When the press officer of the GT40 Enthusiasts Club phoned me, asking if I’d consider writing an article about how practical a classic GT40s can be, I thought he was mad, because after all, a 1965 Ford GT40 isn’t the type of vehicle normally thought of as being a “practical classic”. However, after giving it some thought, I decided there are two limbs to a GT40 i.e. the impracticality of it being a 1960s supercar capable of over 200 mph, with absolutely no room for luggage, and not much more room for passengers being only 40 inches tall. The second limb, however, is that it is a practical classic to maintain, as it’s power unit comes from a Mustang in it’s 289 cubic inch guise, or Galaxie in it’s almost outrageous 427 cubic inch form.

Naturally, in the mid sixties, the likes of the quintessential English gentleman John Wyer, or the bigger than life Texan Carole Shelby and their respective teams, breathed fire into these motors resulting in these little monsters producing nearly 450 bhp; pretty standard these days, but back then, a whole lot of “grunt for your buck”!

I probably don’t need to remind readers that it was Henry Ford II who engaged Eric Broadley of Lola Cars Ltd in 1963 to design a sportscar capable of winning international endurance races and, more importantly, beat Enzo Ferrari’s team of blood red coloured racing cars at Le Mans, something the Italian thoroughbreds had been good at for a number of years. After two unsuccessful years, the black Ford Gt40 of Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon headed up a one, two, three win in 1966 and the GT40 became a thing of folklore and legend.

The cars were of a semi monocoque design, with a pressed steel tub made up of over 250 parts all welded or riveted together and sub frames to carry the suspension, radiator, mid-mounted engine and gearbox. The chassis was produced by Abbey Panels of Coventry and the body, comprising of front & rearclips from fibreglass. The entire kit of parts were assembled by Ford Advanced Vehicles or later by JW Automotive in Slough, Berkshire, and raced by either works backed teams or privateers such as the late Australian racing driver, Paul Hawkins.

GT40s were never a cheap car, despite their relative simplistic design compared with other endurance racers of the time such as the Porsche 908 or Ferrari 250LM. In the late 1960s, an example would set you back about £7000, this was in the days when an e-type could be had for a mere £2000. Prices dipped during the fuel crisis of the early 1970s, but it wasn’t long before cars were fetching a premium. Remember only 133 of the examples ever existed, early cars carrying chassis numbers GT/101 to 112 and later production versions being P1000 to 1084. Historians will point out others e.g. P1085 to 1089, spares 1108 to 1114 and the “J-cars”, but it all becomes a little too complex for the purposes of this article. Needless to say, nowadays, GT40s are fetching “Picasso money” and I was recently offered for sale one of the later P1085-89 series for an outrageous$3.5M! It’s for reasons such as this and for the fact these cars are so perfect in their proportions, historical interest and blistering performance, that replicas began to bloom in the late 1960s with the American Fibre Fab Val Kyrie (pushed along by either VW Beetle or Ford V8 units), although it hasn’t been until more recently that the cars have attempted to replicate the original cars in every detail.

The first true replica was created by the Ford engineer Ken Atwell, who took a mould from a road going GT40 Mk3, installing an XR3 four cylinder engine & gearbox. Soon, versions of the “KVA” were being built using Ford V6 and Rover V8 engines, but it wasn’t until the early 1990s that Ford V8 “mills” were being used, primarily in the excellent GT Developments 40. However, kits still available today include: Tornado and Southern GT, those using the ubiquitous space frame chassis design. The lower monocoque/moulded roof approach can be seen in kits by CAV, ERA and RCR, with the more realistic semi monocoque design, akin to the originals, by Superformance and Mirage. This is not an exhaustive list and if you’re prepared to shovel out a whopping £250k, then you can have an identical copy by Gelsco.

To start put a pinup on the garage wall.Garage Pinup?

The GT40 bug hit me about twenty five years ago, while reading an old magazine road test. I can vividly recall being thrilled by a white GT40 being driven at 175 mph on some English dual carriageway in the 1960s and how the test driver sped passed a waiting Police car, only laughing to himself how they couldn’t ever catch him; how times have changed!

Now, I’ve owned a number of supercars ranging from Ferraris, Porsches to Lotuses, but apart from my 1972 Lotus Europa Twin Cam, which was my twenty first birthday present from my parents, my favourite is the GT40. It should be, because I’ve been the chairman of the fabulous GT40 Enthusiasts Club for over three years, our worldwide membership, receives an excellent quarterly magazine and we participate in all forms of motoring events throughout the year, including the le Mans Classic in July. In 2008 the club displayed fifty eight replicas on its stand at le Mans, with a number of originals racing in the classic race and we boast a number of owners of original cars, as well as some of the significant personalities such as Eric Broadley amongst our membership.

My GT40 ownership started off with a half built KVA project. It was powered by a Rover V8, had a Citroen transaxle clothed in the rather pretty long tail Mk3 bodywork, but never drove under it’s own steam, as it was sold to help fund a very immaculate midnight blue GTD40. This latter car had a 370 bhp 302 cubic inches “mill” with UN1/Quaife gearbox and was never a kit car, it being factory built by GTD in Poole under licence to Ford.

Now the GTD looked and felt just like an original, but it didn’t have the authenticity of the semi monocoque design and I thought lacked “soul”. I therefore set my sights on what I call a “grade B” original i.e. one made up almost entirely out of original parts, but probably having a later “Tenant” design chassis. Some of the 133 original GT40s sported these chassis’s if the Abbey Panel monocoque had been damaged during a racing shunt, and remember, as most GT40s were racing cars, they would have a number of gearboxes, engines and wheels etc. Therefore, apart from the chassis, there might be more than one of any particular car. Indeed, there are a few duplicates in existance in the World i.e. GT40s who bear the same chassis number e.g. p/1012 which following an accident where the monocoque was thought to be scrapped, a new chassis born one car and the rebuilt original chassis born another!

The hunt was, therefore, on, and over a period of time, I located the original 1965 bodywork off GT40P/1001, the car used at the 1965 New York motoring salon and actually raced at the infamous 1966 Le Mans by Ickx & Neerpach, with single nostril vent from p/1020 (the Le Mans museum car). The transaxle was a 1965 ZF-0 box, serial number 215 out of P1005 and the clutch/flywheel out of P1002. At the time of writing I’ve placed a deposit on a 1965 Cobra 289 engine with quad 48 IDA Webber carburettors which will be “breathed on” by Mathwall Engineering. All these parts, once restored, are to be fitted to my authentic 1965 monocoque chassis, currently being refurbished by a well known GT40 aficionado “down under”. Indeed, the car will comprise 85% original DNA, with the ware items such as brakes, hoses and joints etc being direct replacement spares from the Ford GT40 parts bins.

Once complete, the car will be scrutinized by the FIA in order to obtain an Historic Technical Passport, to go classic racing. It’s not my aim to risk the car being destroyed in a race car crash, but just to be part of the “scene”. I can’t wait to team manage the project and racing effort, just dreaming about being stood in the pits at Spa or Silverstone, knowing my car is being put through its paces against other million dollar classic racing cars is a dream which, one day soon, might just become a reality, for sometimes grim determination can overcome a pure lack of funds.

I don’t think my car will be bolted together by the 2010 Le Mans Classic in July, but I’m hoping to show it at the 2012 event. Unlike many of our members who drive their GT40s to le Mans, I’ll admit that mine will be a “trailer queen” as the race motor will be hard to handle, the clutch vicious, the gearbox recalcitrant and the cockpit as hot as a baker’s oven there being no air conditioning, however, it’ll have that imeasurable element known as “soul”.. Andrew Komosa.