MOTOR CARS | 197The interior features leather-upholstered, Recaro bucket seats with
aluminium ventilation grommets embedded into the panels. The
instrument layout follows the original's, comprising analogue gauges and
a large tachometer complemented by modern versions of the traditional
toggle switches.
Back in 19 , the Ford GT40 endurance racer became the first car to
exceed 200mph along the Mulsanne straight at Le Mans. Matching that
would be some achievement for the production road car, even allowing
for nearly 40 years of technological progress. Tested for Motor Trend
magazine by 0ndycar racing legend Bryan Herta, the new Ford GT duly
topped 200mph at Ford's Kingman test facility in Arizona, emphatically
demonstrating that it was indeed worthy of that famous name.
Built on 17th June 2005, this example is one of five held back from
country allocation from the 101 official European Ford GTs. These five
were marked V0P and were allocated very late in the process by the
Ford National Sales Company. Ford of Britain then allocated this vehicle
to racing driver Jenson Button in May 2005. At that time Jenson was
driving for the BAR team in Formula 1, and would go on to become
World Champion for Brawn GP in 2009. The car was supplied to him
through the Swiss Ford GT dealer Grimm in Geneva in August 2005,
and is considered to be one of the official <K Ford GTs.
0n March 200 , Jenson requested that the car be imported into the <K,
and it was submitted for 0ndividual Vehicle Assessment (0VA) by Roush
(<K Ford GT service centre) to enable registration at that time (bill on file).
The following year the GT was sold to its second owner, an enthusiast in
Slovakia (export invoice on file).The car subsequently passed to Tom Hartley, from whom it was
purchased by the current (fourth) owner. While in Tom Hartleys
ownership the car was serviced by Mountune, whose invoice dated 11th
November 2011 for ,240 is on file, while the most recent service was
carried out in December 2015 (at ,194 miles) by <K Ford GT marque
specialists GT101 Ltd. GT101s invoice is on file and the car also comes
with MoT to September 2017, a V5C document, and its original folder
containing the instruction manual and service book. Also available are
copies of the original GT - Central Order Form signed by Jenson Button
and James Bassett (for Ford of Britain).
£250,000 - 300,000
€290,000 - 350,000