There are always cool cars for sale on Bring a Trailer, but right now, this is the coolest—a real-deal Ford GT40 Mk IV. TV-famous classic-car dealer Wayne Carini is selling it, with the auction set to end Thursday March 6. Get bidding.
Ford Mk IV Chassis J-10 lived an interesting life. This is one of Ford's so-called "J-cars," the successor to the original GT40. It took the 1966 Le Mans-winning GT40's 7.0-liter V-8 and paired it with a new chassis and bodywork courtesy Ford's Kar-Kraft subsidiary. The Mk IV only raced in 1967, winning its two entries, the 12 Hours of Sebring and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the latter still the only all-American victory at the race, with an American car, American team (Shelby American), and American drivers (A.J. Foyt and Dan Gurney).
New engine regulations for 1968 led Ford to put the Mk IV program on hold and instead campaign the GT40 Mk 1. J-10 was an unfinished chassis, which Ford sold to former Shelby American mechanic Charlie Agapiou and his brother, Kerry. The Agapious developed new, open-top bodywork for J-10 and ran the car in Can-Am in 1969 as the Ford G7A, unfortunately to no success. According to Vintage Motorsport, J-10's best finish was 2nd place in an invitaional race for Can-Am cars at Fuji.
J-10 sat around subsequently for decades, until the current owner commissioned a restoration and conversion to Le Mans-style bodywork in the mid 2010s. It wears the same red-and-white livery of the 1967 Le Mans winner, and it presents beautifully. Being a prototype, J-10 had a number of engines in its life, and now it sports a 427-cubic-inch V-8 with aluminum heads, twin four-barrel carburetors, and naturally, the GT40's famous bundle-of-snake exhaust headers.
While we can only guess what this car will sell for, we imagine it'll be a lot less than an all-original GT40, especially a Mk IV, which was the rarest version of all with Ford only building six complete cars. So this might be your best opportunity to buy something that's as close to the real thing, perhaps America's greatest race car, for a nice discount.
Gallery: Ford MkIV Bring a Trailer Photos
