---
title: "Watch This Le Mans-Winning Ford GT40 Being Restored to Perfection"
description: "Almost 50 years after it won the trophy, Ford's champion is back in fighting shape."
date: "2016-06-07"
modified: "2016-06-07"
authors:
  - name: "Ben Keeshin"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/ben-keeshin"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/vintage/3859/watch-this-le-mans-winning-ford-gt40-being-restored-to-perfection"
categories:
  - "Ford News"
  - "News"
  - "News by Brand"
  - "Watch This"
tags:
  - "Coupe"
  - "Ford"
  - "GT"
  - "GT40"
  - "Le Mans"
  - "Supercar"
  - "vintage"
---

# Watch This Le Mans-Winning Ford GT40 Being Restored to Perfection

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/archive-images/060716-le-mans-ford-rebirth-hero_1.jpg>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com</em>*

What happens to an old racecar? Often, a warhorse—minus many original parts and bearing the marks of hundreds of scrapes and slap-dash fixes—is demoted down a racing series or three, until its valuable components wind up stripped and recycled into a new racer. But when a car is as special as P/1046, the 1966 Ford GT40 that won Le Mans, it often finds a way to escape that tragic fate.

Owned by southern vintage car juggernaut [RK Motors](<https://gt40.rkmotorscharlotte.com/>), the Ferrari-beater has spent 20 months being fixed up by [Rare Drive, a restorer in Kingston, New Hampshire](<https://www.raredrive.com/>). The shop went over every nut and bolt, repairing, polishing and painting the car back to fighting shape over the course of 4,000 man-hours. When they needed a part no longer being manufactured—like the windshield or exhaust—it was fabricated by hand. They even kept the 1960s-era mistakes with the care of a remastered Grateful Dead album. When painting the iconic "2" on the side, they made sure to leave it imperfect as the original, complete with the exact same drip marks; the exhaust, when remade, was kept slightly asymmetrical

The GT40 known as P/1046 was delivered to Shelby American's California headquarters in January of 1966, the 47th of an 87-car run by Ford's special projects division. During qualifying at [the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1966_24_Hours_of_Le_Mans>), the Bruce McLaren-piloted car (yes, [*that* McLaren](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_McLaren>)) finished fourth in the field, behind Dan Gurney's pole-winning car. A day later though, the McLaren car took home the gold, leading its two [Ford brethren](<https://www.thedrive.com/vintage/3371/this-guy-has-every-vintage-ford-racecar-you-want>) across the finish line by mere moments. The Ferraris, who had been expected to win? All fourteen were parked the paddocks, having been mechanically whipped.

After its win, P/1046 went on to be a test mule and ran the 1967 Daytona 24, but never finished the race. Stripped of some parts, it was passed around between collectors, finally ending up *sans* much of its identification in a storage unit in Ghent, Belgium. Collector George Stauffer found and restored the car in 1983 and enjoyed it for decades, before selling to Aaron Hsu for $10 million. Hsu, in turn, sold it for $22 million in 2014. Today, the car is restored and in new hands, ready for a parade at this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans—and then, undoubtedly, a multimillion-dollar sale. Not bad for an old gal.

https://youtube.com/embed/vNw5aegH34g

## Author
Ben Keeshin is a former staff writer for Maxim, and before that, contributed writing to the digital sides of Road & Track and Vanity Fair.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://twitter.com/BnKshn>)