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You Need Any Or All of These Three 2005-06 Ford GTs Offered at Houston Auction

A trio of 2005-06 "Petunia Project" Ford GTs are set to roll across the block with No Reserve at the first Barrett-Jackson Houston Auction from the Petunia project.
Petunia Project Ford GT 40 6 photos
Photo: Barrett-Jackson
The original Ford GT40 was based upon the Lola Mk6, and it was created for one purpose - to take on the dominance of Ferrari at LeMans. Originally engineered and built by Ford Advanced Vehicles in the early 1960s, it suffered disappointing initial race results until the production of the Mk IV model was moved to Dearborn.

Ferrari had taken every 24 Hours of Le Mans race from 1960 to 1965, and it was Ford's obsession to break Ferrari's streak. The Mk II's victory in 1966 marked the first win for an American manufacturer in a major European race since a Duesenberg won the 1921 French Grand Prix.

And the project succeeded. During the 1967 race, the Mk IV GT40 became the only car designed and built completely within the United States to take the overall win at Le Mans. The Mk 1, the first of the cars, won in 1968 and 1969 and became the second chassis to win Le Mans more than once.

But it was as a result of the GT90 and GT40 concept cars unveiled at the Detroit Auto Show in 1995 and 2002 that a super-secret Ford GT program dubbed “Petunia” was formed. Steve Saleen was brought on shortly after the Detroit Auto Show in January 2002 to meet with Ford engineering, marketing and design teams to bring back the Ford GT to production in time to celebrate the centennial of Ford Motor Company.

While this new GT40 featured a similar appearance to the original race-bred cars, it was ultimately larger, wider and 3 inches (76 mm) taller than the originals which stood 40 inches (1020 mm) tall.

Three production prototype cars were shown in 2003 as part of the Ford Motor Company centenary, and deliveries of the new "Petunia" production Ford GTs started in the fall of 2004.

These Ford GTs were assembled in the Ford Wixom plant, and they were the last vehicles to be manufactured in that historically significant plant. All the resulting "Petunia" project cars were painted by Saleen, Incorporated at their Saleen Special Vehicles plant in nearby Troy, Michigan.

Now Barrett-Jackson is offering not one, but three examples of the 2005-06 Ford GT at the September 16-18 Houston Auction. Each of the cars is currently owned by a single collector and all are offered with No Reserve.
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