The first Ford GT to be legally resold went for $1.54 at Auction last weekend.
It’s been two years since the Ford GT first rolled off the assembly line in Multimatic’s facility in Ontario, Canada. Production of the $500,000 supercar continues, but the first GTs ever made are now finally past the two-year prohibition against their sale, a contractual rule placed by Ford on any GT sold.
Why did Ford not want the GT to be resold so soon after its creation? Maybe because they knew they were drastically low-balling the car’s value. Sure, Ford might still be making a slight profit at $500,000, but millionaires and billionaires are willing to pay a lot more for the highly prized supercar.
Case in point, the few examples of the GT being illegally sold in the past. Wrestler and actor John Cena famously sold his GT well before the two-year embargo and got sued by Ford for his trouble. The two parties settled last year with Ford undoubtedly clawing back some of the $1.4 million Cena received for the sale.
Another Ford GT sold at Mecum auction in 2018 went for $1.65 million and was also sued by Ford. The two parties settled earlier this year, but the trend is clear: if the car were to be sold on the free market, the forces of supply and demand would price the GT at around $1.5 million.
So it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that when the GT finally did cross the block at Barrett-Jackson’s auction in Las Vegas last weekend it sold for $1.54 million. The only difference is that it was past the 2-year prohibition, so the seller was able to keep all of that $1.54 million, minus the cut to Barrett-Jackson.
What’s noteworthy here is that this particular ‘66 Heritage Edition GT was likely purchased for around $600,000 originally, so the seller made almost a million dollars in profit after waiting two years. That’s quite the sound investment, especially considering most cars lose around a third of their value in that time.
(via Automobile Magazine)