2017 Ford GT

This car, Lot 161, sold for $836,000, including buyer’s premium, at RM Sotheby’s Online Only: Driving into Summer auction on May 29, 2020.

What would you pay to be a part of motorsports history, to drive the same car that took the checkered flag at Le Mans? Few collectors are so lucky as to own a car that physically turned a tire at the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans, but every owner of a Ford GT can claim a spiritual connection not only to the original American GT40 triumph of 1966, but to its anniversary repeat in 2016 as well.

History repeats itself

When Ford unveiled the GT in 2015, it was the second generation of Ford GT, and was a radical departure from the 2004–06 models. The first resurrection of GT — minus its “40” because Ford no longer owned the rights to that name since nobody thought to trademark it during the 1960s — was a beefy incarnation of the original GT40. It was taller and wider than its ancestor, and remains to this day one of the most spacious 2-seat sports cars I’ve ever been in.

It was high-tech for its time, with aluminum body panels and a dry-sump, supercharged V8. Despite its popularity, Ford offered the GT for just two years, and after 2006, nobody expected to see the model return. But there was an important anniversary just around the corner.

In 2015, Ford surprised everyone at the Detroit Auto Show when it unveiled a new version of the Ford GT, just in time to enter it in the 2016 IMSA and FIA racing series, and get the bugs worked out in order to sweep the GT Class at the 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans — 50 years after the first GT40 win.

So romantic! No wonder everybody wanted one. Not only is the second-gen GT a proven race winner, it’s a real beauty, with an impossibly low-slung carbon-fiber monocoque body angling up into delicate flying-buttress air tunnels in the rear. Early grumbling about the move from the V8 engine to Ford’s 3.5-L Ecoboost V6 was hushed by 647 hp and a top speed of 216 mph. The GT also introduced many American-car fans to the joys of a dual-clutch automatic — and the marvels of carbon-fiber wheels.

Curious yellow

This car, a 2017 model, makes a good choice for an online auction due to its eye-catching Triple Yellow paint and Lightning Blue racing stripes, with glossy black carbon fiber accenting the sideview mirrors, doors and underbody aero. A bragging point for the new GT was its 20-inch gloss carbon-fiber wheels, seen here wrapped with Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires. Even the fasteners are lightweight titanium lug nuts.

Behind the carbon weave are blue-painted Brembo brake calipers. This is not a car for blending in, even among other Ford GTs. Inside is more sedate, black Alcantara and matte carbon accents. Modern sports cars have one thing every owner of a classic — even a more recent classic like the 2004 — would covet. As you’re strapped in your carbon-fiber Sparco racing seat, you can see what’s around you on a 6.5-inch infotainment system powered by Ford’s Sync 3. Forget race-winning, it’s the backup camera and cell phone connectivity that turns ’em green with envy.

Rules and regulations

Despite 2020 being the fourth year of production for the second-generation GT, we haven’t seen many cross the auction block, and this is due to low production numbers — Ford has made only 250 cars each year — and a required no-sale contract, which limits buyers from reselling GTs for two years after the initial purchase.

The contract and Ford’s exclusive purchase application mean that most GTs are still with their original owners. Those lucky original owners are either waiting for the contract to expire — or their cars are so well-loved as to be still in use, either as showpieces or garage decorations.

Ford h as been harsh on those who break the contract, most famously taking GT owner — and famous wrestler and actor — John Cena to court over his early sale.

The first GT to come (legally) to auction sold at Barrett-Jackson in 2019 for $1.54 million, but that was both a different time and a different car — an ultra-low-mile special edition. As cars continue to come up for sale, we’ll see how colors and options affect prices. This car is a good example, with its love-it-or-hate-it blue-and-gold color combo. If only there had been a few more UCLA alumni in the bidding!

The color combo could be the reason for the below-estimate sale price — RM Sotheby’s estimated between $850,000 and $950,000 — but it could also be that Ford is continuing to produce GTs, and each one that rolls off the assembly line makes the previous ones just a tad less rare.

Still, we’d say there is nothing for the buyer to worry about. If history has shown us anything on the Ford GTs, it’s that they always win in the end. I call this sale well-bought. ♦

(Introductory description courtesy of RM Sotheby’s.)