Among Faltering Ferraris, This $7.85M Ford GT40 Shone through at Monterey
When the last gavel fell on the last car at this year’s Monterey auctions, we crunched the numbers. In short, it appears that the market for high-dollar cars has turned a corner after a long hot streak. Even with some high-dollar sales for exceptional cars, including the first Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider, which sold for $17,055,000, and a 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Lungo Spider that brought $14,030,000, the top of the market does not look particularly bright. Sell-through rates are down dramatically on $1M+ cars—even Enzo-era Ferraris—and many final prices were conspicuously below their presale estimates.
One sale, however, stood out to us as exceptional despite being a few spots down the price ladder. Mecum’s 1969 Ford GT40 Mk I Lightweight, which brought a $7,850,000 final price, secured its spot as third most expensive GT40 ever sold at auction. This sale defied some of the broader trends we saw this year at Monterey, and is one more step that suggests the GT40’s star may be on the rise.
Built with the sole purpose of embarrassing Ferrari in endurance racing after a deal gone bad between the two manufacturers, Ford effectively ended Ferrari’s grip on Le Mans in 1966 with a 1-2-3 finish and subsequent victories at the 24-hour French classic in 1967, 1968, and 1969. With that rich history in mind, GT40s defy logic a bit when it comes to values. Against the Ferraris they battled and often beat, their values pale in comparison. Perhaps it’s the allure of the Prancing Horse, the relative rarity or the sheer beauty of the Ferraris, but while a few of the Fords have broken into eight-figure territory, even the least desirable example of something like a 250 LM will command prices well over $10M. There are some practical answers to this price differential, but Ford’s thoroughbred still appears very much a value among legendary ’60s race cars.
The all-time record for a Ford GT40 at auction goes to the Gulf Mirage car used to film the movie Le Mans, which sold for $11 million all the way back in 2012, and it’s taken a car with prototype status or laps turned at Le Mans to make bidders shell out anything within a few million of that. Until this week, that is. While the car at Mecum was an important one, it never saw glory at the storied French circuit.
Built in 1969, chassis number P1080 was among the last GT40s completed by Ford Advanced Vehicles before Ford pulled the plug. Built to Mk I spec (powered by a 289-cubic inch V-8), it left the factory as 1 of 10 lightweights. This improved version of the Mk I would include aluminum panels, Stage II ventilated brakes and anti surge foam in the fuel tanks. The big upgrade would come from a powerful Gurney Weslake small-block engine sitting under the clamshell. Perhaps just as notable, the famous Gulf Oil Team cars, including chassis 1075 that won Le Mans in 1968 and 1969 back to back, were also late-production lightweight cars.
P1080 sold to privateer team A.F. Pires in Angola (then under Portuguese control), where it quickly sold on again to Emilio Marta in 1970 after Pires retired from racing. Marta raced P1080 in Angolan international sports car racing series, winning it outright in 1972. Following the outbreak of civil war in Angola in 1975, Marta returned from Africa to his home country of Portugal, taking P1080 with him. Again campaigning the car in Portugal, Marta eventually sold the car to a Swiss friend in 1979 where the car would take the next 20 years to undergo restoration. P1080 retained its original body, engine and gearbox.
As mentioned, valuing GT40s can be as much art as it is science given all the factors in play. While we usually lean on condition to tell us what a car could be worth, this is perhaps the least important factor in GT40-land. Remember that these are race cars: They saw abuse, crashes, rebodies, constant tweaks, and blown engines in pursuit of the checkered flag, making cars that retain their original body and running gear exceptionally rare. Competition history is also a major factor. Notable drivers piloting them at famous races makes a world of difference.
Which brings us back to P1080. It has a lot going for it, but it doesn’t necessarily tick every single box, making the $7,865,000 all the more meaningful and surprising in the GT40 world. While it retains the original body and driveline, and was raced successfully, it never competed in period at major races like Le Mans, Sebring, Daytona or the Nürburgring. It also never had big names take victory in period behind the wheel. And yet, it’s now the third most expensive GT40 ever sold publicly, only exceeded by the Mk II GT40 that took third at Le Mans in 1966 and the Gulf/Mirage used in the filming of Le Mans.
This healthy result comes on the heels of another strong sale for a road-going GT40 in Kissimmee at the beginning of this year. That, and in light of the fact that several Enzo-era Ferraris fell short of their marks at this year’s Monterey auctions, it appears as though buyers are beginning to value and contextualize Ford’s GT40 more in line with its importance in automotive history.
It’s clearly a case or right time, right place for this car combined with the rarity of GT40’s. It’s not much of a surprise that these cars will blow right through the assumptions.
Agree with the “importance in automotive history” statement for the GT40. Very impressive car of that era.
🇬🇧🏴A guy in our local pub here in Wales was the first owner of the first road legal GT40 MKIII chassis number 1013. I think it was the prototype. I didn’t really know him so never had a ride. Previously he had an AC Cobra.
As for the GT40 and the GT (2005)…very few cars have achieved such an iconic statuses…of course there are others so its a very “elite” club. Old Henry after his barn storming 999 would I’m sure been proud…
It’s a beautiful car, with a beautiful Lola shape. Perhaps among all the a dime a dozen, 12 million a dozen, Ferrari’s, in Rossa Corsa red , the plain jane nilla white may have made it stand out a bit. I think the Gurney/ Weslake ( shown here in period correct Gurney Eagle heads ) had appeared at the very beginning of Fords effort at Le Mans. They were first used at Indy. It was just that, so many years later, and with the 7 litre being banned, all the Windsor bugs had been worked out in competition. As much as I love the Gt -40 in 69 they won more by attrition. The 917 was a superior car and the Gt-40 already dated. Its shelf life was over but obviously far from forgotten.
Attrition is kind of the name of the game at Le Mans….
Very early in my marriage I showed my wife a pic of a GT 40 and said it was the most beautiful car I’d never seen. It hurt her feelings that I would get that emotional over a car. Now, 36 years later, she understands.
Woodrow – Was a time. Today they get out the track, punch it and cross their fingers. Built to run the whole 24 at full tilt with the peddle to the metal. The days of teams sending a rabbit out and hoping the competitors will burn themselves out chasing it are over. The Gt-40 Mk II with its ‘ Race Proven’ Holman Moody 427 was kind of the beginning of the end for those days. One of the GT-40s more notable features.
I watched them load it onto the transporter along Fairground Ave in Monterey after the auction. No crowds, photographers or even another car guy looking at it. I asked the gal giving directions to the driver up the ramp if it “was a real one”? She very pleasantly said “yes, it’s a lightweight”. The car had a loping idea and kept stalling as they gently drove it up onto the ramp. I saw the SOLD sticker on the windshield but had no idea how much it went for. Kind of cool to look at it (and listen to it) strictly as an iconic race car alone on the street and just being itself – a beautiful machine and piece of history basking in the Monterey sunshine.
I read this article last week not knowing that the buyer was someone close to me, now I have a reason to visit! 🙂
Rocke- I didn’t know that competition cars with a quartet of old Webers could be made to idle. You learn something new everyday. Sounds like an enchanted moment with her dressed in white and the fragrance of race gas wafting through the air. Two ships that passed in the night.