One to Buy: ex-Ford France 1965 Ford GT40 Prototype Mk1 Roadster
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During the GT40’s early life as a true Prototype-class racing car, Ford built a small batch of Roadsters for use in some of 1965’s biggest races. One such example was chassis GT/109 which is heading to auction at Mecum’s Indy sale on May 17th.
Like most of the Roadsters, GT/109 had only the briefest racing career: its sole competitive outing came at the 1965 Le Mans 24 Hours as a quasi works Ford France entry for Guy Ligier and Maurice Trintignant. Ford France were already somewhat familiar with the GT40 having campaigned Guy Ligier’s early ‘production’ example (P/1003) at the Nurburgring 1000km four weeks earlier.
GT/109 appeared in the Ford France colours of white with blue and red stripes. It lined up 13th on the grid (slowest of the six Fords entered) and the race got off to a poor start as Trintignant was in the pits after just two laps with a misfire.
Having dropped well down the order, GT/109 became the first Ford retirement when, after eleven laps, it was pushed away with a broken gearbox.
None of the six-car GT40 attack made it to the finish, but the model (especially in new 7-litre trim) had proved devastatingly fast. Retrospectively, Ford’s painful lessons at Le Mans in 1964 and 1965 would be forgotten as the GT40 went on to clinch four successive 24 Hour wins at la Sarthe between 1966 and 1969.
Unfortunately, the Roadster body style was never offered to customers which makes GT/109 an exceptionally rare proposition. In recent times, the car has undergone an exacting restoration and now looks to be in splendid condition throughout.
