Showing blog posts for GT40

My dad kicked off my interest in cars, restoring his barn find E-Type Jaguar in the garage behind our semi-detached house in Stockport. I don't know how many nights I spent in there, listening to Neil Young and Bob Dylan, putting together one of the most beautiful cars ever made. Entering my teens I never really appreciated how special it was, and when the car was sold to make way for a new kitchen and the upgrade to a detached house, I never made a peep. I wish I had.

Like most, on leaving home I had no money, and no money meant “crap” cars. The Fiat Punto followed a diesel Nissan Primera, and a Volvo was next on the shopping list. Not quite the motoring CV of a self confessed car nut. However, after moving to London and finding my “fortune” I managed to upgrade to a Mini Cooper S (actually with the help of a loan financed by said father). The mini is fantastic. It's fast, small and hides my lower class financial situation better than my fake Ray Ban sunglasses or my “designer” t-shirts bought in Thailand. But I still can’t shake the feeling that I want a proper car, a supercar. Living in London is like a slap in the face to someone who dreams of driving fast cars but can't afford one, Lamborghini follows Ferrari, Pagani Zondas and even Bugatti Veyrons loiter around the city, driven by these young men, so much more financially fortunate than I.

So, I need to make a plan, how can I get the two hundred miles per hour head turner having no deposit and no credit? I don't really want to glue pieces of plastic to an MR2. My heritage excludes me from even considering it and I'd disowned by all who know me. A kit car? Can anyone actually drive a kit car without looking like a total idiot? Hmmm. I scower EBay and there are a couple of cars but the proportions just don't look right. They should, but do not. A little too big on the back or a little steep on the window angle...

Then I'm strolling home from work one day and I see this incredible looking car lurking in a private road, a Ford GT. The number-plate read SEX5Y. I was in love! The car was indeed sexy, albeit the number-plate not. All black, some kind of special model with 700 written down the side. This Ford GT was well out of my realm but a GT40? I remember my Dad talking about them beating Ferraris or something? That sounds good…they look good, could I afford one, is there a “kit”?!

I investigate further. What a car! Produced in such small numbers that originals change hands for well over a million pounds, but I can have a kit version, just as fast, looking just as good for much less. And I get to build it myself?! This surely sounds like a great idea! Scratching that itch over the next couple of years with concurrent purchases, specification decisions and presents to myself with every pay-cheque... The end of my itching might just be in sight…