hagerty magazine – Pulpaddict

Hagerty Magazine’s Conner Golden compares Ford’s Le Mans winners with Ferraris they beat in this FORD GT40 VALUE GUIDE.

When three Ford GT40 Mark IIs crossed the finish line 1-2-3 in the rain at Le Mans in 1966, it was the first of four consecutive Ford wins at the legendary Circuit de la Sarthe. Beating Ferrari at Daytona, Sebring and Le Mans elevated the Ford brand in international endurance racing, yet today’s prices of those iconic racecars have not kept pace with also-iconic Ferrari models that they beat! The Mark I and Mark III, left, Road variants, as well as the unique Mark IV, above, that won Le Mans and Sebring in 1967 are included in this comprehensive FORD GT40 VALUE GUIDE.

Rivet for rivet, I’m not sure you can find a car that matches the Ford GT40’s raw collectability. Ford’s mid-engine wunderkind exists at the intersection of historical importance, motorsport legend, iconic personalities, exemplary engineering, and pure desirability. Not every Ferrari race car is important, but I reckon every GT40 built is noteworthy by its existence alone.

Archie Urciouli in GT40 Mark I P/1083, leads a Mark IV down the “corkscrew” at Laguna Seca.

Despite that, many Ferraris of similar or lesser provenance trade for millions more. Could it be that the GT40 is undervalued? Yes, we know there are plenty of zeros involved in the going rate of a finished GT40. It’s not an everyman car, but it is a storybook car, maybe the storybook car in America’s sports car history. That alone is reason enough to seek a better understanding of the GT40’s place into the collector market.

GT40 Mark IIB, P/1016 photographed at NY Auto Show by Phil Roitman

If we’re looking at raw numbers, despite all that appeal, it’s usually only a cluster of GT40s with heavy competition history that break the $10 million mark. The rest of the cars – regardless of generation – trade beneath the eight-figure waterline (the “average” GT40 transacts for just under $6 million), presenting a relative bargain compared to some of the superstars from Europe.

Indeed, values of the GT40’s Ferrari contemporaries – 250 LM – and the 330/412 P family—have lapped the Ford more than three times over. The 250 LM has traded in rare air for a long time: public sales dating back to the early-to-mid 2010s saw values as low as $10 million and as high as $17 million. According to Hagerty valuation data, in today’s climate, $17 million fetches a rough 250 LM, while the cleanest attract an average of $24 million!

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Musclecar guru, Diego Rosenberg, shows that GM and Mopar high-performance specialty compacts are similar on paper only in COMPACT MUSCLE COMPARO: ‘69 CHRYSLER VS. GM.

“There is more than one way to skin a cat.” You’ve probably heard this folksy proverb before, and it holds weight in the automotive world. During the high-performance sweepstakes of the 1960s, manufacturers developed their own approaches to go from Point A to Point B—often 1320 feet at a time.

With 375 horsepower, the 1969 Chevrolet Nova SS and the Plymouth ’Cuda 440/Dodge Dart GTS equipped with the 440 Magnum may not have garnered as much attention as their more popular brethren, but they offered performance above and beyond the usual fare. These two performance cars may seem similar on paper, but make no mistake: In execution, Chevy and Mopar’s compacts couldn’t be more different. Note: Plymouth’s hottest ‘Cudas, below, left the factory with 383 engines; Chevy’s hottest Novas were factory built with 396 big blocks. It was aftermarket converters that upped the displacement to 440 and 427, respectively.

In 1968, Chevrolet introduced a redesigned Chevy II on a 111-inch wheelbase – an inch shorter than the Chevelle coupe’s – that featured a separate front subframe assembly shared with the Camaro, which allowed a big-block to fit nicely. Unlike in previous years, the Nova SS now only featured performance engines, with the Camaro’s 350/295 standard. Optional were two big-blocks: the L34 396/350 and the L78 396/375. The latter was only available with a manual transmission, though a run of 50 with a special version of the TH400 automatic was commissioned by Fred Gibb Chevrolet via Central Office Production Order (aka COPO). For 1969, the standard 350 mill was upped to 300 horses and the TH400 became an official L78 option.

Continue reading COMPACT MUSCLE COMPARO: ‘69 CHRYSLER VS. GM. @ https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/why-chrysler-and-chevys-hi-po-69-compacts-are-similar-on-paper-only/?utm_source=SFMC&utm_medium=email&utm_content=MED_UN_NA_EML_UN_SaturdayRoadTrip_NoDynamic&hashed_email=e323c71347790f699ba35a9dc01d49ac3f938885a7df6321087c8c9b4c0dd333