Is this GT40 considered "real"?

I will ask my dear friend lee Holman. I would be curious what he says. personally I think it is considered real. lee will weigh in late this week.

 

Would you consider a Mustang built by an outside party from NOS parts "real"? It's not one of the original batch of cars. At best, it's a continuation car, and the lack of bids reflects it's lack of significance.

 

The point is made on the GT40 forums, and quite correctly, that who would put a $2+M car on eBay?

1108 on Ebay - GT40s.com

BHW

 

$2mm is far from the most expensive car sold on ebay.

and IIRC Mark Cuban bought his Gulfstream ($40mm+) on ebay. at least he found it there, I'm assuming buying a jet is a bit more complicated than clicking "buy it now".

 

Anything involving David Piper might have a confused provenance and story. Ask Napolis.

Caveat Emptor.

CW

 

As I advised the OP, the Ford Motor Co. threw tons of dollars at their GT40 program with
little to no budgetary or administrative oversight.

Shelby and Ford threw a lot of ideas against the wall to see what would stick. The cars were
inherently dangerous as Ford were building them with the lightest metals possible, much of
which cracked during testing and races.

They would then replace the fatigued metal by literally cutting the back ends off of one GT40
and welding on the back end from another.

I was told by a high level Ford engineer in charge of engine development who is still with Ford
while researching a GT40 that when Ford pulled the plug on the program that all of the records
were "lost". Ask anyone from Shelby about this and they run for the door.

So, there are a lot of unscrupulous people out there willing to take advantage of the fact that
there are VINs which disappeared and suddenly some of these cars mysteriously show up out
of no where.

Research, research more and then bring in an expert and have them pour over the car and
the paperwork. Also, the books which are recognized as the "GT40 Bible" should be read
with a great deal of scrutiny.

Step very carefully when dealing with these GT40s as there are likely more fake ones out
there than originals.

BHW

 

You could also contact Legendary Motorcar Company | and ask Peter. I recently watched an episode where he found a 'true all original' GT40 road version and it showed what you should look for pertaining to originality.

Just a thought.

 

Most origional GT40s are not "origional" Its highly doubtful that the monocok tub would have survived alll these years. There are lots of voids in the tub esp between the ribs in the sills, and there was no corosion protection. That is before racing took its toll. Plus of course the fiberglass bodies have been replaced more than once. Yes there are a few origional origionals in meuseums and maybe one or two still driving such as the yamaha car..

The GT40 that sold for $11million a few years back is a car that had had its roof cut off for filming the movie lemans, and then burned to the ground only to have some bits dug up 40 years later and suddenly restored, we know it was a new tub and new fiberglass, so what is it exactly.

Gelescoe in the uk makes new tubs and whole cars which are fia approved, and SPF makes tubs for historic cars. So a lot of historic cars are a data plate a few bits plus a whole lot of GW;s axe

So what we have with most origional GT40s is a few period bits, maybe a bellhousing and a data plate. But then the same could be said about many a vintage racing ferrari.

Point is the data plate which is a form of provenance adds about $2million to an otherwise mostly new build car. Therefore the ebay car may well be worth 2.5 million or more depending on quantity or period pieces and details. But if you want a "real" GT40 you can buy a SPF or Gelescoe both of which are licensed continuation cars built as per period pieces with a data plate number that begins with a 2 instead of a 1 for 175-500k depending on. These new builds are licensed by the type holder, I hear that a significant nuber of the GT40s at goodwood were in fact gelescoe cars.

 

Ronnie Spain is the only guy I would trust...