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As a road-going tribute to the GT40 that delivered Ford its Hollywood-worthy victory over Ferrari at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, it’s not surprising that the Millennial Ford GT looks dang good in racing stripes. So good that nearly every customer ordered their GT with them. But the original owner of this 2006 model, now being auctioned online by DuPont Registry, dared to be different.
According to the listing, this is one of just two 2006 Ford GTs that left the factory in Speed Yellow without stripes. It’s definitely weird not seeing them running across the hood. After all, the GT40 concept that heralded this generation of GT dropped jaws at the 2002 Detroit Auto Show wearing yellow paint and black racing stripes, even though that combination is more closely associated with the later GT40 Mark IV, not the 1966 Le Mans-winning Mark II that inspired this car’s styling.
DuPont Regist
DuPont Registry
DuPont Registry
DuPont Registry
This car also has a more common black leather interior and red brake calipers, which were an option from the factory. It was originally sold by Davies Ford in Connellsville, Pennsylvania, but is now located in Tennessee and showed 8,734 miles at the time the auction listing was published. In between, it was registered to three private owners across Florida, Oklahoma, Texas, and Colorado.
The GT married retro styling with specs that are still impressive today. A bespoke aluminum spaceframe chassis is covered with aluminum body panels, and houses a supercharged 5.4-liter V8 that produces 550 horsepower and 500 pound-feet of torque. This theoretically made the GT capable of zero to 60 mph in 3.3 seconds, but a traditional six-speed manual transmission meant driver skill was a factor. A top speed of 205 mph made the GT one of the fastest road cars of its day.
DuPont Registry
DuPont Registry
DuPont Registry
DuPont Registry
A total of 4,038 examples of this generation of GT were built as 2005 and 2006 models, although production actually spanned the 2004 to 2006 calendar years at Ford’s Wixom Assembly Plant in Michigan. Production was intentionally kept low, and Ford vetted potential owners, setting the template for the second-generation GT road car that arrived roughly a decade later.
Ford flipped the script with the successor GT. While the first-generation GT road car was never officially raced (although some were converted to race cars), the second-generation car was designed to give Ford a class win at the 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the GT40’s first win. The new car used radical aerodynamic styling and a twin-turbo V6 to deliver that win and a PR message that Ford was keeping up with the times, even if it didn’t tug on the heart strings the way the retro GT did.
Stephen has always been passionate about cars, and managed to turn that passion into a career as a freelance automotive journalist. When he’s not handling weekend coverage for The Drive, you can find him looking for a new book to read.
