Early Road-Going GT40 MkI Headed Across the Block at Kissimmee

January is upon us, which means that collectors and car enthusiasts alike are packing their bags for Kissimmee, Florida, the site of Mecum’s annual (and gigantic) auction. Often referred to simply by its locale, “Kissimmee” is known for the large variety and high number of its lots. This GT40 MkI road car (P/1034) sits near the top of the list. It’s rare, it’s expensive, and it belongs to a story that many people know by heart—the Ford vs. Ferrari rivalry.

Even casual car fans know that Ford got its revenge on Ferrari by sweeping Le Mans in 1966, but it takes serious dedication to educate yourself on which GT40s are most collectible, and why. For one, Ford made about 105 of them (Mark I through IV) as part of the original factory-sanctioned racing program between 1964 and 1969. That’s a lot of cars to keep track of, and not all of them saw competition. In addition to race cars, that figure includes road-going specials built to satisfy the rules set by the reigning international sanctioning body for motorsports, the FIA, for participants in its GT class (for race cars based, in theory, on cars the public could buy). The road car pictured here (P/1034) was built the year before Ford’s famous 1-2-3 at Le Mans and was the first road car delivered to a private owner.

It will cross the block on Saturday, January 18, restored to its original specifications: Pine Green paint, sans “lines on the rocker panels” or racing stripes, per the man who originally ordered the car, James Fielding. He was chairman of a U.K.-based engineering firm whose co-founder, William Froude, had held a patent for the hydraulic (or “water brake”) dynamometer. Decades after Froude’s death, Heenan and Froude were still building dynamometers, including the ones that Carroll Shelby and his team used to test their GT40s. Jackie Stewart, then an ambassador for Ford Motor Company, delivered this car to Fielding on March 17, 1966.

Fielding ordered the High-Performance 289-cubic-inch V-8 with four Weber (48IDA) carburetors, plus a handful of features that are only “conveniences” if your baseline is a race car: heated windscreen, reverse lights, wing mirrors, two fuel gauges, and mufflers. The interior is fully carpeted, fit with leather door pouches, and seats upholstered in smooth (non-perforated) leather. The all-black color scheme is relieved only by the aluminum spokes of the steering wheel, with its red, white, and blue center cap, and the wooden shift knob of the five-speed ZF transaxle. That transmission, as well as the tub, are original to the car—both desirable qualities. Since this is a road car, rather than a factory-backed race car that might have a connection to a famous race or driver, originality counts for a lot. It’s more notable, in this case, because the car was raced by later owners. The car rides on a set of knock-off wire wheels made by Borrani, as most road-going GT40s did, rather than the Halibrands we associate with the race cars.

P/1034 was racing as early as the 1970s, in the hands of its second owner, Paul Weldon. A neighbor of Fielding, Weldon was one of the original members of the GT40 owners club and modified the car with a set of wider, orange BRM wheels and a new coat of paint, British Racing Green. After a few years, Weldon traded P/1034 for its distant relative: The first of three prototype racers built by J.W. Automotive Engineering for the 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans based on the GT40 MkI. (Bonus points if you know that these were the first cars to wear the now-famous Gulf Oil livery of Powder Blue and Marigold. Extra bonus points if you know that the GT40 used in the filming of Le Mans began life as the third Mirage car, M.10003). Ironically, the car’s next owner painted P/1034 to match the Gulf-liveried GT40 (P/1075) that won Le Mans in 1968 and 1969.

The car then swapped hands several times, continuing to race in various events in the ’80s and the ’90s. One particularly hardy owner—Rob Walton, whose father Sam founded Walmart—even drove it in the Copperstate 1000, a four-day tour of Arizona, in 1993. GT40s are notoriously hot and uncomfortable on the street, given their extremely close relationship to a purpose-built race car, so Walton’s feat is genuinely impressive.

This road-going GT40 wasn’t registered for road use until 1999, in fact, by which time it was in Australia, under the care of David Bowden, a lifelong Ford fanatic who would found Bowden’s Own, a line of car care products, in 2002. Bowden repainted the car in its original color of Pine Green plus a set of silver stripes, racing it and using it to promote his business, until 2012. He sold it to someone in California who sold it to D.K. Engineering in 2021, who then sold it to the person who has consigned it with Mecum. At some point along the way, P/1034 was fully restored to its original specifications, minus the stripes or rocker panel “lines” that its first owner specifically omitted.

Rare and historically significant, this GT40 is eligible for prestigious vintage race events such as the Goodwood Revival and the Le Mans Classic.

The appearance of this GT40 at Kissimmee suggests Mecum’s growing confidence in offering such blue-chip Americana at its largest event of the year: The auction house offered another GT40 MkI road car (P/1052) at this same sale last year, where it sold for $6,930,000.

As we noted then, GT40 road cars don’t come up to auction that often. P/1034 is worth watching for that reason alone. It is also interesting in the context of Mecum’s $7.85M sale of a Mk I Lightweight at Monterey. It wasn’t the most expensive car sold at Monterey, not by a long shot, but it is now the third-highest sale for a GT40 sold at auction. (First place goes to the GT40 used in the filming of Le Mans, which sold for $11M in 2012.) We’ve remarked before that, while tricky to value, GT40s generally seem undervalued compared to their Ferrari contemporaries. The two 2024 sales suggest that GT40 values could be on the rise, and we’ll be watching P/1034 closely to see how it shapes that story.