Ford’s goal was to build a GT1 car for LeMans, which can cost several million dollars. To make sure they got it right, Ford hired Enrique Scalabroni to design the car, as he was famous for Williams’ F1 victories in ’86 & ’87. He was also Ferrari’s chief of design from 87-90.
Ford also opened the gates of their testing center in Cologne to make sure the car was ready to race. Development took place throughout 2009, and the car was formally unveiled at Yas Marina on April 17th of 2010. Taking first place, the Ford GT1 caught everyone’s attention. May 9th was the 1,000 km of Spa, and the GT1 locked out the podium with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place trophies.
Needless to say, the Ford GT1 beat up everyone from Aston Martin to Team Corvette bringing home 5 pole positions, 4 wins and another 5 podium finishes. The NASCAR division of Roush-Yates delivered a 650 horsepower monster with 531 lb-ft of torque.
There is now only 1 Ford GT1 for sale and the chassis is MarcVDS car #40, and it secured several top 5 finished in the 2010 season. The car is owned by Lance Miller, the Co-Owner of Carlisle Events, and one of the world’s most famous collectors.
He has this to say about it: “The car is simply amazing in every aspect. You point the car, it goes. You hit the brakes, is quickly decelerates. The power is really strong, the shifter is incredibly precise and instantaneous. I thought the car would be quite intimidating, however, after a few laps I felt comfortable and found out quickly I was having the time of my life! Any racer will love this car; it’s fast, sexy, stops swiftly and handles extremely well!
