VIN: the Scuderia Bear Ford GT40 chassis P/1029
History of chassis P/1029
Chassis P/1029 was ordered from Ford Advanced Vehicles (FAV) by William ‘Bill’ McKelvy, a stockbroker at McKelvy and Company in Pittsburgh (a firm started by his father in 1937).
McKelvy was the patron of Scuderia Bear, which had previously raced an Abarth and several Ferraris. He also owned a rare first series Ferrari 250 GT Cabriolet.
The GT40 was invoiced to McKelvy on February 18th 1966. Three days later, it boarded a Pan Am flight to New York International airport.
Painted Scuderia Bear’s handsome colour scheme of silver with a red, white and blue centre stripe, P/1029’s first competitive outing came at the Sebring 12 Hours on March 26th.
Driven by Bruce Jennings and Richard Holquist, it started the race in 23rd position and had a steady run to finish 13th. This was good enough for second in the five-litre Sports category behind the class-winning Essex Wire GT40 of Skip Scott and Peter Revson (which finished third overall).
P/1029 was next scheduled for an appearance at the Le Mans 24 Hours. It was to be driven by Holquist and Margaret Wyllie. Before heading for France, the car returned to FAV and was specially prepared along with all the other GT40s entered for that year’s race.
Unfortunately, P/1029 never got to start the event after an enormous accident during practice.
Holquist was cruising down the Mulsanne Straight and had failed to notice Dick Thompson closing rapidly in one of the seven-litre Mk2 GT40s. When the Scuderia Bear machine pulled in front of the Mk2 at Maison Blanche, the cars touched and Holquist slammed into the barriers at high speed.
The severely damaged remains of P/1029 were returned to FAV.
Some salvageable parts were sold off (suspension, steering rack, gearbox, wheels, gauges, radiator etc.), but the chassis was scrapped.
Notable History
Silver with Red, White & Blue stripe
18/02/1966 invoiced to Bill McKelvy (Scuderia Bear), Union Trust Building, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia
21/01/1966 flown to New York International airport on Pan Am flight PA 161
26/03/1966 WSC Sebring 12 Hours (B. Jennings / R. Holquist) 13th oa, 2nd S5.0 class (#23)
Prepared for Le Mans at Ford Advanced Vehicles, Slough
19/06/1966 WSC Le Mans 24 Hours (R. Holquist / M. Wyllie) DNS (#63)
Returned to FAV and parted out after its accident at Le Mans. Chassis scrapped.
Text copyright: Supercar Nostalgia
Photo copyright: Ford - https://www.ford.com
