Probably. The GT40 was a beautiful Le Mans racer that had no Ford predecessor, or at least none that I’ve ever heard of. I don’t think Ford had been at Le Mans before this car. So they must have spent a ton of money on developing that project.
In 1964, they tried running the Cobra Daytona Coupe as the "opening salvo" against Ferrari (during the GT40's troubled debut). They gave Ferrari a pretty good run, but lost some time due to minor mechanical failures. The Daytona Coupe was a true "shoestring" project by Shelby, who had a bit of a feud going with Enzo Ferrari even before Henry Ford, II did.