GT at Mecum Kissimmee


twobjshelbys

GT Owner
Jul 26, 2010
6,189
Las Vegas, NV
The Heritage cars are extremely popular because of the GT40's strong association with the Gulf Oil paint scheme. Nevertheless, I am surprised they command such a huge premium. I can't think of any other cars produced in the same quantities as the Heritage cars which have a similar price premium because of a paint job alone. I believe it reflects the powerful influence the Gulf GT40s have in the minds of collectors and enthusiasts.

I concur. The "Gulf livery" is so famous for us old farts, but when I go to car shows I get asked what my license plate "GULF GT" means. I tell them to get on their phone and look it up on Google and that there will be a quiz in 15 minutes...
 

FBA

GT Owner
Dec 5, 2010
1,672
31.022340° N / 44.846191° W
How much is an $8k paint job (over the cost of stripes) worth? Given, no true "heritage" is involved? I don't understand. I guess some people really really like a paint job. Yeah, I'll pay $100K for an $8k paint job.

BTW, I'm not envious. Just mystified.
Sinovac said it - and they are all about the heritage. Nothing to be mystified over; if Ford didn't think that paint scheme would command more money because of the heritage, they wouldn't have gotten that much money over the stock colors. When you say "no true heritage is involved", the same thing could be said about the GT in fact, but there really IS heritage involved!

I wish I had bought that as a no-miles collector car instead of the yellow one. I knew it would appreciate much faster and much higher, but I just wasn't into looking at the color very day. Stupid me...

Porsche 917's that get 6 million today, are in the gulf colors too. Gulf colors seem to have a lot of heritage.
 

FBA

GT Owner
Dec 5, 2010
1,672
31.022340° N / 44.846191° W
Mecum site says: Lot S196 2006 Ford GT Heritage Edition 2400 Miles Sold for $320,000

Also of interest: Lot S131 Ford GT Yellow w/ Black Stripes 568 miles High Bid $285,000
Someone actually bid 285k for a 568 mile yellow/black? Plus 8%?? There must have been a lot of alcohol involved to pay 308K for that car...
I see much lower-mile, desirable cars selling for much less on Fleabay.
 

bret a ewing

GT Owner
Nov 29, 2006
301
:wink
This may not be true any more but when I was with Ford we had a process that off-set bored the wheel .005-.006" in relation to the valve stem hole, (forged wheels will not be out of balance because of the precise manufacturing process). The tire manufacturer would measure the force variation location on their tires and mark the high point with a sticker, the tires were then mounted with the sticker by the valve stem so that the slightly higher tire spring rate was cancelled by the wheel being slightly off set at that point. Tires can be in perfect balance but if the force variation is out of spec (high) the car will act like it has an out of balance tire because the tire spring rate changes as it rotates, in those days Michelin was far better at meeting force variation specs that any other manufacturer. Some times you will hear a NASCAR team say they got a "bad" set of tires, Robert Yates actually measured a loss of rear wheel HP on a chassis dyno due to a high force variation in rear tires. There would be vibration and handling issues associated with high force variation in addition to the power absorption problem.

Not sure what the above means, but looked at the P-Zeros on the 991 in the garage and the dot on all 4 tires is directly above the valve stem.:wink
 

Sinovac

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Jul 18, 2006
5,862
Largo, Florida
Gulf colors seem to have a lot of heritage.

Oh yeah. The Gulf colors are regarded by many as one of the very best and most recognizable race car liveries ever. Apply them to what many consider to be the most beautiful and successful race car ever, and you have a recipe for everlasting lust.
 

Xcentric

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Jul 9, 2012
5,213
Myakka City, Florida
What I meant by "no true heritage" is no Ford factory support for J.W. Automotive or John Wyer. In other words, the heritage is that independents sponsored by Gulf Oil took some GT40s (some with Mirage chassis) and continued to race and win after Ford dropped out. The paint job is Gulf Oil's heritage, but I guess you can't copyright a paint scheme.
 

Sinovac

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Jul 18, 2006
5,862
Largo, Florida
What I meant by "no true heritage" is no Ford factory support for J.W. Automotive or John Wyer. In other words, the heritage is that independents sponsored by Gulf Oil took some GT40s (some with Mirage chassis) and continued to race and win after Ford dropped out. The paint job is Gulf Oil's heritage, but I guess you can't copyright a paint scheme.

Stop picking the fly crap out of the pepper. :lol
 

Xcentric

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Jul 9, 2012
5,213
Myakka City, Florida
You just see it that way, because you do it for a living. ;)
 

Indy GT

Yea, I got one...too
Mark IV Lifetime
Jan 14, 2006
2,545
Greenwood, IN
More dots...

Generally the OEM dot on the tire is aligned with the valve stem ( heaviest part of the wheel) when mounting, thus using the least amount of lead balance weights on the wheel.

Bret, believe I covered the least amount balance weights results from matching the rim and tire initial imbalances in my prior post, but reinforcement is fine. And in the absence of any initial imbalance information on either the rim or tire your suggestion of aligning the dot on the tire (if there is one) with the rim valve stem is probably the best you can do.

However this is not always accurate (or even close). My two FGT front tires display the Goodyear balancing markings and I early on replaced the tape black dots with similar plastic stick-ons. On both rim/wheel sets the two dots are aligned (by Ford production) as discussed but the dot pair is clocked approximately 15 degrees on one wheel and 80 degrees on the other from the respective valve stem. Thus a good dual plane balance operation is still very much recommended.

You will see the dot on the replacement Bridgestones, have your tire guy align that dot with the valve stem.

I checked one of my 265/40ZR18XL and one of my 345/35ZR19 as yet unmounted Bridgestones and you are absolutely correct! Thanks very much for calling that to our attention. There is a yellow dot on the Bridgestones outboard sidewall which I will initially align with my black rim dots.

And again sorry to hijack the topic of this GT pricing post…..
 

FBA

GT Owner
Dec 5, 2010
1,672
31.022340° N / 44.846191° W
What I meant by "no true heritage" is no Ford factory support for J.W. Automotive or John Wyer. In other words, the heritage is that independents sponsored by Gulf Oil took some GT40s (some with Mirage chassis) and continued to race and win after Ford dropped out. The paint job is Gulf Oil's heritage, but I guess you can't copyright a paint scheme.
Well, whatever, but we're seeing record pricing on all GT's right now.

I'm seeing asking prices just south of 300K on very low miles cars on Fleabay now, and just noticed a black one sold at "250k" there, if that price is accurate, but it seems that every time one of these high-profile auctions moves a few of these cars at crazy prices, the overall market pricing moves up the next day.

I just can't wait for the snow to go away so I can drive it already...with the new mods and more power about to complete.
 

twobjshelbys

GT Owner
Jul 26, 2010
6,189
Las Vegas, NV
Maybe someone can collect the GT prices from all the January auctions in one place, but if I recall the BJ and Mecum prices were also fairly consistent. Mecum tends to be a little less overall on similar cars (perhaps their auction is not powered by alcohol) but the GT prices were similar.
 

shesgotlegs

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Jul 20, 2006
1,183
Hey FBA, what kinda mods?
 

Luke Warmwater

Permanent Vacation
Jul 29, 2009
1,414
Boondocks, Colorado
What I meant by "no true heritage" is no Ford factory support for J.W. Automotive or John Wyer. In other words, the heritage is that independents sponsored by Gulf Oil took some GT40s (some with Mirage chassis) and continued to race and win after Ford dropped out. The paint job is Gulf Oil's heritage, but I guess you can't copyright a paint scheme.
Bingo… Living in a shallow world these days
 

Xcentric

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Jul 9, 2012
5,213
Myakka City, Florida
^^^ The cover shot on your website is fantastic. The golden light.
 

vyprgt2

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Sep 9, 2005
609
CA
Well, whatever, but we're seeing record pricing on all GT's right now.

I'm seeing asking prices just south of 300K on very low miles cars on Fleabay now, and just noticed a black one sold at "250k" there, if that price is accurate, but it seems that every time one of these high-profile auctions moves a few of these cars at crazy prices, the overall market pricing moves up the next day.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>



Seems eBay prices have settled in on 280s for very low mile cars, 250s for 1000 mile cars , and 220s for cars with 3000- plus miles, for all colors except Heritage
 

FBA

GT Owner
Dec 5, 2010
1,672
31.022340° N / 44.846191° W
Hey FBA, what kinda mods?
Fabricating a new non-restrictive intake with the biggest air filters I can make fit on them, similar to the GT Guy intake, and moving from a 19 to a 21 PSI pulley, and tuning. Should get me to about 870 RW from 783 I'm thinking...that's the one thing I could see was an issue during the last session on the Dyno, the intake. We were spiking bad with very low AFR's at the high end of the runs...air restrictions. She already has a 4.0 Whipple / BAP etc...just need more air and a bit more boost now! After that, I think I'm pretty much done...
 

FBA

GT Owner
Dec 5, 2010
1,672
31.022340° N / 44.846191° W
Well, whatever, but we're seeing record pricing on all GT's right now.

I'm seeing asking prices just south of 300K on very low miles cars on Fleabay now, and just noticed a black one sold at "250k" there, if that price is accurate, but it seems that every time one of these high-profile auctions moves a few of these cars at crazy prices, the overall market pricing moves up the next day.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>



Seems eBay prices have settled in on 280s for very low mile cars, 250s for 1000 mile cars , and 220s for cars with 3000- plus miles, for all colors except Heritage
I wouldn't say "settled in", not at all. This is only a "support level" for now...(a term used in F/X trading). Every few months, pricing breaks through another level.

Thing about these cars, are that the "support levels" have been climbing steadily for the past three years, and seemingly spiking to new levels only days after a few cars roll across at BJ and Mecum for record prices.

I have a search set up on Fleabay for GT's. I usually check daily to see what's what and what's new. I haven't checked for about a week and all of a sudden today, I see new cars on there at much higher asking and another GT sold only a few days ago for 250k, with some miles on it. Then there a few in the 290-295K range, an unusually high price for them, but I think we'll start seeing more at these asking prices over the next few weeks/ months, and more being sold at much higher prices than only a few months ago.

What I see, is mostly dealers raising the asking and getting higher bids as a result.
 

Biginch Blake

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Nov 4, 2008
992
Rockville, Indiana
Gt 40

Don't think it was for sale but brought GT 40 in as show car on Saturday and set where yellow one was, nice set up.
 

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Xcentric

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Jul 9, 2012
5,213
Myakka City, Florida
Where did they ever find a working Colotti trans? :lol

That car gets around. It was at the Automotive Hall of Fame in Dearborn last August.
 
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shesgotlegs

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Jul 20, 2006
1,183
Fabricating a new non-restrictive intake with the biggest air filters I can make fit on them, similar to the GT Guy intake, and moving from a 19 to a 21 PSI pulley, and tuning. Should get me to about 870 RW from 783 I'm thinking...that's the one thing I could see was an issue during the last session on the Dyno, the intake. We were spiking bad with very low AFR's at the high end of the runs...air restrictions. She already has a 4.0 Whipple / BAP etc...just need more air and a bit more boost now! After that, I think I'm pretty much done...

Yikes! A torque monster.:thumbsup