Much ado has been made this year about Ford’s return to racing at Le Mans with the new GT, but it’s perhaps a less-well-known fact that Ford GTs have raced at Le Mans in the last decade and a handful were also built to compete in the now-defunct GT1 class. Now, with the 50th anniversary of the first Ford GT40 win in the 24 Hours of Le Mans looming, one has come up for sale on eBay for the low, low price of $925,000. That sounds like a lot of money for a car, but it brings up a lot of interesting questions about collector car values and so forth. This is one of four cars built independently of Ford by Swiss privateer car builders Matech Concepts and not only did both of the Matech-built Fords fail to finish at Le Mans in 2010, but they also failed to win a race in the FIA GT1 Championship during the two years in which they competed.
So what is it that makes this car valuable? It’s certainly a seriously potent road racer with a 650-horsepower Roush-built V8 behind the driver and top-of-the-line components. One also surmises that it has a couple million dollars of development behind it, not to mention the devastatingly purposeful look of the original GT40. They’ve also been restored to original condition, so that counts for something.
But if it’s never won a race, is there any provenance? A GT1-class car like this seldom comes up for sale so it’s hard to know what a normal price is for one; even when they’re listed in classifieds sections, the prices are seldom included. With only four cars built, these GTs are certainly rare and the look is, as mentioned classic. I’d guess that a used GTE car sells for somewhere around a $500K, so is rarity capable of doubling the asking price? We can’t really answer that question, but we do know that these second-coming cars are gorgeous and would be a hoot to drive if the BangShift offices were lined with gold.
If it was a factory effort, yes, otherwise overpriced.
If one million dollars ever came my way, it would not be spent on a car. End of story.