Roy Lunn, Innovative Engineer of Celebrated Cars, Dies at 92
Raj Nair, the president of Ford Motor Company North America, called Mr. Lunn “the godfather of the original GT40.”
“The team that put together the Ford GT of today was inspired by the work of Roy
and his team,” Mr. Nair said in an interview on Wednesday, “and we will be forever grateful for what they started.”
Mr. Lunn also helped design for Ford a virtually impregnable Lincoln presidential limousine, one
that could withstand not just gunfire but also poison gas and exploding projectiles.
And that’s how the production Mustang became reality.”
Mr. Lunn also oversaw development of Ford’s sleek GT (Grand Touring) cars.
Trained as an aeronautical engineer, Mr. Lunn designed brawny cars
that flew (literally, in one case) off the track, hurtling along highways and racecourses and giving Ford worldwide bragging rights in the late 1960s as a four-time winner of the glamorous endurance sports-car racing crown at Le Mans, France.
One of Mr. Lunn’s most celebrated cars was the experimental Mustang I, a two-seat, four-cylinder
aluminum-bodied sports car with its engine midway between the front and rear axles.
Roy Lunn, a British-born engineering virtuoso whose design teams spawned celebrated American cars like Ford’s muscular GT40
and the original Mustang and paved the way for the rise of the S.
