GT40: Trying it on for size

 Ford GT40!!!! Is this where every hot rod, car racing, modified car enthusiast "rabbit hole" will end up? It's where I have come to. I think it started when I was down the Factory Five Racing (FFR) Type 65 Coupe (aka Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe) rabbit hole and was searching out photos on Instagram and on Google searches. I came across the Instagram account and company "LeMansCoupe", which had this mint colored SuperFormance GT40.

It's amazing in every way! The GT40 is a Legend. Recap: it won LeMans 24 Hours 4 years in a row. It ended Ferrari's monopoly on LeMans. Ferrari has never won it since 1965. If you are into cars, you saw "Ford v Ferrari" the movie. The car is beautiful to look at. The shapes are perfect. It's low, wide, has wide hips, sculpted nose, the big air vent in the front boot behind the radiator, its mid-engine and has a roaring V8 with the "bundle of snakes" headers. 

So, here's my story of how I got here with the hobby. So, I spotted this mint colored GT40 on Instagram awhile ago. Like within the last 2 years, but I keep coming back to it. Every once in awhile I'll think "I need to look at that mint GT40 again!". I'll go find it on Instagram. I've "muted" the @LeMansCoupes" I think more than once, but I'll keep going back to find pictures of this car. They sold it last year, but here I'm saving some pics of it for future reference. Ok, back to the story. During the 2021 Christmas break, I was doing my usual "rabbit holeing" and around New Years Eve I was in a GT40 hole. New Years Day 2022 arrives, it's a Saturday, and my buddy Corey (1971 Pantera with 5.0 Coyote swap, aka "Kitty 5oh") calls me. This is a little unusual. We mostly text. He's called a few times. I pick up and he simply says "How would you like to go see a GT40?!". "Yes, Please!!!" LOL He says pick you up in a few minutes. So, next thing I know, I'm throwing on my black Dickies coat with all my Subaru/STi, SCCA and Miller Motorsports Park patches to go do some "car guy" stuff! We drive across town here in Farmington, Utah, to go see an RCR GT40 kit being built by a "lifer" Paul Thon. His place is a little piece of car guy heaven. He has a shop out back. There are some old Ford cabover trucks and a new edge Mach 1 Mustang outside. We knock on the side door and out pops Paul, a retired white haired gentleman who says "come on in". Corey introduces me and we walk in. The smell hits me first. It smells like old auto shop/machine shop. The oils and grime and old machinery. We walk passed his work benches and machinery and I see this:

It's very much a work in progress. Paul picked it up a couple years ago from the original buyer in Texas. This is an RCR (Race Car Replicas: http://race-car-replicas.com/rcr-40-mki-mkii

GT 40 kit. It can be ordered in a couple different levels with more or less of the needed parts. Paul is going with what he knows in the 351C. Probably not the most used engine option for a GT40, but he's had many 1971- Mustangs and even a Cobra kit car with a 351C. 

It has the 15" BRM spinner wheels with big AVON CR6-ZZ tires in 295/50/15 out back. 

Just look at these curves out back! And all the air vents! The "flying buttress" up top is a feature of the GT40 I have never really noticed before. This isn't the first GT40 I've seen. The old Miller Motorsports Park Museum (no longer there since the Miller family sold it and many of their classic cars after Larry H. died) had more than one real GT40 race car. But, that was like 12-13 years ago.

Here is a peek at the 351C in the middle with the clam shell opened up. 

So, that was January 1, 2022 that I got to visit Paul's GT40. We spent probably an hour pouring over the details, looking at each part of the car, asking lots of questions, Paul explaining what modifications he was doing to it. He is moving the roll bar behind the firewall to give more interior space and to make it safer to street drive it. He's also changing how the front body section mounts. Normally they slide in and out, but he's converting it to a clam shell style. That requires building a structure up front. 

That next week, I was in full GT40 rabbit hole mode! Corey and I began working on a master spreadsheet to price out what it would cost to build one. The number is big, I'll say that. Here's the quick version: $83,000 to buy the "Complete RCR" kit version ($47k), do a Porsche G50 transaxle, a Coyote or built aluminum headed 302ci and painting it myself plus $10k in "fluff fund", you know, for things you didn't know you needed. LOL Ya, $80k. 

Corey kept telling me to "Dream Big!". LOL But, it started to catch on. 

So, I'm down the GT40 rabbit hole all week. Saturday, January 8, 2022 is my 44th birthday. The night before Paul and I were messaging through Facebook Messenger. Corey had been talking to him that I was really interested in doing a GT40 someday and that I was curious how I'd fit. So, Saturday morning, Paul offered to me to come by some time and he'd mock up the pedals and seat and we could see how my 6ft 3.5in frame would fit. So, it's early afternoon that birthday day and I called Corey and said "Hey, you want to go see a GT40?!" LOLOL Good stuff right! LOL So, this time, I fire up the WRX and pick Corey up and head over to Paul's again, 2 Saturday's in a row! :) 

So, here's a couple pictures Corey took to document my "test fit". 

I will definitely need a "Hecht Bubble" for the roof, errr, sorry, a Gurney Bubble. :) haha

But, look at the pic, my legs are able to stretch out the right amount and the steering wheel doesn't sit in my lap. It's a 330mm or 13" steering wheel, so on the smaller side. The pedals are able to be mounted in a range of positions to fit the driver. The seat is the RCR seat but with some padding removed. This is night-and-day difference compared to the seating position in Corey's 1971 Pantera. That fitment was a total joke. This is actually doable. 

It was one of the coolest birthday presents I've had in awhile. Neither of them knew it was my birthday until I got there and told them this was the coolest birthday gift. :)

So, now what? It only takes $85k. LOLOL I think we need a couple more GT40 pics while you let that price sink in:

This plain white with black BRMs looks killer!!! I definitely like the solid color liveries. Sure, every one loves a baby blue and orange "Gulf" livery, but the solid color scheme really shows off the curves!

So, "Dream Big!" is the theme here! When I told my cousin it was about $80k to build, he said, that's pretty much what people are paying today for those luxury SUVs and big 4 door trucks. LOL he's totally right! Plus resale will hold well and probably grow over time with a GT40.

The reality is, even if I stayed in the GT40 rabbit hole long term, long term would be like 10 years easy to get that much money. I have $4000 right now and a suby that I could probably sell for $10-12k. I'm miles away from even thinking about buying even the base kit which costs $26k. Time to find a "side hustle", some way to bring in additional money to speed up the time table. Also, I'm taking donations. ;)

So, unless something changes in my finances in the next couple years, this will be a ways off. Which just might make it unrealistic. :) For now, I'll enjoy the beautiful lines and watching the good old boys driving them hard at Goodwood Festivals in England and going over to Paul's to see his progress on his GT40 project.

Dream Big!

PS Edit: Just posted the Daytona Coupe post and man, both cars are killer! I think the thought here is, if you are doing to go for a legit Daytona Coupe build with new parts and IRS, you are 78% the way to a GT40... and so if you're going to "Go Big" than might as well go all the way and go GT40... just thinking...