This Pile of Ash at a Salvage Auction Used To Be a 2005 Ford GT
The phrase “as is” has never held so much meaning.
Insurance salvage auctions are like the Wild West of car sales, where caveat emptor is the law of the land. That means doing your due diligence, unless you want to end up with a perfect-looking family SUV that's really been rolled 20 times and patched up with glue. But sometimes, the pictures really do tell the whole story—like this Copart listing for a 2005 Ford GT that appears to have been used for artillery target practice.
Launched in 2004 to commemorate the automaker's 100th anniversary, the Ford GT was a callback to the legendary GT40 racing car that dominated Le Mans in the mid-1960s and showed Ferrari that the Americans could run with the best that Europe had to offer. It's a great story, and part of a key chapter in Ford's development into performance cars. Or things that used to be performance cars.
The reborn Ford GT packed a 5.4-liter supercharged V8 engine—mounted in the middle, of course—and only came with a six-speed manual transmission. With 505 horsepower and a top speed of 205 mph, it was the fastest production car Ford had ever made, and it's still used as base for standing mile competition cars that routinely top out north of 290 mph.
All this to say, it's not too surprising that of the 4,038 Ford GTs that were built between 2004 and 2006, at least a few would be utterly ruined by now. Granted, we don't know the exact nature of the calamity that befell this particular model. It could have been driven into a brick wall at 150 mph, or crushed by a distracted driver, or incinerated in a forest fire. It doesn't really matter, though, because the end result is the same: complete, abject destruction.
This heap of ashy rubble is still in the rough shape of a car, we'll give it that. There are a few identifiable parts—an exhaust pipe here, a brake rotor there—but the pictures are a grim portfolio. And it's the number of pictures, all from different angles, that really impresses us here. Yes, that's a pile of junk. Maybe it will look a little more complete from this side...no, still a mound of garbage.
We also like the "Transmission: Yes" note in the details, though we're also not sure it's accurate. Really, all you're paying for is a VIN here. But with no reserve price and no current bidders, you just might get this Ford GT for a song.
