1966 Ford GT40 MKI Coupe

The early GT40 road cars were production racing coupes that were slightly converted for the street. They retained mainly of their competition features, including only driver-side seat support, two fuel pressure gauges, battery-mount brackets in passenger's footwell, and lighter fiberglass. Luxurious amenities included leather upholstery and trim, padded dash, air conditioning, centered rearview mirror, heated windscreen and luggage boxes. They have special exhaust silencers, softer brake pads and shock absorbers that were 25-percent softer than the race units.

This example, built at the Ford Advanced Vehicles factory in Slough, Buckinghamshire, England, is chassis number P/1028. This was the first road car delivered to North America. It was used briefly as a test and evaluation car on Ford's test track. It later served as Ford North America's official Promotional GT40.

The car features a 'High Performance' 289 with a single Holley 4-barrel carburetor and Sunbeam Tiger air cleaner. The 335 horsepower is sent to a ZF 5-speed gearbox, the same used in the race GT40s.

The car's first promotional stop was at the 1966 12 Hours of Sebring in Florida. The car was paraded around the event all weekend and then parked in the pit lane prior to the race. After Sebring, it traveled through the United States to dealerships, exhibits, and car shows. It appeared in a four-page spread in the July edition of 'Playboy' magazine, followed by the September 1966 issue of 'Mechanix Illustrated.'

After six months of travel, it was sent to Comstock Racing in Toronto, Canada where it continued its promotional outing in Canada. It traveled to several tracks including St. Jovite, Mosport, Westwood, and Watkins Glen.

At the end of the 1966 season, it was shipped to Kar-Kraft where it was painted blue and used as a Ford VIP car for Ford Executive Fran Hernandez.

David Tallaksen purchased it sometime in 1967 and by 1969 it was in the care of Steve Earle. It spent time in the care of another California owner before being purchased by the Schroeder family of Burbank in 1975. They had the car painted in Blue-and-Orange Gulf livery for a Gulf television ad in 1981 and was then put on display at the Justice Brothers Racing Car Museum in Duarte, California. In 2003, it was exhibited at the Monterey Historic Races.

After nearly four decades of ownership, the car was sold and a complete ground-up restoration was started. During the process, the car was found to be an extremely original car, with approximately 11,000 miles on the odometer. The original metallichrome silver paint was found under the Gulf, and dark blue layers of paint. It is currently finished exactly the same way it appeared when it rolled down the pits in Sebring 50 years ago.

By Daniel Vaughan | Nov 2016