It’s car marketing’s oldest adage: Win on Sunday, sell on Monday. Yet when Ford tried to bring the GT40 to the road with its Mk III, it failed miserably: Just seven cars were made, and Ford couldn’t even sell all of those.
In 1967, the GT40 Mk III was one of the fastest things on the market, with a claimed …
These are the best looking GT40's....The newer ones are just ugly to me.....Sorry
I saw one driven on the streets, years ago.... one. And I have seen a Nobel N600 on the streets....
Seems like pretty much all of these where rolled off the delivery truck and into a locked garage.
I should note I am of course talking about the second gen cars, which technically also failed on the street because they are / where almost never driven there.
A friend of mine drove his original Mk 1 GT40 on the street - and had the rear bodywork come loose and fly off into the weeds beside the highway! They managed to go back and pick it up and it didn't have much damage. Must have looked like a giant bat taking off to the cars driving behind him)
He showed up to a gathering/race for original GT40s and told me that his was the only car that still had the original 289 in it - they tend to get 'updated' notwithstanding their substantial value.
I did see a Mk III once. At a Neiman Marcus fortnight, in the men's department. It was pea green. That is yuck on any other car, but on the Mk III, I would have taken it. I did get to drive a Mk I years later. What a blast. I don't remember any trouble getting in. It was the first RHD car I had driven, and that also was a non-issue. Just a blast.
wspohn said:A friend of mine drove his original Mk 1 GT40 on the street - and had the rear bodywork come loose and fly off into the weeds beside the highway! They managed to go back and pick it up and it didn't have much damage. Must have looked like a giant bat taking off to the cars driving behind him)
He showed up to a gathering/race for original GT40s and told me that his was the only car that still had the original 289 in it - they tend to get 'updated' notwithstanding their substantial value.
When I was a member of the Northwoods Shelby Club I attended track days at Road America. One year a semi racecar transporter parked next to me and my Cobre Mustang. The crew unloaded a GT40. It was not one of the original cars. It was however made in the UK. Well during one track session the rear bodywork came loose on the back straight. The driver had just passed two Fox Mustangs which were unable to avoid hitting the rear bodywork when it landed in the middle of the track. There wasn't much left bigger then a sheet of paper left afterwards.
Not cool enough to make the cut to buy a new one. Bet my grandkids would love it.
I actually really like the new GT, but it just doesn't impress vs. its contemporaries as much as the earlier ones.
Due to the extreme difficulty in entering and exiting the car it would have been very impracticable as a streetcar!
All of the replicas have been of the MK1 version, I've wondered why no one has done a replica of the MK3.
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