Mecum Auctions
- A 2017 Ford GT owned by Le Mans class winner Sébastien Bourdais will head across Mecum Auctions' block soon, where it's likely to sell in the seven figures.
- The GT is Ford's roughly $500,000 Le Mans car for the road, which comes with 647 horsepower and a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission.
- The listing comes two years after Bourdais took delivery of the car, lining up with a restriction Ford made GT buyers agree to honor, which was that they couldn't resell it for 24 months.
- The two-year restriction and early resales have led to multiple lawsuits by Ford, including ones against Mecum, a dealership, and professional wrestler John Cena.
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Pasted across Mecum Auctions' homepage are a few of the featured vehicles that will arrive at its March auction in Arizona, which span generations - a 1969 Chevrolet COPO Chevelle, a 2019 McLaren Senna, and a 2017 Ford GT owned by Le Mans class winner Sébastien Bourdais.
But the Ford GT is perhaps the most notable, as it's yet another example of Ford's roughly $500,000, 647-horsepower Le Mans car for the road going up for auction almost immediately after the company's two-year resale restriction expired.
The restriction has garnered a legacy just like the car itself, resulting in multiple lawsuits and modern Ford GTs playing high-dollar hot potato across auction blocks.
Mecum Auctions
The 2017 GT listed on Mecum's site is one of 1,500 cars that will be up for grabs at the Glendale auction. It's slate gray with a carbon-fiber racing stripe down the middle, with weight savings that range from the light carbon-fiber components to a removal of the car's air conditioning, stereo, speakers, storage bins, and cup holders. It'll cross the block on Saturday, March 14 along with the Senna and other cars Mecum labels as "main attractions."
The car also belonged to Bourdais, one of the winning drivers in the Grand Touring Endurance Pro class from the 2016 running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans - the 24-hour endurance race in France that was recently the setting for the movie Ford v. Ferrari, which looked back on the automakers' 1960s rivalry. The modern GT is an ode to the GT40 race cars driven back then, and Ford's "Heritage Edition" versions of the car are modeled after old racing liveries.
Ford
Ford's return to Le Mans with the race-car version of the GT in 2016 marked 50 years since Ford beat Ferrari, and the company finished first, third and fourth in its class on the anniversary.
To commemorate the team win, Bourdais' Ford GT that's heading to Mecum got an engraved plate on the dashboard that features the drivers' signatures and a map of the Le Mans circuit.
Mecum Auctions
Bourdais' car is one of six built in the Ford GT Competition Series specification, the Mecum listing said, and one of about 1,350 GTs expected to be built in the current generation. Despite this particular car being listed with only 265 miles on the clock since Bourdais took delivery of it, the listing said he describes it as "precious and beautiful."
Bourdais received the car about two years ago, according to the listing, as he took delivery of it "just in time for Christmas of 2017." That's just past the 24-month resale restriction Ford made GT owners agree to upon purchasing the cars, which it began producing for the 2017 model year - making Bourdais' car one of the earlier models to trickle onto the used market upon the agreement ending.
Mecum Auctions
While a resale restriction might sound strange, it was a requirement with the GT, likely to keep applicants from buying the car and turning it around for a quick flip on the used market.
When Ford announced the current generation of the GT - a V6-powered supercar with a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission preceded by the first generation, which featured a 550-horsepower supercharged V8 and six-speed manual transmission in 2005 and 2006 - it also announced a few quirks to the buying process, including the resale restriction and that prospective owners would have to apply for their shot at being deemed worthy to buy the car by Ford. Even the people who drove race cars for Ford, like 24 Hours of Daytona class winner Scott Dixon, had to send in an application.
Mecum Auctions
The resale restriction has been almost as big of a topic as the car itself, as it didn't unilaterally prevent quick flips. Multiple GTs wound up on the used market, leading to lawsuits by Ford against buyers and sellers including a dealership, Mecum itself, and professional wrestler John Cena. All were eventually settled, with Mecum agreeing not to break the resale restriction again without Ford's blessing in January 2019, and the cars that slipped past the restrictions now hop across the auction block for prices in the $1.5 million range - about three times the GT's MSRP.
Cena's GT, for example, has changed hands nearly 10 times since he took delivery of it in September 2017.
Mecum Auctions
The GTs fetch a lot of cash on the secondary market because Ford didn't just sell them to the people who had the cash to pay for them, instead turning away some of the applicants who could afford it in order to create an even more exclusive group of owners. With only a certain number on the market and a restricted ownership audience thus far, the GT is a commodity.
Bourdais' car will also be a commodity, and we'll find out in March how much auction goers deem it to be worth - as well as whether it'll stay in their hands, or find the auction block again soon.
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