I Love Gold! 1966 Ford GT40 Mk II Heads to Auction

Images ©2018 Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

This magnificent 1966 Ford GT40 Mk II was a Holman-Moody/FoMoCo team car for 1966 and 1967 and, claiming third in the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans, was a significant part of Ford’s historic 1966 podium lock-out. It’s heading to auction at RM Sotheby’s Monterey sale in August.

The car, chassis P/1016 came out of Ford Advanced Vehicles in September 1965 and was finished at Shelby-American in 1966. Its first test took place early that year, when Ken Miles and Ronnie Bucknum drove it at Sebring.

©2018 Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Following that test the car went to Holman-Moody, who prepared it for the Daytona 24-Hour Continental, equipping it with some of their own developments in the process. Along with heavy-duty dampers and springs and adjustable anti-roll bars, a right-hand torsion bar was fitted to manage Daytona’s heavily-banked left turns. The car was also equipped with an experimental early development two-speed automatic transaxle called a ‘PowerShift’ and, experiencing problems with the gearbox, retired from the race just after the half-way point.

P/1016 would gain the bulk of the Kandy Gold livery in which its painted today in time for the Sebring 12 Hours. For that race it was also fitted with brake-cooling intakes on the tail. Ronnie Bucknum and A.J. Foyt drove it to 12th.

©2018 Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Following Sebring the PowerShift transmission was replaced with a more standard T-44 manual transaxle for the upcoming 24 Hours of Le Mans. Further tuning work was undertaken by Holman-Moody and the car also received standard front bodywork and the bump you see in the driver’s door roof. On the day before the race the Day-Glo highlights you see on the car’s nose were added to complete the aesthetic.

The car ran under #5, with Bucknum partnering with Dick Hutcherson for the race. This would be the year in which Ford and their GT40 took the Le Mans fight to Ferrari, and the team started strongly. This car was the fastest of three Holman-Moody cars in both practice and qualifying, and would earn 9th on the starting grid.

©2018 Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

P/1016 leapt from 9th to 3rd in the first lap of the race, but, suffering with brake issues, would slowly drift backwards. After a long stop for repairs in the evening, the car went out in 10th and began a run back to the pointy end. At two-thirds race distance the car was back in third following two Shelby American GT40s with all of Ferrari’s 330 P3s out of the race. And there it stayed, securing its most prestigious result – third in the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Following Le Mans, the car spent six months on a promotional tour, moving between Ford dealerships in the US. In 1967 it became a test car and was used to aid the development of Holman-Moody’s MkIIB GT40, receiving bigger discs, wider Halibrand rear wheels, some lightening, re-positioned oil tanks and spare wheel, a heavy-duty roll cage, aluminium instrument panel and a fire suppression system.

The car’s last driving appearance would see it tackle Daytona with two motorsport icons at the wheel – Mark Donohue and Peter Revson. Sadly, it did not see the end of the race, forced into retirement by technical gremlins. It tested at the circuit in March and went to the Le Mans trials at Circuit de la Sarthe in April, now fitted with a 490bhp seven-litre engine, but went back to America without tackling the great race itself.

©2018 Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

P/1016 was then cleaned up for display and remained at Holman-Moody’s headquarters until 1970, when it was donated to William Harrah’s Automobile Collection in Nevada. After being mistakenly stamped with sister car P/1015’s chassis plate, it went in 1983 to Leslie Barth, who repainted it in the same blue livery that P/1015 wore during the cars’ Le Mans campaign.

In the late ’80s Peter Livanos had the car prepared for vintage motorsport, bringing in ex-Shelby mechanics Steele Therkelsen and Carroll Smith. Its first event was the GT40 Reunion in 1989, held at Watkins Glen. There yet more motorsport royalty stepped behind the wheel, with Brian Redman and Jacky Ickx handling driving duties.

Ken Quintenz took custodianship of P/1016 in 1992, correctly identifying it as chassis P/1016 and restoring it to 1966 Le Mans specifications while leaving its Mk IIB updates. The car was treated to further refreshments a few years later in 1996, undertaken in part by Jim Rose and Jimmy Tucker, who were original Holman-Moody mechanics.

©2018 Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

The current owner acquired the car in 2004 and sent it to Holman Automotive for further work and has since run it regularly. In recent years it’s competed at the Le Mans Classic six times, run in the Classic Endurance Series and appeared at both the Goodwood Revival and Goodwood Festival of Speed.

This magic and extremely significant GT40 Mk II will head to auction at RM Sotheby’s’ Monterey sale and will be offered on Friday, August 24, 2018. It’s expected to fetch between US$9,000,000 and $12,000,000.

RM Sotheby’s’ Monterey sale will be held in the Monterey Conference Center over the 24th & 25th of August, 2018 and coincide with the iconic Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. For further details click here.

Images ©2018 Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s