The Ford GT40 MkII that finished third in the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans is to be sold at RM Sotheby's Monterey auction – with a £6.7m to £9m price tag.
Chassis P/1016 is one of the most important Ford racers of all time, having been part of the marque's much-celebrated 1-2-3 at the thrilling race.
The result broke Ferrari's six-year hold on the title and marked the beginning of Ford's own dominance of the gruelling endurance event: GT40s won the following three races.
Powered by a 7-litre V8 engine and measuring just 40 inches high – hence the name – the MkII was developed as part of Ford's three-year plan to win at Le Mans.
That goal was something of an obsession for Henry Ford II, who had become enraged at Enzo Ferrari's decision to back out of a proposed takeover and had decided that beating Ferrari on the track was the best way to retaliate.
The first couple of attempts, in 1964 and '65, were failures, but by '66 the GT40 program was reaching maturity, and MkII models swept the podium places at the 24 Hours of Daytona in February of that year, in preparation for the big race in June.
