Stunning. You can really *see* how purposeful a race car or motorcycle is when they're a single color.... Not painted like a kaleidoscope or festooned with sponsor stickers.
I love damn near everything that Carrol Shelby touched. I built a 65 GT350R, named my kid after Carrol, and now building another Shelby inspired vehicle. I’ve never been lucky enough to see a real deal GT40 in the flesh but almost owned a Heritage Edition Ford GT, unfortunately George Poteet passed away before I could acquire it.
I have had the good fortune to be around a few of these GT 40 road cars. They are just pure highway fury even sitting still. They sound mean and are just tractable enough to drive around in. Only minorly more refined than the race versions. Both the raspy 289s and thunderous 427s sound pure evil. The few I have seen change hands have been in the $6-7 million range. A bit more than your average traditional hot rod...
Beautiful, raw, visceral...if the sight alone of that car doesn't make your heart beat faster — you must be dead!
He is right about the color, it’s perfect. It’s just an absolutely gorgeous car. I’ve loved these cars since I first saw an image of one in the 60s I was maybe 5 years old and I knew then it was something special. Thanks Ryan Dan
I'm not sure what they got for it, but the last MKI road car to sell went for just under $4.5 million in 2024: More images and auction details here: https://www.broadarrowauctions.com/vehicles/am24_r163/1967-ford-gt40 I grew up and learned to drive with anger on Rattlesnake Raceway in Midland, TX. It's a little know development track with an unbelievable history. All of the Chaparral cars were developed there, many Indy cars from the 1960's and well into the 1990s, and just about every car Carrol Shelby ever touched. In fact, the first time a Shelby Cobra was ever driven with anger was on Rattlesnake. And that scene in Ford Vs Ferrari where Carroll scares the***** out of Mr. Ford in a MKI? That was actually inspired by an event that happened on Rattlesnake. When I was a kid, my dad would take us out there with our shifter cart so we could practice and he could rub elbows with people like Shelby, Jim Hall, Franz Weis, Rudy Van Der Straten, etc... My sort-of brother and I would rip laps between testing sessions, kicking up dust until one of the legends barked at us to clear the track. I remember being pissed off every time they waved us off, not knowing... hell, not caring... that we were being told to move aside for giants. I had plenty of opportunity to get to know Shelby, but never really did. And I don't know if it says anything about him, but my old man made it an absolute priority for me to get to know other heroes.
There are two things about the GT that the internet will never do justice. First... the sound. You can crank your speakers to eleven and still miss it. In person, the thing doesn’t growl, it howls... a deep, mechanical fury that feels alive and angry in a way no recording can capture. It’s less an exhaust note and more a declaration of war. On my list of best sounding cars ever, it's solidly in the third spot... Second... the size. Photos make it look like some hulking brute, wide and muscular. But when you stand next to one, you realize how impossibly small it is. It’s far shorter than a Miata and just a little longer bumper to bumper. And here's a shot of my middle kid standing next to a reproduction that was eventually redone for the Ford Vs. Ferrari movie... I think he was 5 at the time? Anyway, gives you another sense of scale.
Well, my friend Brain O'Neil got a used GT40- in 1971 from one of his contacts at Ford. He thought it would fun to drive around Miami Fl.{ He was a race driver , in SCCA,then Group 7,had retired kind of !.} Well Miami is mostly hot,so after a week,he brings it in,an ask if I can put AC in it ,Ya. So Red Rodamaker an I put AC in too it< This job is a lot like,if we're not crazy,it can't be done. Brain was happy,but sold it about year latter,as the right drive was not smart in Miami streets. So some place,there is a real GT 40,ether with AC or some patched holes,no one know why they are there,in there now super high $ real GT40.
I've read that most of the road cars came equipped with a/c and many of the LeMans equipped race cars had a minimal system installed due to a fogging issue in the*****pit. That said, I sat in an early MKI car at the Revs institute and it wasn't equipped with any kind of ventilation though there was a blanked switch for it. I also got to drive one of the MKII Ford Vs Ferrari cars in 2022 that belongs to a HAMBer. It's widely considered the most accurate reproduction on the planet and uses a ton of original parts including the full suspension and dash. It had no ventilation and the blocked off switch noted in the first car was actually filled with a switch for an aux fuel pump. I would imagine there is a ton of variance from car to car given how modularly they were built.
F@#k!!...If that sound, look, style doesn't make your pants a little tight where you pee...well, you don't get it, and likely never will! So was that a 289 or 427 we were listening to? I'm thinking 289. I loved watching the tach as he blips the throttle on start-up! Nasty.
Look at the video when he opens the clam shell. 289. I personally think a good bit of the sound comes from the 180-degree headers...
Someone (I'm guessing Thomo) posted this to a Ford GT group. As a result, I'm getting flooded with other cars and photographs. The latest is in Forest Green and sold for just over $7-million just a few months back. I guess this one is considered more original. These shots are digital and gorgeous for sure, but they don't have the same warmth as the shots in the feature...
The sad thing is at one point Edsel The Second was driving a street GT, this was sometime after the dominance at the 24 hours of La Mans and a Ford executive pitched a fit and wanted to know why Edsel Ford was driving a foreign car.
Me? I don't like it. No chrome, no storage for my golf clubs and if you could get a Latte through that window at the drive up there are no cupholders. All that and it's a size or three too small for me.
The Jalopy Journal
