cars news 10: Ford GT Prototype Needs a New Home

For those who were not hand-selected by Ford for the opportunity to pay nearly half-a-million dollars for the new GT supercar, here’s a once in a lifetime chance to own a piece of Ford history. The first, last-generation Ford GT prototype, Confirmation Prototype 1 (CP-1), needs a new owner.

CP-1 was the first fully functional prototype Ford GT the company built after it made the three display models in 2003, which are now housed in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. CP-1 bearing chassis number 004 was fully driveable as it was Ford’s test mule for quite some time. It features a full interior and complete drivetrain that helped Ford test and tweak the car before production.

Unlike its production-based siblings, however, CP-1 has a few attributes that never made it to production. Non-production parts include a “sniffer pipe” for emissions testing, a carbon fiber clamshell that cost over $45,000, a quick-release fuel tank, a black supercharger and valve covers, a myriad of test connections for Ford’s monitoring equipment, a steering column from a Windstar minivan, and an aluminum headliner.

One part that definitely didn’t make its way to the 200-mph Ford GT is the 5-mph speed limiter Ford installed before it sold this car in 2008 to the collector, and the man who wrote the book on the Ford GT, Joey Limongelli. Unfortunately for both the buyer and the car, the speed limiter chip relegates CP-1 to display purposes only, although it starts, runs, has a VIN, and can propel itself into and out of a garage.

It now seems that Limongelli wishes for CP-1 to find a new home as he’s consigned it to Russo and Steele’s Scottsdale auction from January 18-22.

Estimates for the car differ, but given the fact that Ford GTs of this generation are trading in the high $300,000s to low $400,000s, and CP-2 sold for over $800,000 this past summer in Monterey during Car Week, CP-1 could be the first Ford GT to sell for over a million dollars.

What might push this Ford GT over the million dollar line is that it has the autographs of 13 members of the original Ford GT design and development team, including Bill Ford, chief designer Camillo Pardo, chief design engineer Fred Goodnow, and Carroll Shelby who helped test and tune the car.

Source: Russo and Steele