Interview with Mélanie, daughter of the racing driver | Gilles Villeneuve and his Mustangs

In the collective imagination, Gilles Villeneuve is naturally associated with Ferrari. Aside from a single Formula 1 race at the wheel of a McLaren in 1977, the legendary Quebec driver raced his entire career in the premier discipline aboard a carmine-colored mount emblazoned with the prancing horse. Behind the scenes, however, Villeneuve cultivated an unconditional love for an American icon, the Ford Mustang.

It was in 1969, at the age of 19, that Gilles Villeneuve bought his first Ford Mustang, a 1967 equipped with a 289-inch V8.^⁠3 (4.7 L). “He didn’t buy it new, but it was the first quality car he bought that wasn’t falling apart [en ruine] “, his daughter Mélanie reminds us with a laugh in an interview.

“It was with this car that he learned to do drag racing. His friends tell me that he was extremely fast when changing gears and accelerating. He often won in his category, he was very proud of himself.” An enormous talent was then born on the local drag strips.

But it would be reductive to attribute these early victories solely to his innate virtuosity. Gilles Villeneuve was also not afraid to get his hands dirty to shave precious seconds off his times. “He was very meticulous with his car,” explains Mélanie Villeneuve. “He cleaned the engine, he made sure to clean the valves. He adjusted his ignition every week. That’s how he was going to get an outperformance.”

At one point the original 289″ small block^⁠3 (4.7 L) of his 1967 Mustang was no longer enough. “Afterwards, he decided to modify it, he put wider tires and widened the fenders and after that, he bought a 427 in.^⁠3 (7 L). He spent two days installing it himself with his friend Gaétan Giroux,” his daughter relates.

A wedding in a Mustang

Gilles Villeneuve’s passion for Mustangs even dictated the choice of vehicle used for his wedding to his wife Joann in 1970. “My mother wanted a limousine like the bride and groom usually like, but my father said, ‘No, it’s going to be a Mustang for the wedding,'” says Mélanie Villeneuve. After the ceremony, the bride and groom climbed into a gleaming Mustang Boss 429 (7 L) that had just been purchased by the driver’s friend Gaétan Giroux.

“Gilles is a Coke guy and he’s a Ford guy!” his daughter sums up with a laugh to illustrate her penchant for the American brand. “We were surrounded by Fords.” The Villeneuve family traveled around Europe in a Bronco, but also in an F-150 that towed the fifth-wheel trailer that served as their accommodation around the circuits.

“We had a chalet in the Alps and he loved to go off-piste with the Bronco with me, my mother and my brother,” recalls Mélanie Villeneuve. “We took dangerous paths on the edge of the mountain.”

But where does this loyalty to Ford come from? Most likely from her father, she believes. Seville Villeneuve owned a Ford, which caught Gilles’ attention when he was a young child. “Seville had a heavy foot, he liked to drive fast,” something that probably also influenced his taste for speed, observes M^me Villeneuve.

A supercharged Mustang in Monaco

It was in the mid-1970s, while racing in Formula Atlantic, that Gilles Villeneuve acquired his second and final Mustang, a 1971 Boss 351. In 1981, when he was driving for Ferrari in Formula 1, he called on renowned Mustang tuner Jack Roush to supercharge his mechanics.

“He had the connecting rods lengthened to get a few more cubic inches,” explains Mélanie Villeneuve. “His 351 (5.8 L) became a 360 (5.9 L). The power went up to 600 hp and his engine could turn at 8,000 rpm.” An operation that cost the tidy sum of $10,000 at the time.

“Gilles, when he received it, he was crazy like a child,” she says. He immediately challenged his friend Gaétan Giroux, who still owned his Mustang Boss 429. Despite the expensive modifications, he still couldn’t beat him, which “drove him crazy.”

He had to completely disconnect his exhaust system to get ahead of him on a straight in Berthierville. “He didn’t give Gaétan the chance to do the same thing”… just to avoid losing again.

A competitive spirit, certainly, but “a guy of integrity and honesty,” Mr.^me Villeneuve, who has great admiration for his father’s righteousness.

Shortly after Gilles Villeneuve’s tragic death at the Belgian Circuit Zolder in 1982, this same Mustang Boss was brought back to Monaco by his wife Joann. “I remember driving it very well. It was out of the ordinary on the streets of Monaco,” recalls Mélanie Villeneuve.

“It’s still part of our family. We care a lot about it because I see Gilles inside that car. It completely represents who he was as a person.” Much more than just a car, then, but a way to reunite, for a moment, with his father.

Feature film on Gilles Villeneuve

“It was important to tell the story of how he got to Formula 1”

Focusing on the years preceding the driver’s arrival in Formula 1, the film Villeneuve: the rise of a champion is currently being filmed in Quebec.

Ford Canada is playing a supporting role with its team of historians to ensure an authentic historical reproduction. Darren Halabisky, the brand’s director of marketing communications in Canada, told us that the manufacturer has been working on the project for about a year, a support that has developed naturally, as it links “two legends”, Gilles Villeneuve and the Ford Mustang.

“Everyone knows his story in Formula 1, but it was important for us to tell the story of how he got to Formula 1,” says Mélanie Villeneuve. It was done in a “unique way” by going through the snowmobile, maintains the driver’s daughter. “We wanted to tell his story of his rise and talk about how he started.”

“He worked extremely hard, it wasn’t easy. Obviously, he was lucky at times, but he also created his own luck.” The film will chronicle his youth, his snowmobile racing and his 1976 Formula Atlantic title.

The family has been involved in the project for years now. “We met Christian Larouche [le producteur] In 2018, the scenario was already underway. Then we established a relationship of trust, we talk to each other a lot,” says M^me Villeneuve.

We’re close to the production, they have a lot of respect for the family, they have a lot of respect for our experience. And then, obviously, all we want is to work together and be able to deliver a great film.

Melanie Villeneuve

“The actors […] are excited to be part of this film. There is a lot of respect, it is very touching.” Note that actor Rémi Goulet will play Gilles Villeneuve in the feature film and Rosalie Bonenfant will play the role of Joann Villeneuve.

How can we tell the younger generations who didn’t experience his extraordinary exploits on the track about Gilles Villeneuve? “If he becomes an inspiration to someone, I think I’ve achieved my goal,” says Mélanie Villeneuve. […] It’s the story of human evolution, of being able to give yourself a goal, an objective. Of having so much self-confidence that fear doesn’t exist and of continuing to move forward no matter what.”

“When I question myself, when I have fears, when I ask myself “am I doing the right thing?”, I think of Gilles. I ask myself: “What would he have done?”

“If I can share this essence of infinite self-confidence, I think it could help anyone.”

Villeneuve: the rise of a champion was supposed to be released in 2025, but The Sun learned that production was suspended last week due to budget overruns. Filming is expected to resume in winter 2025.