Join Shelby Forums Today

Ford GT40 dug up?

Discussion in 'GT40 & Ford GT' started by bitzman, Jun 16, 2007.

  1. bitzman

    bitzman Well-Known Member

    Posts:
    796
    Likes Received:
    2
    Joined:
    Apr 15, 2005
    Harley is the man

    Harley also bought the GT40 that won LeMans twice, 1075
    and reportedly sold it to the heir of WalMart
    Harley also bought the twin Paxton Cobra 427 that was
    built for Shelby; which sold for over $5.5 milion at Scottsdale
    Harley doesn't have that many cars for sale but tries to find
    the most significant ones.
    I'd rate him as erudite in buying as George Stauffer
     
  2. patty.dilabio

    patty.dilabio Well-Known Member

    Posts:
    327
    Likes Received:
    5
    Joined:
    Nov 26, 2006
    Hey once again G.T.40 fans! it seems this thread is not totally focused on the car(s).All of the questions bitzman has can be answered by reading the book I mentioned on an eariler post.There were only 4 cars built with the 256 c.i. "INDY" engine,and they most likely were upgraded soon after to the 289 engine.I dont know how many years it has been under construction,but Dean's car is #109.And they cut the roof off a car to use in the filming of the movie Le Mans starring Steve Mcqueen--it has since been restored to its original coupe roof/doors,so it is not a roadster.Cant quite figure out the comment about the dug up car being shorter than the original car..maybe it is a typo?maybe it should read.09" please clarify if possible.thanks p.d.:)
     
  3. bitzman

    bitzman Well-Known Member

    Posts:
    796
    Likes Received:
    2
    Joined:
    Apr 15, 2005
    shorter body will have to wait until the magazine does a story

    The British magazine, I think it was Classic Car, said the 2nd or 3rd time they pictured the car that it was 9" shorter than a regular GT40. I couldn't figure out why this would be but if you look at pictures of the nose it does have the "old nose," not the very pointed nose of the 1964 but the interium nose that is not like the deep grille cavity with fog lamp nacelles covered with plexiglass that the production GT40 had in 1965. It might have been the 1965 roadsters were started when it was still 1964 and the new 1965 nose wasn't ready yet.


    To make things more confusing there is another GT40, white with a black painted hood, that had a three page spread in a British magazine in 2007 that is a coupe but it too has the interium nose, not coming to a sharp point like the 1964 cars but inbetween the pointed nose and the deep grille cavity with full road lamp nacelles of the '65 production model. I had seen that car pictured in Ford publicity, one time with the turbine truck (in fact I put that picture in Motor Trend myself in 1965) , but didn't think it ever ran in any races. I don't know where that prototype was hiding all these years. One time I borrowed a ring of keys from Ford and went around Dearborn to various storage buildings and found lots of dust covered prototypes but didn't find any GTs but who knows, maybe they are stored further away than Dearborn.

    To add to the mystery of 110 which is supposedly buried in Los Angeles
    when I heard there was a Ford GT aluminum tub in Minnesota, when I read
    Trevor Legate's book the other day he says there were two aluminum chassis made by Abbey Panels but only one was numbered. So maybe the guy in Minnestora has the un-numbered one?
     
  4. bitzman

    bitzman Well-Known Member

    Posts:
    796
    Likes Received:
    2
    Joined:
    Apr 15, 2005
    The British magazine should be out by July

    The British magazine previewed the coming article on the open Bondurant/Whitmore GT40 targa in the current issue. I can't remember if it's Classic Car or their direct rival but anyhow I am hopng to see 3 to 4 pages in the next issue to hit the newsstands. Also there was an early GT40 coupe that was in the British magazines a couple of months ago that was another weird one . almost a one off with a nose that was less pointed than the '64's shown above in this thread but not as deep as the '65 standard nose. I guess that was a prototype that was never raced. I think that nose was used in the GT40 roadster early in its development, but probably once Shelby began to work with the GT40 Shelby American went to the nose we all recognize as the '65 production car nose.
    I think it's a shame that Ford never saved any of the first gen '64 GT40s with the original pointed duck bill platypus-shaped nose, odd, considering there is a whole Henry Ford Museum full of old cars that they didn't think history was important. But I guess when you are developing a new race car, you don't think of saving one example of each step for posterity (tho Mercedes does and has all the examples of the 300SL from '52 to '53 to production gullwing to roadster).
     
  5. tesgt350

    tesgt350 Well-Known Member

    Posts:
    1,093
    Likes Received:
    2
    Joined:
    Feb 10, 2006
    Location:
    I am in my own little World
    I read a Story about this very Car being Dug Up a couple of Years ago in one of my Mustang Magazines.

    David.
     
  6. bitzman

    bitzman Well-Known Member

    Posts:
    796
    Likes Received:
    2
    Joined:
    Apr 15, 2005
    Love to know the name of the magazine and month and year.
    I think I only saw glimpses of it in the British mags in the past year
    so am surprised it was in print a couple of years ago. I am still waiting for someone to do a good story on the white Dean Jeffries GT40 roadster with the 4-cam Indy engine. I visited his shop but he is loathe to roll it out unless it's a BIG magazine. It's almost a running car--he has no less than four of the 4-cam engines, left over from when he was with Indy teams.
     
  7. bitzman

    bitzman Well-Known Member

    Posts:
    796
    Likes Received:
    2
    Joined:
    Apr 15, 2005
    Picture of the same model GT40 targa "dug up"

    On website of Gelscoe Motorsport in the UK, who restored the ex-Bondurant/Whitmore Targa Florio '65 GT40 roadster targa, there's a shot
    of a GT40 targa being worked on but the old cars in the background makes me think that it is a period shot, not necessarily the same car they restored. At any rate, kudos to them for getting it ready for Goodwood in only 9 months.

    http://www.gelscoemotorsport.co.uk/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=25&Itemid=35
     
  8. bitzman

    bitzman Well-Known Member

    Posts:
    796
    Likes Received:
    2
    Joined:
    Apr 15, 2005
    The Magazineis Classic &Sports car

    The best shot is a high rear view of the car with its rear decklid off.Probably be on the newsstands for another two weeks
     
  9. cornbinder

    cornbinder Active Member

    Posts:
    32
    Likes Received:
    0
    Joined:
    Sep 26, 2009
    Location:
    jeromesville, ohio
    Re: shorter body will have to wait until the magazine does a story

    what else did you see in those buildings??? sounds intriuging.......
     
  10. bitzman

    bitzman Well-Known Member

    Posts:
    796
    Likes Received:
    2
    Joined:
    Apr 15, 2005
    Can't remember, must have been 20-25 years ago but...

    ..two experimental Cobras are in storage in Detroit, one a coupe with a fiberglass body and brushed metal roof (Cougar II) and the other with a body of rubber material (Royalex) called XD Cobra. I never went to that storage facility but it belongs to a museum, who regularly was donated cars by the automaker but can't afford to restore the cars so they just sit. I'd love to go to that storage facility next time I am in Detroit but it's probably not set up for visitors. The automakers get a tax write off when they donate a car so they are more interested in that than in what the Museum can or cannot do with the car.
     
  11. patty.dilabio

    patty.dilabio Well-Known Member

    Posts:
    327
    Likes Received:
    5
    Joined:
    Nov 26, 2006
    Hi to Ford G.T. Fans
    Just a quick bit of news there were 6 roadsters built,if you count the replacement which was originally unnumbered,and used to replace the car that was cut up by Shelby to avoid paying tax penalties.You really need to get Ronnie Spains book....or buy SAAC's new registry,as both will really give you all the information known on these cars.Put it on your to do list soon!
    Regards P.D. :D
     
  12. bitzman

    bitzman Well-Known Member

    Posts:
    796
    Likes Received:
    2
    Joined:
    Apr 15, 2005
    No, talking about a puke green roadster

    One of four or five 289 roadsters. (and there was a 427 roadster that won Sebring in '66)
    When Bondurant flipped it onto its side in the Targa Florio it was a light green
    When the British buyer of the wreck pieced it together he first painted it white but now has it green again. It has been racing at the Goodwood revivals. I would love to see Bondurant re-united with the car (with better results this time...) or his partner for that race Sir John Whitmore. Sir John, by the way, went on to become an author and philosopher-guru of sorts, but I think he still has a soft spot for his racing days
     
  13. bitzman

    bitzman Well-Known Member

    Posts:
    796
    Likes Received:
    2
    Joined:
    Apr 15, 2005
    Sorry to answer your question a few months after you asked it.

    The car in the color shots in this thread
    is not a targa but a 1964 coupe
    This thread is about the 1965 Targa open top GT40, painted puke green,
    that was in the Targa Florio. Bondurant spun out
    and hit a kilo marker.
    Carroll Smith said it was too expensive to fix
    and ordered it cut up wehn they got it back to the UK.
    I and Ronnie Spain and lots of others believed it was destroyed. Ford as you know can write off a destroyed car.
    But wouldn't cha know some guy who didn't believe what he read
    went to a scrap yard near FAV and saw pieces on the floor of
    what looked like a GT40 chassis (without the body) and he bought it and put it together and raced it recently at Goodwood and now (Sept. 2010) it's got a full page ad in a British magazine, a rare piece, one of four GT40 targas made. I think it will go for about one million dollars plus.
    Lesson: Anybody who says a car was destroyed is probably hoping they
    will find it first...
     

Share This Page