1966 Ford GT40 Mk II Coupe

This car, Lot 124, sold for $9,795,000, including buyer’s commission, at RM Sotheby’s Monterey auction on August 25, 2018.

The origin story for the Ford GT40 is well known, but it is worth mentioning briefly as a way of opening the discussion of today’s subject car.

In 1963, the top management of Ford decided that international racing exposure and success would be good for marketing their increasingly global car company. Rather than start from scratch, they decided to try to purchase Ferrari. Enzo Ferrari was initially receptive to the idea. He was not getting younger, and trying to support his racing passion with building road cars was increasingly burdensome. However, as negotiations proceeded, Ferrari came to realize that his personal style of running a company was completely incompatible with a huge, bureaucratic organization like Ford.

Rather than simply pull the plug, Enzo Ferrari made the negotiations ever more difficult and frustrating until they finally collapsed. The result was that Henry Ford II and the other bigwigs were worse than disappointed — they were insulted and angry.

At Ford, beating Ferrari at Le Mans became personal.

By fortuitous chance, Eric Broadley of Lola had picked this time to introduce the new Lola Mk 6, a Ford V8-powered mid-engine coupe designed specifically for endurance racing. Ford was immediately interested and bought the company to get access to the design expertise that Lola could bring to the project.

With Ford’s money and Lola’s efforts, the Lola Mk 6 quickly evolved into the Ford GT40 prototype. The new car used a steel monocoque structure (the Lola had been aluminum) to carry a Ford 289-ci (4.7-liter) engine and a Colotti 5-speed transaxle in a body shape crafted and wind-tunnel tested in Dearborn, although it was clearly an evolution of the Lola Mk 6 shape. It was introduced to the world in April 1964 and was an immediate sensation. It was low (40 inches tall and not by chance), wide, very aggressive and flat-out gorgeous.

The cars were immediately put on the track, where substantial sorting proved necessary, but two cars were ready in time for Ford to challenge Ferrari at Le Mans in June 1964. The cars were clearly fast, matching Ferrari for two of the four best lap times, but the race itself proved a disappointment, with both of the GT40s failing to finish. A few weeks later, Ford tried again at the Reims race, with the same results. Ford then contented itself with extensive testing for the rest of the season. With Ferrari getting 105 championship points in 1964 and Shelby’s Cobras getting 90 while Ford ended up with zero, it was clearly not what the Ford overlords wanted to see.

Jamming in more horsepower

For the 1965 season, Ford enlisted the help of the Shelby group, who made multiple changes, particularly replacing the fragile Colotti transaxle with a new ZF unit. The cars gained reliability and speed, becoming far more serious contenders as the racing season got going, but an important group at Ford had long felt that this wasn’t enough.

Most of the endurance races were held on long, fast tracks such as Le Mans and Spa rather than tight, technical tracks like Nürburgring, so Ford resorted to the traditional American solution — more cubic inches for more horsepower. A 427-ci-powered version would weigh more but be faster on the straights and hopefully less stressed and thus more reliable than the 289. The project actually began in the summer of 1964 and was called the GT40 Mark II.

Putting that large of an engine in a car designed for a 289 was not a simple project: The tub was built of heavier-gauge steel, and the suspension and brakes were beefed up to handle the greater loads. A new transaxle had to be built to handle big-block horsepower, and the rear bodywork expanded to cover it all, as well as sprouting various appendages and vents to get air where it was needed.

The new Mk II was fully 700 pounds heavier than the 2,000-pound Mk I, but top speed increased to about 210 mph. Hopefully this would be enough to match Ferrari at Le Mans. The first two Mk IIs were entered at 1965 Le Mans along with four small-block GT40s, but once again it was not to be Ford’s year, with every one of the cars breaking before the race was half over.

Overwhelming victories

1966 was finally Ford’s year at Le Mans, with the GT40 Mk IIs finishing 1st through 3rd (our subject car was 3rd), while the best Ferrari could do was 8th. Ford had finally conquered Ferrari at Le Mans.

In 1967, Ford took 1st and 4th with the Mk IV “J” variant, and in 1968 the Mk 1-based Mirage won under new small-displacement rules. With dominant victories all over the world, the Ford GT40 in Mk I, II and IV versions (the III was a street version) became the iconic and all-conquering American racing car of the era.

A very valuable car

All this glorious history made the GT40 the most valuable of American racing cars, with values today ranging from $4 million to $6 million for “ordinary” cars with minor to mediocre racing histories. Prices soar to $20 million and more for the greatest of Le Mans winners.

A general rule is that a Le Mans win roughly doubles the value of any racing car, so the range for most GT40s tops out somewhere above $10 million, with the factory team cars at the high end.

Ford also built a number of street GT40s that are considerably less valuable — although plenty of fun to drive.

On the subject of driving, I am told that all competition GT40s are a joy to drive on the track — comfortable, stable and forgiving near the limit. However, with nosebleed collector values attached, few people actually race them anymore.

In the regular production, FAV built 105 GT40s, of which there were eight Mk IIs and eight Mk IV “J” examples. These last were all factory team cars by definition and most had excellent racing histories, so they are the most valuable (save arguably the Gulf Mirage cars).

Our subject car finished 3rd at Le Mans, had excellent history in other races and is in superb condition, so it was expected to sell at the top of the value range. Several friends in the business told me that they expected it to make maybe 10%–15% more than it did, but just south of $10 million is nothing to sneeze at. It is a great car and well bought. ♦

(Introductory description courtesy of RM Sotheby’s.)