The Ford GT40 is probably one of the most famous racing cars of all time. Four-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the GT40 changed the racing world forever in its various iterations, moving the goal posts farther than ever. However, in the shadow of the cheeky and pure racer, FoMoCo concocted what Dearborn thought could work as a Sunday driver – a road-legal version of the GT40. Race Car Replicas of Fraser, Michigan, created identical replicas of the real GT40. Of these GT40 replicas, only one has a chassis number and can be driven on the road and that is this one. Registering a race car on the road – which also means sticking legal rubber on the road – is an effort that makes little sense, as these cars are incredibly low on the ground and are also completely impassable. The cabin can only accommodate one person and there is no luggage compartment. However, once upon a time, race cars were closely related to road vehicles, and even if they weren`t, they were designed to pass a basic inspection. Modern race cars are, by and large, precision tools that move quickly on a particular race track. Coated in carbon fiber and equipped with many parts that make them infinitely adjustable, modern sports cars, touring cars, GTs, stock cars and single-seaters are hardly legal on the road.
Basically, only rally cars can be driven both in competition and on open roads without significant modifications. There are, of course, basic racing cars that started their lives as full-fledged road cars, and these may be legal on the road, but this is no longer the case when we talk about purpose-built vehicles. Now that we`ve established that any Ford GT40 can be approved for use on public roads, you may be wondering what these so-called “road-legal” GT40s are? After all, we simply took the time to explain that they were all road legal. Well, Ford thought there might be a market for a GT40 that was actually easily usable as a car for weekends. First, a series of 30 Mk. I GT40 specification was modified to better suit the needs of a civilian motorist, then, a little later, the restyled GT40 Mk. III broke the cover and this version was actually the friendliest GT40 of them all. It had a larger trunk, a larger cabin, and a readjusted engine and transmission, making it almost bearable on roads A and B, but still a handful in city centers.
One of six stunt cars used by the 2019 Oscar winner will be announced next month as part of Mecum Auction`s 2021 Dallas Sale event. Each of these replicas with an accuracy of centimeters is special, but this particular GT40 happens to be road legal. One of the 30 1966 road-legal GT40 MKIs built by the Blue Oval has just been put up for sale by British exotic car dealer Tom Hartley Jnr. The exclusivity of the car is more than enough to make it remarkable, but in addition to its desirability is the fact that it is still factory specification, making it one of the most correct examples of the legendary vehicles that still exist. Fortunately, veteran journalist Denis Jenkinson used an identical GT40 Mk. I took a week in late 1966 to write about the obviously hair-raising experience in Motor Sport Magazine so we could all enjoy it. First, Jenks said that “the specification was not changed” when FAV assembled the non-competitive GT40. Form, but there was a lot of attention to “living comfort”, such as interior trim, door pockets, radio, radiators, mufflers, heavier flywheel and a less violent clutch, were the things that made a legal FIA Mk. Apart from the Jenkinson model, I manipulated. Fans of Ford v Ferrari have a reason to get excited as a special car from the movie rolls on the auction block. This 1966 Ford GT40 RCR replica is the only GT40 stunt car in the movie that`s road legal and it might be yours in September.
This particular example, chassis no. P/1057, was not built for the race track, but that doesn`t mean the car is less powerful. The mid-engine engine is powered by a 4.7-liter V8 mill connected to a manual transmission that can produce up to 306 horsepower and 329 lb-ft of rotation. Not bad for a 55-year-old car. The BMW M4 may be a diehard artist on the road, but there`s one thing it doesn`t really excel at, and that`s cargo space, with a total capacity of just 11 cubic feet. It`s worse than the competition, with the AMG C63 S you give 12.6 cubic feet and the Audi RS5 gives you up to 35 cubic feet when you fold down the rear seats or 21.8 cubic feet with the seats facing up. He also added that due to the less aggressive tuning of the engine, Ford said the car would not exceed 164 mph, while at Le Mans, racing GT40s were at 190 mph or higher. Even though a top speed of 164 mph may not seem impressive these days, it was a lot considering your average Ferrari from the 60s couldn`t exceed 145 mph.
At the time, the national speed limit had just been introduced in Britain (after some antics on the M1 by the AC factory team preparing a Le Mans coupe before the 1964 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans) and as such, a top speed of 164 mph was quite unnecessary anyway.