Modern art or automotive history? Camilo Pardo’s Solar 7 Ford GT surfaces again

You could describe the gamut of modern supercars and exotics as rolling statuettes—testaments to the beauty of aerodynamic efficiency. But few encapsulate the automotive artistic potential as well as Camilo Pardo’s Signature Series of custom-designed Ford GTs.

Attired in unique, eye-popping paint schemes and liveries, each car in the series offered Pardo—chief designer of the 2005–06 Ford GT—the opportunity to integrate his passion for pop art with Ford’s Le Mans legacy. The Solar 7, the last piece in this series, has resurfaced on eBay for the odd price of $449,980.

After moving to Detroit at age 10, Pardo was sucked into automotive and artistic culture. The young creative became captivated with the various exotic cars of the ’60s and ’70s and was drawn to modern art and design, nearly committing the contents of the MoMA to memory. The artist took to Detroit’s Center for Creative Design, and upon his graduation, he united his two passions as he began his career at the Ford Design Center. Amid his aspirations in painting and fashion, he stormed Ford’s European front, manning the motor company’s studios in Torino, Italy, and Cologne, Germany. After a 15-year tenure as a Ford creative, Pardo received commission for his masterpiece: the Ford GT.

In order to commemorate the company’s 100-year anniversary, Pardo drew on his passion for the mid-century automotive scene and produced the GT40 concept in 2002, which translated to production three years later. With their V-8s roaring as if they drove right out of the 1960s, these timeless production cars were instantly collectible. A typical example today holds its value at $392,000 in concours condition. Pardo, however, sought to take the collectability a step further.

Pardo’s personal GT, the Solar 7, is sweeter than your typical example. A lurid piece of Americana, the GT not only harkens back to Ford’s racing heritage of the ’60s, but also celebrates the art scene which surrounded that same decade. Arrayed in sweeping swathes of orange, black, and silver, the Solar 7 looks at home among the likes of Andy Warhol’s soup cans or silkscreens of Marilyn Monroe. And fitted with a supercharger and enough horsepower to give your chiropractor nightmares (650 hp, to be exact), it looks even more comfortable on the road.

The Solar 7 can be yours for only a half-million dollars, but unlike a Warhol painting, the GT can drop your heart into your chest at speeds well into the triple-digits.