Spark 1:18 resin model of the #9 Ford GT40 as driven to victory by Pedro Rodriguez and Lucien Bianchi in the 1968 Le Mans 24 Hours. In 1968 the Le Mans 24 Hours had to be pushed back from its traditional June date to the end of September, due to the civil unrest that was taking place in France over the summer. The ‘Ford vs Ferrari’ rivalry had been replaced with ‘Ford vs Porsche’, as the spectacular GT40 took on the 907 LH. At the end of a race of attrition only one of the Ford GT40s made it to the end of the race, but it was in the position that mattered most; first. Rodriguez and Bianchi hardly encountered any issues as they recorded a victory margin of five laps over the Porsches that completed the podium. It was the third of the GT40’s four consecutive victories at La Sarthe, and the first in the iconic Gulf livery.