[DeTomaso] Wild GT40 qualifying video

[MikeLDrew at aol.com]

In a message dated 9/18/13 7 25 19, mbefthomas at comcast.net writes:


> Side thought:  according to Wikipedia, there were 107 GT-40's produced
> between '65-'69, I was wondering how many survive as there seem to be a
> quite a number still rolling. 
> 

>>>Only two or three are genuinely gone.   One was cut up and the chassis 
was buried and there is an apartment building on top of it, for instance.   
Little chance of restoring that one!

The Scuderia Bear car (P/1029) was completely destroyed at Le Mans in 1966, 
and returned to Ford Advanced Vehicles; according to the GT40 registry it 
was stripped of any valuable parts, and then scrapped.   Gone.   History.   

An outfit called Racing Icons specializes in restoring GT40s and does 
outstanding work; their recent restoration of P/1040 (which was also crashed and 
burned at Le Mans 1966, and the wreckage has bounced around for 45 years as 
the restoration stopped and started) set the standard for such things, and 
it won its class at Pebble Beach this year.

The problem is, Racing Icons has done fantastic work for any number of 
customers on genuine GT40s, as can be seen on their website:

http://www.racingicons.com/gt/index.html

and in so doing, has made a lot of GT40 owners quite wealthy, because the 
value of their cars was increased substantially.   According to a genuine 
GT40 owner that I know, the fellow who runs it is   nearing the end of his 
career, and apparently has decided to cash out by 'restoring' P/1029 even though 
the authorities on such matters (particularly Ronnie Spain, author of the 
registry) declared that car literally gone.   So it appears that a new car is 
being fabricated out of thin air and affixed with the identify of P/1029; I 
don't know if any genuine parts will be part of its makeup or not.   The 
new GT40 registry has been about to be released for at least 10 years but 
apparently it is very, very close to being put out there.   It will be VERY 
interesting to see how the current P/1029 is characterized within--will it be 
allowed to take on the legacy of the destroyed car, or will it be depicted as 
a fraud and a counterfeit?   The GT40 world is nervously awaiting the 
verdict, as, I'm sure, is the fellow who is building it.   If it's portrayed as a 
replica, it's perhaps a $300-400K car.   If it's portrayed as a restoration 
of a genuine car with Le Mans history, it's at least ten times that much.

An average, run-of-the-mill GT40 without significant race history is a $2-3 
million car these days.   The JWA team car P/1074, whose best result was a 
win at Monza in 1968, then it was sold, bought back and ran once more under 
JWA colors in 1969, then sold through a few hands, including Steve McQueen 
who cut the roof off (!) and used it as a camera car for the movie Le Mans, 
just sold last year in Monterey for $11 million.   P/1075, the two-time Le 
Mans winner and Gulf team workhorse, is worth substantially more than 
that--perhaps double in fact.

Mike