1992 Ford GT40 MkII Replica

This was in the car park overlooking the Cascades corner at the Historic Sports Car Club's Spring Historic Race meeting at Oulton Park in May 1992.

It's a replica of a 1960s Ford GT40 MkII apparently built by (or for) Ford dealers Timms of Leigh. The registration number denotes a car registered between 1 August 1991 and 31 July 1992 and the DVLA no longer has a record of a car with that number.

Ford GT40

I photographed this car at Britten's chicane during the Historic Motor Racing New Gentlemen Drivers Sports Racing Challenge race at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2005.

It's the 1965 Ford GT40 driven in the 60 minute long race by Shaun Lynn and Kevin Kivlochan and is chassis number GT40 P/1025. The GT40 was based on the Lola Mk6 and was developed by Ford specifically to beat Ferrari and win the Le Mans 24 Hour race, which it did on four occasions finishing in first place for four consecutive years from 1966 to 1969. Initially powered by the 289 cu in (4.7 litres) Ford Windsor V8 small block engine developed for the Ford Shelby Cobra, by the time of the 1966 Le Mans race the engine had been replaced by the 427 cu in (7 litres) Ford Galaxie engine and won the race with the same engine the following year. By 1968 the CSI had limited engine sizes to 5 litres for homologated cars (at least 50 had to be built) and 3 litres for the prototype class, and the GT40 reverted to a version of the original engine enlarged to 4.9 litres. That car won both the 1968 and 1969 races.

On 17 October 2017 I showed a photograph of Shaun Lynn's car in the paddock at this meeting.

Ford GTD 40

I photographed this car in one of the car parks at the VSCC's Hawthorn Memorial Trophies Race Meeting at Oulton Park in June 2008.

It's a 1998 Ford GTD 40, a replica of a 1960s Ford GT40, and powered by a 4,942cc Ford Small Block engine.

Ford GT40

This was one of the cars taking part in the Coys auction at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1995.

It's a Ford GT40 and it's painted in the livery of the Shelby-American GT40 driven by Dan Gurney and Jerry Grant in the 1966 Le Mans 24 Hour race, and has the same racing number. That car retired from the 1966 Le Mans race after 257 laps. There's no mention of it in the write-up about the auction in the programme of the event, however, so I assume that it is just a replica. The Shelby-American car was chassis 1047 and was wrecked in an accident at the 1967 Le Mans 24 Hour race, but later rebuilt. This is what a website detailing all the Ford GT40 chassis numbers says about 1047:

#1047 – Mark II Rolling Chassis

17/1/1966 – Shelby USA (SAI)

427 Cui engine fitted

1966 – Le Mans Gurney/ Grant Retired

1967 – Daytona 24 Hours Foyt/ Gurney Retired

1967 – Le Mans McClusky/ Gardner Crashed

Wreck Returned to Holman & Moody

Holman & Moody rebuild

1976 – Freddy McCall

Restored by Freddy McCall

1970’s – Japan

2006 – USA

Restoration commenced c2006

#1047B – Replica

Tennant tub and some original parts

1980’s – Brian Winfield UK

George Stauffer

2001 – Bill Ostrower USA

2009 – Mecum did not sell @ $220,000

2010 – Dan Mershon

(Re-creation of a Mk II built mostly from original N.O.S. GT40 components, including most of the tub. Very well done, but at the end of the day, it’s still not a real one…but it is a hell of a lot cheaper. Should be worth the low estimate of $250k, which would have basically been the high bid plus vig.)

Ford GT40

This car took part in the Historic Motor Racing News Gentlemen Drivers Sports Racing Challenge Race at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2005.

It's Shaun Lynn's 1965 4.7 litre Ford GT40, chassis number GT40 P/1025, and driving was shared in this 60 minute race by Shaun Lynn and Kevin Kivlochan. The car was originally delivered to Shelby American, but problems with paperwork meant that it was returned to the the factory where it was converted to road specifications. Later it passed through various hands in the UK before being returned to the USA for a complete restoration in the 1990s. It then returned to the UK and was eventually bought by Shaun Lynn.

Ford GT40

I photographed this car in the paddock at the SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2006, but there's no record in the programme of the car having taken part in any of the races at that meeting.

FAV 216C is a 1965 Ford GT40, and although two GT40s were entered in the Sports Racing Masters race, neither of them was this car and there was no number 25 due to take part in that race. It's apparently chassis P/1005, but I can't find much information about the car or who owned it in 2006, only that it was apparently destroyed in a fire in 1974 when owned by Salt Walther. I've seen another website that says the P/1005 identity has been passed to P/1127, a GT40 replica built by Safir Engineering Ltd, so that is presumably what this car is.

Ford GT40

I took this photograph at the HGPCA's International Historic Grand Prix meeting at Donington Park in May 2004.

According to the programme of the event car number 101 is a 1960 Ferrari 250GT SWB, to be driven in the 2¼ hour long Gentleman Drivers GT and Sports Endurance Race by Jeremy Agace and Bill Wykeham. The car above is obviously a Ford GT40, however, and there's no mention of it in the programme. It appears to be the 1965 GT40, chassis number P/1027 that was used as a camera car for the movie 'Grand Prix' and which thereafter remained in the USA until it was acquired in 2000 by Sir Anthony Bamford of JCB Excavators Ltd, whose colours it bears in this photograph.

Ford GT40

Here are a couple more photographs of the Ford GT40, this time at the Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in August 2001.

Both these cars took part in the Italy v Rest of the World race for 1960s World Endurance Cars and this is the 1965 car of David McErlain.

This is the car of Allen Lloyd, also a 1965 model, and this photograph illustrates once again the problems of trying to take photographs in a crowded paddock.

More Ford GT40s

I've featured the Ford GT40 previously and here are three photographs of cars in Gulf livery taken at the Coys International Historic Festival meetings at Silverstone in 1994, 1998 and 1999.

This is Martin Colvill's car which took part in the Motor Sport Pre-'70 Le Mans Car Race at the 1994 meeting, sharing the driving with John Fitzpatrick. Car number 89 alongside is the Ford GT40 of Bobby Bell.

The 1998 meeting celebrated 50 years of racing at Silverstone and there was a special display featuring a car for each of those 50 years. This is the car representing 1969 and the programme of the event says that it's the Ford GT40 of Martin Colvill, although it doesn't seem to be the same car he raced in 1994. It's not listed in the programme as taking part in any of the races at this meeting.

In 1999 Martin Colvill entered this car in the Coys of Kensington 80th Anniversary Trophy for Pre-1972 Le Mans Cars race, and it seems to be the same car I'd photographed the previous year. The programme has it listed as 'Ford GT40 P1084', the '1084' presumably being the serial number of the car as detailed here.

Ford GT40

Here are two more photographs of the Ford GT40, this time taken at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1993.

This is one of the cars offered at the Coys auction which took place on the second day of the meeting. It's a 1965 Ford GT40, chassis number F1006 and apparently it didn't sell. The marquee behind the GT40 housed the 'Owen Brown Gallery of Fine Art' and an article about this in the programme of the meeting says:
'Owen Brown, sponsor of the Gallery of Fine Motoring Art, is no stranger to Silverstone or to motor sport. In fact, the company erected marquees for the very first British GP at Silverstone in 1948.'

This one's a 1967 Ford GT MkIV brought along to the meeting by Rod Leach's Nostalgia - better known as a dealer in old and new AC Cobras. The programme says of this car: '.........a 1967 Ford GT MkIV, the ultimate Le Mans contender from Ford and powered by a 7-litre, 520bhp V8, which gave it a top speed of 215mph on the Mulsanne Straight.'

Previous posts on the Ford GT40 were on 

27th November 2012

18th November 2013

and 8th January 2014

Ford GT40

I've previously posted photographs of the Ford GT40 on 27 November 2012 and 18 November 2013. Here are three more GT40s this time seen at the Silverstone Classic meeting in July 2010.

This is the 1965 model of Adrian Newey

This one is Chris Ball's 1969 model

Chris Buncombe's 1965 GT40

Ford GT40

The Wikipedia article on the Ford GT40 says this about the car:

The Ford GT40 is a high performance American-British racing car, built and designed in England (Mk I, Mk II, and Mk III) and in the United States (Mk IV) respectively, and powered by a series of American-built engines, which won the 24 Hours of Le Mans four consecutive times, from 1966 to 1969 (1966 being the Mk II, 1967 the Mk IV, and 1968-1969 the oldest chassis design, the Mk I). In 1966, at the attendance of Henry Ford II himself in Le Mans, the Mk II GT40 provided Ford with the first overall Le Mans victory for an American manufacturer and the first victory for an American manufacturer at a major European race since Jimmy Murphy´s triumph with Duesenberg at the 1921 French Grand Prix. The Mk IV GT40, which won the race in 1967, remains, to this day, the only car designed and built entirely in the United States to claim an overall win at Le Mans.

This is a 1965 Gulf Ford GT40 seen at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in August 1996. It was driven in the 'Visage Pre '72 Le Mans Car Race' by the owner Martin Colvill.