Full Opening: Matt Damon Talks “Ford vs. Ferrari” With Jay - Jay Leno’s Garage

Since the invention of the wheel we've been obsessed with 29 feet of what our legs can handle. Once the automobile came along, it was ready to race, but whether you're competing for a professional title or the pride that comes with being a true speed demon is better with a rival and there have been some real wonders: Senna versus Prost Pearson versus Petit Leno versus Allen Oh you push me, oh hey I did something, but there is a rivalry in racing that is so legendary They just made a movie about it. We've talked a lot about Ford versus Ferrari on this show, but here's a quick recap.

Lamont is the oldest endurance sports car race in the world with an unprecedented six consecutive victories since 1960. 1965 Enzo Ferrari's team seemed unbeatable in the United States. Henry Ford wanted to participate and offered. ends ten million dollars for half a share in his Italian race car company and after nine months of negotiations, Ferrari said he was not happy to see Andrade Ford assemble a dream team to design a car that would take away the pants to his new nemesis and would put a daring Texan. named Carol Shelby, in charge of the whole thing, a racing driver, car designer and businesswoman.

Shelby was the kind of man who could convince a dog to abandon a meat truck. She convinced the legendary ten-miler to join the Ford team when together they revealed what happened to the GP. You don't know anymore go watch the movie here to tell us more is the act of playing Carol Shelby on the big screen Freddie Mac could you watch it my friend? It's new. You know why these three cars are here. Did you know? Let me. Take off that jacket for a second, put this jacket on, trust me, let me explain what's going on, okay, Carroll Shelby was my hero and you're playing my hero, I'm sorry, well, yeah, you never want to meet, Hiro, but in this case yes and while I was 50 years old and I bought this road and track edition, look at this, and it has the Mustang, the Ford GT and the Cobra, and I asked you to bring the Cobra because I already have the Ford GT and the Mustang.

I thought we could recreate this image. so stay there, right there, okay, let me get out of the shot, done, perfect. I want to talk about the cool movie. This is the first time in my life that I've met someone who was the subject of a movie played by someone I know because I always wondered what people would think if they really thought they captured the essence of the person in the movie and you really Did you know. I knew Carroll had been here many times and I really think you had the body language. I never met him, I never got to meet him and Christian obviously never made it to 10 miles, so it was a lot of watching old documentaries about that, you know?

This is a project that's been around almost as long as I've been in Hollywood since. People in the '70s wanted to make Carroll Shelby 10 miles away from the whole story and it never seemed to get off the ground. What made this time different? Do you think I was approached with a much bigger script with many more characters and it was too unwieldy to handle? Trying to get it right in a couple of hours, but this way the script boiled it down to these two guys and this underdog story told through the eyes of this friendship, these kinds of guys were yes different.

I thought you did a great job and my biggest fear. I hate car movies where people are like, wow, you know, they take a jump and it's CGI and I know, come on, it's not the Dukes that have a threat, but where are these accidents? Nothing looks CGI, nothing in CGI. I mean, he has everything on camera and We had an amazing second unit crew and really good drivers. These guys were a special breed, like they just got the biggest engine they could and put it in the lightest object they could. find and I once asked Carroll what he didn't like about Enzo Ferrari and he told me he had killed too many drivers, yeah his nickname was the killer Ferrari in those days one guy died a week in professional car racing , it was a very dangerous and scary time.

I mean, the reason they recruited Carroll Shelby is because he raced there in '59 and he was the only American they knew who had raced on this French track, it's not even a track, It's a public highway in the middle of the French countryside, just the idea of ​​going 230 miles an hour down the Mulsanne straight and not knowing if you're going to be able to stop, there are stories from back then about guys flipping a car and leaking fuel and they were right in the middle of cow legs right there in a pasture and no one was coming to save them.

The GT40 had the fuel lines that go through the doors and are just waiting for a spark that will set them on fire and kill them and in fact one of the drivers, very famous, started sticking a wrench to the steering wheel to get out of there. the situation if you were stuck in the car was a dangerous sport obviously, but not like what these guys were doing well and also they were racing for practically nothing, free tires, gas and oil, right, oh wow, that's amazing and that's what professional sports were like in those days. It wasn't the big business it is now, did you meet any of the family?

No, we talked to some of the guys that worked with him that were on that LeMond team and then something really interesting happened where some of the drivers' sons played his parents, yeah, well, Alex Gurney exactly, yeah, it was a Dan Gurney, yeah, well, play them, you know, Carroll Shelby's son had these printed in memory of his father, these are these coins, he made 300 of these and I think they were so impressed with your performance, they asked me to give you this . Oh man, this is family and I think he's a cool little thing. It is not available at the Franklin Mint.

You can't buy it. I couldn't get one. Shelby. I sold it, it was also a bit of a PT Barnum, I could sell something like these cobras, I would have won and I had it repainted every week to make it look like I had a Carman. There was a different one in the car, you know, all of those. kind of deals, best salesman ever, it was the best sales of that, but a big heart, you know that's what I loved about the guy. I want to see if you're as good a driver as Carol Shell because I doubt she ever raced.

You're Lamar, you know they made the whole deal, you want to take me for Ryan, come on, considering how you got here. I don't know if it's such a smart idea, oh yeah, no kid, it's a maxi, I don't know, I try. to help bring the exhibit home, it will work one of these days. Is this your first time driving a car? / you make this movie, yeah, making the movie, yeah, and I was surprised how easy it is to get the rear wheels, you know, yeah, I mean. Many cars don't need to have traction control to keep you in your lane.

This is like you're on your own path right here, which gives you a great appreciation for these guys.