by Mike –
Up for auction at RM in Monterey this August is this 1965 Ford GT40 Roadster Prototype.
I photographed this beauty at Amelia Island in March 2013.
Ford GT40 chassis No. 108 was the first of four roadster bodied GT prototypes built by Ford Advanced Vehicles. Along with its sister car, chassis No. 109, it was sent to Carroll Shelby for testing.
It served as a test-bed for the ZF gearbox that would replace the Coletti on the production cars. Today it is the only GT Roadster that has survived in largely original condition and is the only one of the GT prototypes that still has the original nose. Notice the front of this GT40 looks different than other GT40s.
RM says,
The 8th of 12 GT40 prototypes built; a very original example with more than two decades in single ownership; Used by Shelby American for testing and development; Driven by Ken Miles, Carroll Shelby, and Jim Clark.
Check back soon for complete catalogue description.
I am going to take another look at this special GT40 in Monterey. Let us know what you think in the Comments.
Never be a Ferrari will it
No it is not a Ferrari but it is faster than the Ferraris from the same era. The Ford GT40 beat Ferrari hands down for a few years in a row at Le Mans.
This GT40 could set a record price for American cars which is now held by another GT40. See the record holder here: https://mycarquest.com/?p=17494
Hmmm …. does prototype beat race history on value? With 12 being made I would say good race history is worth more, but with the way the car market is we will probably see a new record.
Excellent question and not an easy one to answer. There were only four roadster bodied GT prototypes and this is the only one left in its original form. It was a development car and was driven by Ken Miles, Carroll Shelby, and Jim Clark.
This is a one of a kind but so are successful race cars. Since this car is being auctioned at the same venue but two years later I believe it has a chance to beat the record. We will know in a few weeks.
The GT40 that set the American car record sold for $11 million in 2012 – more here: https://mycarquest.com/?p=16739
I recall a GT40 roadster being used to film the Movie LeMans, I wonder if it was one of the four you mention or cut by the film company to handle the cameras.
Mike,
The GT 40 roadster camera car, used in the film Le Mans, was a coupe with the top wacked off. It sold recently, around 2012, with the roof back in place, for somewhere in the neighborhood of 11 million. The details should be available on the computer. Take a look.
You can read about it here: https://mycarquest.com/?p=16739
Yes it was confusing as the original camera car was topless, but now it has a top??? They must have glued it back on. If it were me I would have preferred it if they had just left the top off, now it just looks like all the other GT40’s no patina
I would say that racing history, such as a car being documented to run at LeMans (even if it didn’t finish)is more important than being one of several prototypes. One reason is that some of the organizations that run vintage races want a car to be on the grid that is the real car once featured at a real race (OK vintage racers, sorry if I said your races aren’t real, but I mean in real racing it was brutal, sometimes butting a slower r car out of the way, I’ve seen it…)
Also is this the Dean Jeffries car? He was given a GT40 roadster for free when he was walking through Ford with AJ Foyt and Foyt told him “Hey, tell ’em you’ll put a car in a movie and they’ll give you one for free.” So out of a vast field of old race cars he happened to pick the one that was one of four. He died recently and I am unaware of what happened to his GT40 which he had labored long and hard to put a 4-cam Indy engine in though Ford never ran it with a four cam
I worked at 1601 W Imperial Hwy back in 1966 for Shelby American. I would take my lunch break out behind the assembly building near a concrete bunker as it was called. There were piles of AC Bristol wire wheels there and aGT-40 roadster body in disrepair it had right hand steering and no engine or transaxle behind it were the remains of a GT-40 in a crate, these were the parts picked up at Riverside Raceway from a crash at turn 9 in which the driver was killed. The car was white the roadster that is, and when I asked if it mite be for sale my boss Tom Kunz said probably cost you about 12,000 dollars. At that point I gave up the dream of owning a rare GT-40 I wonder what became of that car? Is this it?
maybe that was Ken Miles, in that case it would have been the Ford prototype J car.