There's a really knowledgeable structures engineer on the F-16 site who was primary on a lot of the Viper testing, but his first assignment with GD was on the F-111.
To paraphrase his story,
Early in the F-111 program, GD had USAF fly in an F-105 for all their F-111 engineers to inspect. Essentially they were told this is what they didn't want and to avoid if possible anything they saw on the Thud and not incorporate it in the F-111.
(Hello TLB, saw 1140 KTAS on an old F-4D FCF vari-ramp check at 45,000 once. Measured out 1.98 IMN but a true Mach of 2.01)