One to Buy: ex-Shelby American, 1 of 2 built 1965 Ford GT40 Mk1
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In order to get the GT40 homologated into the new-for-1966 Group 4 Sports car class, Ford had to complete a minimum of 50 copies.
Without sufficient demand for that number of racing variants, the decision was made to offer suitably pared back road-going iterations that could be used as the ultimate street cars of their day.
To drum up interest, Ford embarked on a number of publicity programmes for which several GT40s were specially commissioned. Fortunately, raising the car’s profile was made easier by virtue of some impressive results having been achieved during the 1965 season, the most notable of which had been victory for Shelby drivers Ken Miles and Lloyd Ruby in the Daytona 2000km World Sportscar Championship race.
Currently on offer at the Fiskens showroom in London is one of those GT40s commissioned by the Ford Motor Company to help promote the model, albeit one configured to an extremely rare specification: chassis P/1018.
One of just two GT40s constructed to racing trim for show use, the Maroon-painted P/1018 arrived in Los Angeles on November 9th 1965 at which point it starred in a photo shoot with Carroll Shelby. The car then appeared at the Seattle, San Francisco and Portland Motor Shows, after which Shelby took P/1018’s wheel to open the Santa Monica Freeway (alongside Miss Santa Monica) on January 6th 1966.
P/1018 was then leased to MGM Studios who had Bob Bondurant drive it for camera testing at Riverside in preparation for their upcoming Grand Prix movie. Afterwards, P/1018 was repainted blue and embarked on a two year showroom tour. In 1967 it starred in an episode of NBC’s The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (The THRUSH Roulette Affair). On November 20th 1968 the car was finally sold into private hands.
Today, P/1018 is being offered in freshly restored condition having been returned to its Maroon 1965 trim.
For more information visit the Fiskens website at: https://www.fiskens.com/
