1987 Ford GT40

History

The Ford GT40 had rightfully earned its place in the history as one of the most successful sports racing cars extant following its victory at Le Mans and domination in international sports car racing throughout the 1960s. The desirability of the model was future proofed and collectors to the current day regard the GT40 as one of the most important and collectible sports cars of all time

By the early 1980s Mr Peter Thorp owner of Safir Engineering, a constructor of Formula Three racing cars, was keen to acquire an original GT40 but struggled to find one which led him to contact John Willment, who had retained a large stock of original spares, tools, jigs and drawings back from the days of his involvement with partner John Wyer in the original construction of the cars for Ford Advanced Vehicles

“Negotiations with Ford in Dearborn led to agreement that further examples could be built, with Safir continuing the run of chassis numbers from the point of completion, but allowing for a further three ‘original’ chassis to be completed and registered, since Willment was intending to, one day finalise the GT40 build programme by finally constructing the three chassis and boxes of parts he still held in storage. As the final chassis had been ‘GTP/1086’, he retained ‘1087’, ‘1088’ and ‘1089’. The first Safir chassis would therefore be ‘1090’.” – Trevor Legate, Ford GT40, Production & Racing History

The team of engineers was assembled from Safir and a number of ex JW Engineering employees in 1980 to construct the Ford sanctioned ‘GT40 Mk V’ programme, a series of forty cars produced between 1980-88, available in various period correct specifications and colours at the customers request. Although Safir received no financial assistance from Ford, they sanctioned the Mark V project and assisted with obtaining certification for road use. Between them, JW Engineering and Safir, it was agreed that these ‘continuation’ cars would be called ‘GT40 Mark V Powered by Ford’, Safir later obtaining the ‘GT40’ trademark

Constructed by Safir in 1987 for Lord Beaverbrook and finished in the evocative racing colours of Gulf Oil (Blue/Orange Heritage colours) sponsors of JW Automotive’s 1968 Le Mans-winning Ford GT40, our car is believed to be the sole example of the forty cars Mk V cars finished in these colours. (N.B the Cream stripe is a wrap over the orignal painted orange)

Sold via Safir to the previous owner in 1991 and subsequently exported to Hong Kong where it would remain in 2006 before returning to the UK for a comprehensive restoration by highly respected Ashton Keynes Vintage Restorations Ltd with invoices on file in excess of GBP 114,000

Having covered a mere 3000 miles since the restoration, this GT40 Mk5 is still fitted with its original 302ci Ford V8 engine built leading GT40 and competition V8 engine specialists, Mathwall Engineering Ltd

Offered in excellent condition and used sparingly since the restoration’s completion in 2011, this beautifully finished GT40 is accompanied with extensive documentation detailing the original build and restoration, supported by numerous invoices, photographs and documents from Safir Engineering and FAV

Listed on the Shelby American World Registry and featured within Ronnie Spain’s GT40 book, the Safir Engineering cars are widely considered to be ‘original’ continuation cars with the Ford GT community and were all allocated with GT40 chassis numbers

Supplied with V5 UK road registration, this is a seriously exciting car to drive and represents an important part of the history of the mythical GT40 story