SYCO GT
GT Owner
See, that gig at the Federal Reserve worked out well. I kid. I kid. Congrats on what will be an unbelievable journey and welcome to the family.
In the Market for a Ford GT Again
- Thread starter Shark01
- Start date
See, that gig at the Federal Reserve worked out well. I kid. I kid. Congrats on what will be an unbelievable journey and welcome to the family.
There were certainly times I wanted to throw in the towel after I swung and missed, but every time a couple of days later I was back pouring over for sale ads again. So, those misses just galvanized that I was going in the right direction....albeit slower than everybody else.
Thanks
Congrats on the car
FWIW, speedhuts are still a very real option, as a full set is ~$1200. The replacement Autometers are $, and does not address the tach or speedo (Cooltech is reported to have a fix for the big gauges at this point).
FWIW, speedhuts are still a very real option, as a full set is ~$1200. The replacement Autometers are $, and does not address the tach or speedo (Cooltech is reported to have a fix for the big gauges at this point).
nautoncall
GT Owner
- Apr 6, 2014
- 1,093
Thanks, I had thought it was just a real option for a certain period in the past. My only complaints about them is the odd position of the redline on the tach and that the tach isn’t flat bottomed. OTOH, I really like the white faced gauges and I’m told they look really good at night.
Continuing my story with #1711, calling out the modifications on the car
Some Good Stuff
Alot of the cars I looked at during my search had modifications, some minor, some extensive. It made sense because I couldn’t comfortably afford museum pieces. And I was open to some level of modification, since the GT community at large are accepting of basic performance mods and they are inexpensive compared to other exotic platforms. Cheap horsepower, yeah. This car had several modifications that I would pay for, and a few I wouldn’t but am OK having if I didn’t feel like I paid for them (the value was right). And one I am in a love/hate relationship with.
Here is the list of mods:
Pulley, Tune, Accufab throttle body – By Torrie McPhail ($2k) - I would have done this anyway, cheap reliable performance
Accufab X-Pipe exhaust ($2k installed) – Good sound I would have sprung for…and ceramic coated for a cooler engine bay
Moton fully adjustable suspension – Pricey ($7k+, parts only), I wouldn’t have done it on my own….but damn this really adds to the handling, getting (and keeping) power to the pavement, and improving the stance (lowered 1”) so certainly don’t mind it. Easily the most planted GT I have driven
Short Shifter – ($800) Yep, I would have paid for this
Transmission cooler – ($800) Yes, good piece of mind on 100 degree Texas days, Global warming Y’all
New head unit with back-up camera – Not my thing because music is for daily drivers not fun cars, but will need the camera if taking it to work (one of those dumb reverse parking only places)
Dress up appearance stuff – ($3k) Aluminum seat donuts, billet clamshell vents, a bunch of engine bay shiny aluminum parts with color match GT logos (Project 321), fancy door sills – looks good, but I wouldn’t buy these myself
Custom Leather interior with contrasting red stitching – This is the controversial one for me, I’m sure it cost like $10,000+ and its looks really nice (high grade leather obviously)…..but I could do without it to be honest….who knows, maybe I grow to love it....I'l try to remember to post a picture.
Black wheels - I just can't with these things....wheels are suppossed to be shiny and bright....pretty sure it says so in the Bible somewhere
So about $7,000 in additions I would pay for, plus $10,000 in stuff I will like having.
Some Good Stuff
Alot of the cars I looked at during my search had modifications, some minor, some extensive. It made sense because I couldn’t comfortably afford museum pieces. And I was open to some level of modification, since the GT community at large are accepting of basic performance mods and they are inexpensive compared to other exotic platforms. Cheap horsepower, yeah. This car had several modifications that I would pay for, and a few I wouldn’t but am OK having if I didn’t feel like I paid for them (the value was right). And one I am in a love/hate relationship with.
Here is the list of mods:
Pulley, Tune, Accufab throttle body – By Torrie McPhail ($2k) - I would have done this anyway, cheap reliable performance
Accufab X-Pipe exhaust ($2k installed) – Good sound I would have sprung for…and ceramic coated for a cooler engine bay
Moton fully adjustable suspension – Pricey ($7k+, parts only), I wouldn’t have done it on my own….but damn this really adds to the handling, getting (and keeping) power to the pavement, and improving the stance (lowered 1”) so certainly don’t mind it. Easily the most planted GT I have driven
Short Shifter – ($800) Yep, I would have paid for this
Transmission cooler – ($800) Yes, good piece of mind on 100 degree Texas days, Global warming Y’all
New head unit with back-up camera – Not my thing because music is for daily drivers not fun cars, but will need the camera if taking it to work (one of those dumb reverse parking only places)
Dress up appearance stuff – ($3k) Aluminum seat donuts, billet clamshell vents, a bunch of engine bay shiny aluminum parts with color match GT logos (Project 321), fancy door sills – looks good, but I wouldn’t buy these myself
Custom Leather interior with contrasting red stitching – This is the controversial one for me, I’m sure it cost like $10,000+ and its looks really nice (high grade leather obviously)…..but I could do without it to be honest….who knows, maybe I grow to love it....I'l try to remember to post a picture.
Black wheels - I just can't with these things....wheels are suppossed to be shiny and bright....pretty sure it says so in the Bible somewhere
So about $7,000 in additions I would pay for, plus $10,000 in stuff I will like having.
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Agreed on flat bottom, I plan to have my OEMs all fixed to have "on the shelf". Heck been so long I dont even know what doesnt work.
See one key advantage of the speedhut, customization (white). Shift lights dont hurt either, if you have them, But rec limiter works too. Many did come cool examples. huge thread out there somewhere.
See one key advantage of the speedhut, customization (white). Shift lights dont hurt either, if you have them, But rec limiter works too. Many did come cool examples. huge thread out there somewhere.
nautoncall
GT Owner
- Apr 6, 2014
- 1,093
Yep, every mod listed is an awesome addition to make the car even better, BUT, the custom interior. (I would not have let that keep me from it based on a good deal either). Post some pics of everything.
I hear you....I get what whoever did it was trying to do (reviewers have complained about that aspect of the interior many times).....and a bunch of CF interior pieces might help. I would rather it didn't happen though. When I get to posting the value aspects, maybe others would think no big deal.
Continuing the recap of my purchase......since I cannot post pictures of the modifications on this thread, you can see them here:
https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/bought-a-2005-ford-gt.617596/
The Inspection
Getting an inspection is a must for me. Even if my Mom was selling me a car, I get an inspection (Mom has been known to tell a fib here and there). The GT world is kind of unique as there are GT experts who will travel to perform inspections (I spoke with both Rich Brooks & Kendall Pond at different times through my journey, both very knowledgeable and easy to talk to). In this case, as the car was local to me in the Houston suburbs I chose to contract the guy who has taken good care of my Diablo for 6 years. He has good motivation to be a little picky in verifying a solid car, because I would bitch to no end every time I took this car or the Diablo in for service if it was a lemon.
The other thing I HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend is to go see the car you are buying in person after it gets a clean bill of health from your inspector. Plane flights most of the year are inexpensive, and these trips will help you feel better about the purchase. Plus you get to meet the seller in person to see if you really want to conduct business with them.
My mechanic (not a GT expert but services 4-5 of them) spent 3 hours going through everything. He found things he recommends be addressed immediately (radiators with coolers, tie rods ends, a small body issue, full fluid service, front tires (which I knew were aged out (2011)).
Other things of less importance included weatherstripping degradation in some spots, a CEL code for an air leak (emissions), codes for airbags (which might just need a reset since the recall was done recently), rear tires aging out next year, broken air box, a rock chip or 3, a couple of items needing new rubber boots, sub-woofer out of action (couldn’t care less).
The Test Drive
I had driven the car a few days before, and the owner kindly let the mechanic drive the car with me in shotgun. Here is another instance where the owner was so good to work with….a couple of other times, dealers were not going to allow an inspector to drive the car, or even myself until the purchase agreement was signed….not how I want to do business….I guess they are looking for noobs to buy these cars.
My mechanic checked everything, only legal in Mexico acceleration and speed, soft braking, head snapping hard braking, clutch slip checks, tight turns (praised the Motons), listening for odd noises….he said the driving dynamics were the best thing about the car. He also made sure the car tracked correctly further verifying how minor the damage 10 years before was.
https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/bought-a-2005-ford-gt.617596/
The Inspection
Getting an inspection is a must for me. Even if my Mom was selling me a car, I get an inspection (Mom has been known to tell a fib here and there). The GT world is kind of unique as there are GT experts who will travel to perform inspections (I spoke with both Rich Brooks & Kendall Pond at different times through my journey, both very knowledgeable and easy to talk to). In this case, as the car was local to me in the Houston suburbs I chose to contract the guy who has taken good care of my Diablo for 6 years. He has good motivation to be a little picky in verifying a solid car, because I would bitch to no end every time I took this car or the Diablo in for service if it was a lemon.
The other thing I HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend is to go see the car you are buying in person after it gets a clean bill of health from your inspector. Plane flights most of the year are inexpensive, and these trips will help you feel better about the purchase. Plus you get to meet the seller in person to see if you really want to conduct business with them.
My mechanic (not a GT expert but services 4-5 of them) spent 3 hours going through everything. He found things he recommends be addressed immediately (radiators with coolers, tie rods ends, a small body issue, full fluid service, front tires (which I knew were aged out (2011)).
Other things of less importance included weatherstripping degradation in some spots, a CEL code for an air leak (emissions), codes for airbags (which might just need a reset since the recall was done recently), rear tires aging out next year, broken air box, a rock chip or 3, a couple of items needing new rubber boots, sub-woofer out of action (couldn’t care less).
The Test Drive
I had driven the car a few days before, and the owner kindly let the mechanic drive the car with me in shotgun. Here is another instance where the owner was so good to work with….a couple of other times, dealers were not going to allow an inspector to drive the car, or even myself until the purchase agreement was signed….not how I want to do business….I guess they are looking for noobs to buy these cars.
My mechanic checked everything, only legal in Mexico acceleration and speed, soft braking, head snapping hard braking, clutch slip checks, tight turns (praised the Motons), listening for odd noises….he said the driving dynamics were the best thing about the car. He also made sure the car tracked correctly further verifying how minor the damage 10 years before was.
Bill Briley
GT Owner
OK, last part.....a long winded discussion on what I felt I should pay. what I did pay, some justification, and what comes next.
The Value
Like a lot of Fathers, mine told me not to buy the first car I looked at, or the second one. The first car I looked at was a car listed here. His had 84k miles, plenty of mods, a hail blemish requiring a full repaint, but well cared for and well enjoyed. The ask last October was $190k (do not know what the sale price was). A great learning experience for me, and the car I bought is very much like that car. Between October and February when Ricky reached out to me, I saw a lot of cars, talked to a lot of sellers, talked to a lot of recent buyers here. For new buyers, don’t conduct this search in a vacuum…talk to people, lots of things to learn.
I was really close to buying a 4k mile local car 5-6 weeks ago (as in having transferred the money and had the loan set up), and I’m glad I didn’t….having to wipe out the car fund (including the money I had set aside for Diablo & GT maintenance) PLUS borrowing $40k just wasn’t the right thing to do financially, and would have limited the use of the car because I would feel a little guilty driving away the premium I just paid…and would be paying on for four long years. Many owners with higher mileage cars here recommend buying a similar car with miles so there is no guilt factor.
A note for future buyers, don’t be afraid to reach out and ask what buyers paid. This market changes quickly, and there are a lot of dealers out there with Fantasy Land pricing and nonsensical auction results. I was fortunate enough to have on good authority what 6-7 cars sold for between Oct and February, and developed (with another member here) a formula that was really accurate for predicting sales prices between 3k and 17k miles and had decent reliability up to 30k miles.
Since the car I bought was a lot like that first car I looked into, I thought the pricing should be similar with some added allowance for the odometer issue and the minor issues found in the inspection. After some short discussion (again, a wonderful seller, everything was calm and pleasant, I’m really a believer in buying a seller as well as a car, and this experience was great) we settled on $182k.
For me, this was a good value…..the car is not a salvage, not in an accident, not ultra high miles. In exchange for accepting that the car wasn’t a perfect museum piece only touched by microfiber baby diapers and de-ionized water I won’t even buy for my children, I found a local private owner car (saving transportation, flying in an inspector, me flying to see it, goofy charges dealers try to tack on….$500 for inventory tax? Really?) which saved me $6k over a similar car located in say California or the East coast, with an additional $7k in mods I would have paid for (and a couple of good ones like the Motons that I will enjoy having) in the first year anyway.
So the case can be made that my net cost was even lower vs other similar potential cars located remotely that were in stock form, or missing the optional wheels (which I really wanted). When I go to justify this purchase to myself, I think of the net price as $169k.
A GT that didn’t break me financially and can drive guilt free…..yeah, a good fit for me.
My back-up car through all this was a Ferrari Scuderia…..great car, but not the icon a Ford GT is, nor on the same level as a collector car….and most of the Scuderias I saw listed for sale were in this $175k to $190k area (with 15-20k miles). So you can make the case I bought a GT for Scuderia money or less.
What’s Next?
I have already commissioned my mechanic to perform some service work. Some things (other than the front tires and getting the car prepped for inspection) I don’t have to do right now, but fits my philosophy for making the car better.
Hate the black wheel trend a lot of guys like today, so want to get those back to the shiny original color eventually. Maybe start replacing the weatherstripping. Then maybe some Carbon Fiber stuff….anybody have a supplier suggestion?
Thanks to all those who assisted me through the process, and anyone reading this all the way through. If anyone has questions, feel free to reach out to me, I would like to help you get cars off the street and into your garage. I really believe this era Ford GT is the last hurrah of an age that will never shine again.
The Value
Like a lot of Fathers, mine told me not to buy the first car I looked at, or the second one. The first car I looked at was a car listed here. His had 84k miles, plenty of mods, a hail blemish requiring a full repaint, but well cared for and well enjoyed. The ask last October was $190k (do not know what the sale price was). A great learning experience for me, and the car I bought is very much like that car. Between October and February when Ricky reached out to me, I saw a lot of cars, talked to a lot of sellers, talked to a lot of recent buyers here. For new buyers, don’t conduct this search in a vacuum…talk to people, lots of things to learn.
I was really close to buying a 4k mile local car 5-6 weeks ago (as in having transferred the money and had the loan set up), and I’m glad I didn’t….having to wipe out the car fund (including the money I had set aside for Diablo & GT maintenance) PLUS borrowing $40k just wasn’t the right thing to do financially, and would have limited the use of the car because I would feel a little guilty driving away the premium I just paid…and would be paying on for four long years. Many owners with higher mileage cars here recommend buying a similar car with miles so there is no guilt factor.
A note for future buyers, don’t be afraid to reach out and ask what buyers paid. This market changes quickly, and there are a lot of dealers out there with Fantasy Land pricing and nonsensical auction results. I was fortunate enough to have on good authority what 6-7 cars sold for between Oct and February, and developed (with another member here) a formula that was really accurate for predicting sales prices between 3k and 17k miles and had decent reliability up to 30k miles.
Since the car I bought was a lot like that first car I looked into, I thought the pricing should be similar with some added allowance for the odometer issue and the minor issues found in the inspection. After some short discussion (again, a wonderful seller, everything was calm and pleasant, I’m really a believer in buying a seller as well as a car, and this experience was great) we settled on $182k.
For me, this was a good value…..the car is not a salvage, not in an accident, not ultra high miles. In exchange for accepting that the car wasn’t a perfect museum piece only touched by microfiber baby diapers and de-ionized water I won’t even buy for my children, I found a local private owner car (saving transportation, flying in an inspector, me flying to see it, goofy charges dealers try to tack on….$500 for inventory tax? Really?) which saved me $6k over a similar car located in say California or the East coast, with an additional $7k in mods I would have paid for (and a couple of good ones like the Motons that I will enjoy having) in the first year anyway.
So the case can be made that my net cost was even lower vs other similar potential cars located remotely that were in stock form, or missing the optional wheels (which I really wanted). When I go to justify this purchase to myself, I think of the net price as $169k.
A GT that didn’t break me financially and can drive guilt free…..yeah, a good fit for me.
My back-up car through all this was a Ferrari Scuderia…..great car, but not the icon a Ford GT is, nor on the same level as a collector car….and most of the Scuderias I saw listed for sale were in this $175k to $190k area (with 15-20k miles). So you can make the case I bought a GT for Scuderia money or less.
What’s Next?
I have already commissioned my mechanic to perform some service work. Some things (other than the front tires and getting the car prepped for inspection) I don’t have to do right now, but fits my philosophy for making the car better.
Hate the black wheel trend a lot of guys like today, so want to get those back to the shiny original color eventually. Maybe start replacing the weatherstripping. Then maybe some Carbon Fiber stuff….anybody have a supplier suggestion?
Thanks to all those who assisted me through the process, and anyone reading this all the way through. If anyone has questions, feel free to reach out to me, I would like to help you get cars off the street and into your garage. I really believe this era Ford GT is the last hurrah of an age that will never shine again.
Bill Briley
GT Owner
Iconic GT
GT Owner
Personally, I believe its better the cars be on the street than in the Garage. Carbon monoxide is a KIller!!!! and I cannot rip through the gears...... ;-)
HighHP
GT Owner
fjpikul
GT Owner
soroush
Ford Gt Owner
- Aug 8, 2007
- 5,256