Reconstruction
It was Ford’s big attack at the 1965 Le Mans 24 Hours. Six GT40s were finally to win, so Ford also lent some of its racing cars to well-known teams, as it was necessary to pool resources. The Swiss Scuderia Filipinetti received chassis number P/1005, while the famous Rob Walker Racing Team was allowed to try P/1004. In training, things went well: Bob Bondurant and Umberto Maglioli took the Ford to third place. In the race, Bondurant even managed to move up to second place, but after 29 laps it was all over, engine failure. The rest of the story is also well known: all six Ford GT40s retired, it was a disaster (the full, very detailed story begins here).
P/1004 was shipped to the USA and became an exhibit at the famous ‘Cobra Caravan’, with which Shelby travelled the whole country to celebrate the 1965 world sports car titles. In 1966, the GT40 came back to England to Ford Advanced Vehicles, where it was dismantled and the usable parts were stored. When John Wyer Automotive Engineering took over FAV’s warehouse in 1966, the chassis of P/1004 was among the parts stored there – and was renumbered to P/1084 in 1968, when Wyer built a GT40 according to the new Group 4 specifications. This car only competed in one race, at Spa in 1968, where Hobbs/Hawkins came in fourth. In 1970, the ‘new’ GT40 was sold to Rodney Clarke, and later it was part of Sir Anthony Bamford’s collection. A few years ago, P/1004/1084 found a new owner through Duncan Hamilton.
Belongs to the Rofgo Collection:
This is part of our collection of individual Ford GT40s. And then we have the archive.
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