Rewind to the mid-60's when the unholiest of corporate mergers - The Ford Motor Company and Ferrari – was under consideration. As the story goes, Ford was surreptitiously approached by a Ferrari representative to initiate consideration of an acquisition. Enzo Ferrari (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enzo_Ferrari) was not happy with the distraction of building and selling street-going sports cars to support his passion for racing. His hope was that in a post acquisition Ford+Ferrari world, he could focus all of his time, energy and additional funds on the purity of racing.
While Ford was investing a great deal of time and money crawling through Ferrari's people, financial and operational processes and increasingly growing excited about the prospects of such a marriage, Ferrari and Enzo was becoming more taciturn when considering what life would be like living and working in such a big American company. At some point, Enzo silently turned the tables and instructed his people to learn all they could of Ford's intellectual property and then once satisfied, he unceremoniously and surprisingly pulled the plug on the acquisition. This so incensed 'Hank the Deuce' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Ford_II) that he decreed that Ford would supplant Ferrari in their own endurance racing bastion of success – the 24 hours of LeMans.
The car would be called the Ford GT 40. with the '40' representing the overall height, in inches, of the car. Much of the work was carried out in the U.K., with many parts coming from across Europe and so it would be inaccurate to claim that car was a purely U.S. endeavor. It took a bit of debugging, with mechanical problems dogging the cars entry in 1964 and 1965, to get to the winners circle. But the resultant design placed first in the LeMans race in 1966-1969. Four consecutive years of Ferrari watching from behind. An astonishing fulfillment of an aggressive and audacious goal. (There's numerous books that describe this aspect of Ford's history. One is: http://www.biggerbooks.com/bk_detail.aspx?isbn=9781844253050) Here's a photo of the first winning car:
Overwhelmingly beautiful. The perfect sports/racing car:
Always a car geek, shortly after the race (there were no satellite feeds at the time) I had the chance to watch segments of it on ABC's Wide World of Sports. What caught my eye was the incredible design of the GT40. The first mid-engined car I recall seeing, aerodynamic, curvy and low to the ground, it was the most beautiful car I had ever seen. I watched intently on my black and white television hoping to see a few close-ups of this remarkable machine.
Fast forward a year or two: As a young kid growing up in New York city, I spent a lot of time on my bicycle. Rounding a corner near my brick row house, parked on the street before my very eyes was one of the very few street-registered Ford GT's. There it was in the mechanical flesh. White with blue center stripe it was even more spectacular up close than on television. I spent the better part of an hour circling the car on foot ogling every little detail – the Halibrand mag wheels, the raw open rear engine compartment with the seven liter V8 under the rear glass, the bank of toggle switches framing a wide set of gauges with the speedometer on the far right. I traveled nearly every day to visit the GT40. Parked in the same position, never meeting it's owner, I would check on it as part of every ride. Then one day it was gone. Never to be seen again but indelibly etched in my mind as the design against which all other cars would be compared. And to this day, no other car, absolutely nothing could measure up. Quietly, in the back of my mind, the dream of owning a street-worthy Ford GT40 began to turn over.
Fast forward again: Reading my monthly home delivery of Car and Driver, Ford CEO Bill Ford rolled out the Ford GT concept at the 2002 North American International Auto Show in Detroit commemorating their 100th anniversary. Shortly after the rollout, Ford announced their intent to build 4,000 of these recreations. With a small design team led by the young and brilliant Camilo Pardo (http://www.mazdausamedia.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=23971 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDT1VLN-qYc) the team worked quickly to convert a show car to a deliverable for the 2005 model year.
Here's how Ford described their forthcoming supercar:
'The Ford GT delivers 550 horsepower and a certified 205-mph top track speed rating, with styling inspired by the historic racecars and a comfortable and contemporary interior, all for a base price (MSRP) of under $150,000. An ultra high-performance two-seat sports car, the Ford GT is built on an aluminum spaceframe chassis with super-plastic-formed aluminum body panels and an aluminum-over-carbon engine cover. A mid-mounted supercharged 5.4-liter V-8 delivers 500 pound-feet of torque. Power flows to the rear wheels through a six-speed manual transaxle. Independent suspension, large Brembo brakes and Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercar tires on 18-inch front and 19-inch rear wheels all are standard equipment.'
Perhaps more beautiful than the original. Thank you Camilo.
Later learning that Ford had lost ownership of the GT40 brand, and accepting that the recreation was in fact 44 inches tall, the production version would be called the Ford GT. I remember the house, room, piece of furniture and position I was in when I set my eyes on the new old GT. The decision, right there, was to resume my old plan – I have to get one. But seeing the pricing, I rationalized it with the amendment of the standard term 'some day'. The hope was to wait for production to get going and in 5 years or so, perhaps the price would drop to an affordable level.
Well, it didn't quite work out that way. Somewhere during the second year of the model run, Ford announced that they were going to stand by their word and halt production of approximately 4,000 cars, at the end of 2006. And six months or so after that last production date, my weekly Ebay check showed an early trend that triggered alarm. The historic nature, limited availability and unique design of the car was beginning to drive the collector market to drive the pre-owned pricing higher than list prices. My plan of waiting for the prices to fall was never going to happen. If I was was to own one, there was no other time than the present. Discussed quickly with my very understanding wife, I found one for sale at a Lambo dealer with 214 miles on it. I was quite focused on buying an as-new model with as much warranty remaining, and a minimum chance of 'overuse' in the hands of an avid sports car owner. There was no negotiation on price, but a protracted wait period while a cracked windshield in an otherwise perfect car was dealt with. In October of 2006, build #899, a 2005 model with all options and of course white with a blue stripe, was tucked comfortably in to my garage.
Dream realized:
More to come...
Verde
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