
built at Dearborn’s Kar Kraft. It was
called the J-Car because it conformed
to the FIA’s “Appendix J” rules. The
result was the “Breadvan” that was
tested at LeMans in April of 1966. It
was evident that more development
was required and a second car was
built (chassis # J-2). This, of course,
was the car that Ken Miles was test-
ing at Riverside when he was killed in
a crash in August. That knocked the
wind out of Ford’s sails but resulted in
rethinking of the car’s basic silhouette.
The flat-topped “Breadvan” roof was
reshaped using Ford’s wind tunnel.
The roof gradually sloped down to the
tail which ended in a spoiler.
An interim MK IV was built (J-3),
tested, disassembled, inspected, re-
assembled and retested. A fourth car
(J-4) was unveiled at Sebring. It had
been built in four weeks and per-
formed flawlessly, winning the race. It
was then returned to Shelby Ameri-
can, inspected and sent to Daytona For
testing. It then went back to Dearborn
where it was put into storage.
Four MK IVs were constructed
and went to LeMans: J-5, J-6, J-7 and
J-8. Four more chassis were under
construction by the end of LeMans
when the rules were changed, outlaw-
ing engines over 305 cubic-inches. So
Ford shifted it sights to the most excit-
ing professional racing series, the un-
limited Can-Am. Chassis J-9 and J-10
were built at open-cockpit racers. J-9
had a large Chaparral-style dihedral
wing mounted over the transaxle. The
car was tested in Ford’s wind tunnel
and track tested by Mario Andretti but
was never raced. The tenth tub, J-10,
was not completed.
In February of 1969, both of these
cars were sold to Charlie and Kerry
Agapiou for $1. In 1961 Charlie was
working as a mechanic at Ken Miles’
garage inWest Hollywood. After Miles
went to work for Shelby American in
1963 he invited Charlie to join him
and his brother Kerry soon joined the
company, too. Both were excellent me-
chanics and became crew chiefs for
team Cobras and GT40s. In 1967 they
left Shelby American to open a race
shop of their own. They maintained
their Ford contacts and when Ford
was looking for a team to campaign
their J-Car Can-Am race cars they
went to the Agapiou Brothers.
The Agapious completed J-10
which was powered by Ford’s new
Boss 429 engine. By this time the car
was heavier than the competing
McLarens. The car was driven by a se-
ries of drivers in a dozen events in
1969 and 1970 with little success. A
crash at Riverside in November 1970
ended the car’s racing career. It was
stripped of useable parts and the tub
was scrapped. Twenty-five years later
it had been rebuilt into a MK IV
coupe.
The J-9 car sat in Agapiou’s
garage, still complete but disassem-
bled, until around 2013 when he made
the decision to sell it. He put it back
The SHELBY AMERICAN
Spring 2016 54
Early photos taken at Kar Kraft in Dear-
born: wire frame to show body contours
[
above
]; Ford engineers huddle [center];
back in the shop [
right
].