While pumping gas as a kid at my dads Mobil station I got to fill up a green GT40, in my memory it was a darker green than this one. It was probably in the late sixties they also had a Chaparral big block powered can am car on an open trailer that waited at the curb. Pretty cool***** for a kid in rural Pennsylvania.
I just had an automotive******* watching and listening to that video. Now if I could only win a BIG lottery.
If you are ever close to Boulder, Co. go to the Shelby American museum. They have several Gt 40's along with Cobras and Mustangs.
The only real GT40 I ever saw up close and personal was in about 1970 at of all places SIR in Kent Washington. And this wasn't a road racing event, it was a NHRA drags national meet. A street version parked right next to the timing tower, it was painted a Pagan gold color and just oozed speed. No idea who the owner was, but they obviously knew someone. And you're right Ryan; these are tiny cars.
Glorious indeed. Spectacular. Thank you for stretching our boundaries with glorious*****. (Must be fun being a benevolent dictator )
Having been a fan of Shelby American accomplishment for 50+ years I've been able to see, touch and work on some of their most iconic cars. Alan Grant had the Lola at a show a few years ago and we joked he could give me the car on the condition I could get in and drive it away. At 6'1" 265 it would never happen. In this time period ALL these "race" cars were road going. The FIA rules required it - they carried spare tires, had room for luggage, etc. The MKIII was created to meet the US headlight laws and add a little plushness for any millionaire buyers. The MKI (small block) finally gained success after Ford sold the program to John Wyer. He built a lightweight version powered by a Gurney Westlake small block. His Gulf colored cars are technically Mirages not GT40s. The MKII was illegal after 1967 due to it being a big block. Ford wanted a 100% American car to win LeMans. They built the J car (named for the J class FIA rules) It's my favorite body but after Ken Miles was killed testing it they went back to the drawing board. It was honeycomb aluminum epoxied together with a 2 speed automatic from Ford's drag program. They riveted gussets to the chassis and added a steel roll cage. They sent Phil Remington and custom car builder Dean Jefferies to Detroit to work in the Ford wind tunnel. In less than 2 weeks they'd created and built the MKIV body. The 1967 overall win is the only true American win - American car and American drivers - Gurney & Foyt. Shelby American got the win for Ford. Holman & Moody also ran but were plagued with crashes and failures. The SA car was untested (as was Foyt) when it arrived at LeMans. They started 9th and finished first. It's the only time they raced the car. Ford still owns it and it was not restored. After losing 2 years in a row Enzo Ferrari never entered a car in the prototype class again.
The roadster version Dean Jeffries' had for years, that he smoothed over and tightened some of the gaps on, was /is**** on wheels! I have to refrain on these posts, because I'm strange enough to consider these, along with some of those infamous wedge show cars, hot rods in a sense! Only by the sum of the parts and intention!!!
You can learn more about Dean's GT here: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/?p=56421 One of the most special GTs in existence in my opinion. It means a little more to guys like us anyhow...
Got another email from the GT crowd, and this one hits a nerve... It's an era in racing that I think about a lot. So much changed... So much innovation. The late 60's and early 70's of GP racing is a lot like the late 40's of American land speed racing. The thing about the GT is, it wasn’t just some exotic English toy that a few American madmen decided to hot-rod. It was proof... undeniable proof... that a U.S. team could walk into Le Mans, stare down the old guard, and not just hang on, but own the place. That car kicked Europe’s finest right in the teeth, then vanished into legend like it had never happened. And what did we do with that momentum? Nothing. Let it rot. Afterwards, all the R&D money got shoveled into NASCAR... corporate comfort food for the masses. Absolute horseshit. The GT could’ve been the spark that pushed American engineers into the heart of Grand Prix warfare, but instead, they pissed it away on cookie-cutter stock cars turning endless lefts for TV ratings and production car sales. Don’t get me started, man. But the GT did more than win. It lit a fire under Porsche... pissed them off enough to create the most terrifyingly dominant race car the world’s ever seen: the 917. The GT’s fastest Le Mans laps were around 3:31, which already had the paddock*****ting their pants. Then the 917 came along around a year later and started hammering out laps sixteen seconds faster. Sixteen. That’s a lifetime on a track like that. Pure lunacy. Anyway, MotorSport did a killer piece on both cars. I had never read it and the GT guys figured I should. So should you: https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/august-2010/66/they-created-a-monster/
I'm watching this one. I was fortunate enought to meet Mr Remington at Dan Webb's shop. He was an amazing person.
I've been to Le Mans three times. It's my favorite race in the world. I casually watch F1 racing... I devour endurance racing. But an American car hasn't won overall since the Ford GT in 1969. Since that time, Porsche has won overall 18 times, Audi 13 times, Toyota 5 times... hell, even Ferrari has won it 3 times since '69. The only folks putting any real effort towards GP racing in America is GM - they have given and in some cases continue to give decent budgets to both their Cadillac and Corvette teams. In the meantime, Ford has sat on their hands and allowed privateer teams to develop the mustang. They had the 2016 GT and while it won the GTE class, there wasn't any real competition that year. I gotta buddy at Ford too though... and he's on the team working on a Hypercar class entry that *might* be ready for 2027. They don't have a blank check though... and as Carroll Shelby learned, you need a blank check and at least 18 months of development time. I am pulling hard for them, but I've been let down too many times to get too excited about it.
I deleted my post so I didn't get killed..... Lol. Someone was unhappy about it. But Ryan knows where I'm at with it! I've seen both the new gt's in person and one of the actual race cars, never seen the old production car, but boy would I like to.... I requested a drive in the gt3 but was told that is unlikely! I may go to the race this year as a hanger on. Come crash on my hotel floor everyone! My wife would LOVE it! Lol...
Don't get me started on this car. He saw it sitting at Ford when he was there working on the MKIV. He asked about buying it and they sold it to him (rumored to be a $1 car). He kept it in a corner of his shop and worked on it occasionally. He had made subtle changes and it was one of the best looking ones around. After he passed it was sold at auction and the buyer completely erased Jefferies work turning it back into just another Ford GT. The ONLY all American car - one built in the USA and powered by an American engine to win LeMans was the 1967 Ford GT MKIV. The fact they also did it with American drivers is icing on the cake. In early 1967 Ford sold their FAV (Ford Advance Vehicles) in England to John Wyer. He built a lightweight car with many changes under the skin P1075. While people refer to it as a Ford GT40 it was not. It was not an American car in any way beyond the engine. Ford had no involvement in developing, building, sponsoring or running the car. Anyone who called it a Ford in front of John Wyer was promptly jumped on by him and told in no uncertain terms it was a Mirage. He felt he'd made enough changes to the car that it was now his design. The Mirage Lightweight Racing Car was a family of racing cars built by John Wyer Automotive Engineering (JWAE) in Slough, England, initially to compete in international sports car racing in the colors of the Gulf Oil Corporation. The project started in the spring of 1967, after Ford's decision to discontinue the Ford GT40 project. During the preliminary tests for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, two seeming Ford GT40s in the colors of Gulf oil appeared. They were in fact Mirages based on the Ford GT 40 Mk I, which Ford had discontinued in favour of a newer car. All the Gulf colored cars were John Wyer. He got the sponsorship when his Mirage was no longer winning he took the money and bought Porsches. Ford got out of LeMans type racing because it was a money pit that wasn't seen as increasing sales. It was estimated the entire GT campaign cost 25 million from the first Lola to the last MKIV. NASCAR and the new for 1966 TransAm series is where people could see what Ford was selling on Monday winning on Sunday. The "new" GT car has won. It's fairly easy when you build a race car to compete in a production class...... In the past race teams could buy a deeply discounted or be given a race car. Today that business model doesn't work for the bean counters so you'll need to pay upwards of 400 grand for a GT3 street car and well over 1/2 million for a track legal one. Ford is still going racing but it's now with the customers money not the stockholders.
Dayum! Be still my heart... if only I were filthy rich. These things are without a doubt some of the coolest cars ever built. I still have the magazine article covering the tribulations someone went through to put a Ford Indy motor in a GT-40 for street use. Fantastic stuff!
Thanks @Ryan. Like so many Hambers, I too have been obsessed with the Ford GT for many years. I vaguely remember seeing one as a kid that was on tour displayed at our local Ford dealership in the late sixties. I remember it being white but was only around 5 yrs old. Of course I had to have the Matchbox and Hot Wheels versions ASAP.
I just remembered: My older brought me to the inaugural race at Donnybrooke Raceway (also known as Brainerd International Raceway) back in 1966. They had all kinds of interesting cars there that day, including one of the Howmet turbine cars. On the way home we were driving through the city of Brainerd in my brother's '53 Mercury, and someone passed us in a GT40. I've seen a few replicas over the years but that was the only real one I've seen in person.
I saw a maroon street GT40 on the showroom floor of one of the Indianapolis Ford dealers sometime in the late 60's. Can't remember which dealer or what year. Odd thing stuck out that getting in, you had to climb over the shifter. RHD and shifter was on right side of the seat. Had a nice black interior too. OMG what a beautiful car!
There was only one maroon MKI ever produced... and it was shipped to Detroit. Most likely, this was the car that you saw.
The maroon car used to belong to Kinsler. Yeah, that Kinsler. Water cooler talk says the other cars he has are the stuff premature ejac..., uh, dreams, are made of. I've seen 2 of the other cars. It's more than talk. There was a GT40 tribute class at the St John's concours back in 2018 (?). Yeah, I kept going back to it over and over. Here I was surrounded by automotive fashion statements spanning decades but the only memory of that show to me focuses on the GT40s in attendance. I even had a car in it, a 34 Packard (go figure), but it was doing fine on its own. Been there done that sorta mindset. Chuck Mountain was 1 of the 3 "fathers" of the GT40 and I had the privilege of working for his company, Kar Kraft, in the mid 80s. Rumor was there was a GT40 in pieces stashed in the top floor on Miller St in Dearborn. I personally think the Mirage is the ultimate evolution. A GT40 on 'roids wearing a t-shirt a size too small. I get what you're saying @Ryan in regard to Ford stepping off in so many ways. I'd never fit in a corporate board room. If it doesn't get dirt under my nails now and then it's not worth a bent***** to me. "Suits" manage huge companies but*********s make the product. I think that sometimes the*********s are like Seals in gear awaiting the mission. Instructions be damned, once in battle things like the legends in this topic are born. You mentioned the 917. Yeah, it's like that.
This is a photo of GT40 #1059 after Jack Frost and his sons restored it and after the new owner repainted it back to its original Opalescent Maroon color.
So if the Auction I posted was the last time it was sold it went for $2.9million in 2016 and then at some point was redone back to how it left the factory. This is how it was when it sold in 2016 at Sotheby's The auction mentions it left the factory a Warwick Green car with Borrani wheels.
K13, the car did leave the factory in Warwick Green colors but was repainted red after a minor crash. It was then restored to it's present day condition with the correct color and might be one, if not the, finest and authentic GT-40s there is. I have never driven a RHD car but would love to take this beauty for a drive. The only issue I have is when I sat in my friends GT-40 I needed two people to help me exit the car. I wouldn't doubt that it brings 4 million plus.
In the Summer of 1966 I was working at Boeing in Renton Washington bucking rivets on 727 window panels as the bucker for a guy named Tom who had the coolest black and Gold 57 Desoto Adventurer. On our days off I'd often go car snooping with my dad and I talked him into going up to the north end of Lake Washington to Lake City and Lake City Ford that was a big Ford Performance dealer in the 60's. Sitting on the lot were three or four Ford GT 40, several Cobras and several Mustang GT 350. It was a mind blower for a 19 year old car freak. the solid color GT was a true thing of beauty though.
The Jalopy Journal
