A work mate came up to me and said "Richard has an old Ford GT40 replica that he needs to send to a good home". I was at Richard's desk within 10 seconds and the rest is history...
After breaking the news to my Brother, Tim and my Dad, Gary; they insisted that they
had to be in on this project. So here's where we begin... A joint three way project to restore this GT40 replica.
GT40
The GT40 has a cool story. Apparently in the mid 60s Henry Ford II tried to buy out Ferrari. After investing a small fortune in preparing for the takeover, Enzo Ferrari turned around and decided not to sell. Henry Ford was furious and instructed his team to develop a car to smash Ferrari at Le Mans. The car was originally designed by Lola in the UK with a 4.3L engine. Over several years it went through 4 different versions and ended up with a 7L engine. Over the years of 1966 to 1969 Ford won Le Mans four years in a row. Th GT40 is the only car ever to achieve this feat!
Since the 1980s many companies have produced fibreglass replica GT40s. Our car is one of these..
The Car
Our particular car has an interesting history. The kit was produced by the Kit Car Company (KCC) in South Africa. The previous owner (Richard) saw these cars in the mid 90s and had to have one. He stumbled across one for sale that was half built and snapped it up. After spending thousands of hours on it, he had it on the road and used it as a daily runabout to work (on a mine site!). Originally it had a 4.2L V8 Ford engine. He said it was not enough power, so he upgraded to a freshly rebuilt 350ci (5.7L) Chev. He said the car was an absolute blast to drive (I can't wait to find out). Apparently this motor has a few thousand kilometres on it. In 2001 Richard moved to Australia with work and imported the car as a personal import. Since then he has been moved all around Australia with work and has not had a chance to get this beast running and back on the road.
The history of the KCC kit is also interesting. Apparently, a guy called Ken Atwell at the Ford museum in the UK was asked to take moulds of a genuine Mk III GT40. Ken then formed KVA who produced the first GT40 replicas. This same kit also ended up in South Africa and was produced by KCC who adjusted it slightly to match the Mk I GT40 (well that's how I understand it). Apparently most of these KCC kits used a Ford V8, Audi gearbox, Ford Cortina front suspension and Ford Grenada rear suspension. So that's exactly what we have (with the exception of the Ford V8).
The Plan
So now this beast is parked in my garage, what's the plan? First of all, this engine hasn't run in ten years, so we plan to get the engine running first. The brake master cylinder, discs and callipers are rusted so we will recondition them.
Once the engine and brakes are sorted we will start to focus on getting this thing on the road.
We've spent a fair bit of time checking into import rules and registration. This car was imported as a personal import so should be relatively simple to get compliance (fingers crossed). It still looks like it's gonna need a new windscreen, side glass (plastic), seatbelts, etc. After that we'll need to attack roadworthy issues such as suspension bushes, etc.
Once it's on the road we'll enjoy it for a short while and then most likely start to recondition it. It's gonna be a fun ride, stay tuned....
