[DeTomaso] Hurry, before it's too late!

[MikeLDrew at aol.com]

In a message dated 3/15/11 12 18 16, gaino at earthlink.net writes:


> 
> His web site is loaded with GT 40's.   here.  
> http://www.maxted-page.com/cars/default.aspx?mode=archive
> 

Here I am with my buddy Andy Prill (Lee Maxted-Page's business partner) on 
a visit to the shop in September.   Behind us is the 'lost' GT40 roadster, 
GT/111; then a late Gulf-spec car, P/1080 (which Andy races all over Europe, 
lucky bastard!), and finally P/1085, the final GT40 built in period.

http://s692.photobucket.com/albums/vv288/576103/?action=view&
current=IMG_5997.jpg

GT/111 was the Bob Bondurant/Sir John Whitmore entry in the 1965 Targa 
Florio.   It lost a wheel on the front straight halfway through the race, and a 
fan ran off with the wheel spinner as Whitmore frantically tried to repair 
the car.   Eventually others in the crowd found the guy who took it and 
kicked his ass, and gave it back to Whitmore, who limped the car to the pits; 
there's a period Castrol film of the race on Youtube and you can actually see 
this at the start of Part 7, here:   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olb79k8eScM&NR=1.   

Later in the race Bondurant crashed it into a ditch.   After it returned to 
the factory, they decided it wasn't worth saving so they parted it out, and 
for years everyone assumed the chassis was scrapped.   Just a few years ago 
the bare chassis was found in a lock-up not far from the factory, and the 
car was then fully restored by Gelscoe Motorsport with otherwise-new parts to 
Targa Florio spec.   You can see it (and several other GT40s, including the 
spot-on FIA-legal replicas they build) here:

http://www.gelscoemotorsport.com/gallery.php

It raced for a couple of years after the restoration, and now it's for sale 
at Lee's establishment (located on a quaint little farm out in the 
country).   You could have it for 3 million GBP if you like!

P/1085 actually was sold not as a running car, but rather as a complete 
build-it-yourself kit, to an American, who then just sat on it for 40 years or 
so.   It was finally sold back to an owner in the UK and assembled just last 
year, and then he immediately put it up for sale.

Lee has probably sold more genuine GT40s than anybody else in the world, at 
least within the past 20 years or so?

Mike