you could imagine my heart palpitations when I got behind the wheel of a GT40 for the first prison term . In the two hour I take it , I experienced the highest highs , some ridiculously nerve-wracking first gear , and was mistaken for a legitimate vintage airstream car number one wood . I have it away now what it ’s like todrivea Ford GT40 , and it ’s beyond all earthly inclusion .
Yes, it’s a real GT40. Kinda.
allow ’s face it , no one ’s unintelligent enough to hand someone like me the winder to a $ 10 + million car . The one I drove is a refreshment , built bySuperformance . Do n’t let that Logos put one over you , though . For $ 180k , you ’re reckon at the unmarried most authentic GT40 that was n’t built in the sixties . you’re able to even utilise division of this one to restore an original . It’sthatreal .
Sitting in the seat of greatness, you can’t overlook the historical significance
History dominates the GT40 experience . Dan Gurney raced and win in the GT40 in 1967 , and spontaneously commence the Champagne - spray custom . await closely and you ’ll see a little bubble on the cap of the driver ’s side . It ’s call a Gurney house of cards – its intent was to make room for the 6'4 " driver and his helmet . The orange tree and dingy Gulf Oil legal transfer on this specific gondola pays testimonial to the race winner in 1968 and ' 69 ; it was the first time the exact same car ever bring home the bacon Le Mans doubly . Virtually every inch of the railroad car has an incredible story mill about in its ancestry .
But none of that prepares you to press the start button
The awe is apparent in the piteous cat ’s eyes as he hand me the key . " Please be careful , " he tell , probably faithful to a twelve times . He warns me that the clutch is stiff , the gear case is hard to discover the correct geared wheel . I should keep an center on the calibre , he says , and flip a switch on the flair that control a devotee if it start to get spicy . He tell me to be blue on the cord in the doorway that operates the latch , lest I get stick inside .
It ’s the same sort of play a flight attendant would give before release , except literally every bit of advice he give carries a near certainty of being used .
I ’m on my own , the threshold is shut , I ’m strapped in , and I have the key to a GT40 , thoroughgoing with a GT40 VIN : GT / P2337 . I say a quickthank youto the car gods as I turn the tonality , crowd in the clutch , and press the start clit . I never even hear the dispatcher , just thesoul - reverberating warble of exploding fuelin each and every one of the eight piston chamber in the 535hp , 427 in V8 located just behind my forefront . I check the mirror , and notice that the locomotive engine ’s glorious intake stacks occupy a substantial portion of the view .
Aaron Miller/Thrillist
clear , something horrible has happened , and I ’m now go through the most incredible hereafter .
The GT40 is a bitch to drive… and totally worth the effort
I permit out the clutch while giving her a little accelerator and suddenly I ’m go . Whoa . The dude ’s not jolly about the clutch . It ’s little more than an on - off push button . I drive out of the Superformance display at Laguna Seca and past a smiling surety precaution , out towards the real earth . As I die the rails ’s grounds and onto the highway … jack .
It ’s mortifying to kill a car in traffic . Doing so in front of an enthusiastic gang of the great unwashed is enough to make me require to find a hole to crawl into . gratefully , the GT40 fires back to life story with a forgiving nature .
Five minutes later , we ’re talk the same language . My hand on the shifter can find the appropriate power train with operative preciseness . The guidance is direct and unfiltered , and the carbegsto dance – a perpetual reminder of why so many great men are reflect in its mortal . In traffic , there ’s not much opportunity toreallylean into the power , but the little scrap of dancing I do is enough to evoke memories of every video , every photo , every tale of the GT40 ’s glory years . Every knife thrust of the throttle results in a thunderingly patriotic tangle from the fumes . As I round a few bends on the coast of central California , I imagine Ferraris cowering in dealings behind me , like prey behind a shrub . The men who labor this auto in anger 50 years ago must have been as fearless as they were talented .
Aaron Miller/Thrillist
In a glorious turn of events, I’m mistaken for a real race car driver in a $10 million car
The time comes to retrovert this blue and orange time condensation back to its lawful bit at Laguna Seca , so I make my way of life through the gawking traffic , ignore unnumberable cameras as I drive . I enter the room access ( the GT40 ’s Lexan window does n’t on the dot roll down ) and ask the somebody at the running ’s entryway which way I need to go . They manoeuver me forward . I ask the next two people the same dubiousness , and get the same response . I’ve got to be getting airless . The next person I see is stopping every car that number near and turning them away , but I merely get wave through without a word spoken . Obviously he knows I ’m just return the car … right ?
all of a sudden I realize , with heart - stopping alarm , that I ’m not anywhere near the Superformance showing … I ’m in the paddock at theMonterey Historics , where invaluable vintage cars actually do get driven out on the track . I ’m surrounded by wash car that are the existent deal , deserving more than the sum of every electronic organ I could perhaps sell , that once were drive by the McLarens , Gurneys , and Shelbys of the existence .
A yellow Can - Am caris alongside me – the number one wood has his suit of clothes and helmet on , and he ’s on his way out to the track for a limiting session . Holy dirt . All of these suppose expert and enthusiasts recall this is an original GT40 .
Aaron Miller/Thrillist
I promptly accept I ’m a slight nervous now . Even amongst all the sights and vocalise at one of the world ’s most unbelievable events , this is a newfangled level of insanity . I ’m not hypothesise to be here , but obviously I ’m the only one who knows that . I see an area without cars or people where I can reorganize , and by the metre I lay off the railroad car and have my phone out to look at a map , I ’m completely surround by people consider photos , shoot , watch me , and talking about the cable car . If anyone gain it ’s not original , they did n’t say a word .
start the GT40 up again attracts even more attention , and I ’m suddenly hyper - cognisant of just how operose this beast is to drive . The only thought running through my brain isdon’t kill it . Do n’t fucking pop it . Everyone is staring at you , so whatever you do do n’t kill it . I supervise to smoothly drive off , calculate like I own the spot . I silently thank the car God once more .
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Aaron Miller/Thrillist
Aaron Miller/Thrillist
Aaron Miller/Thrillist
