Extraordinary Ford GT X1 by Bell for sale

A mid-engined roadster that's, rare, red, V8 powered - and very much not a Ferrari

It can be hard to recall, all these years later, just what an impact the Ford GT had. Back when £100,000 supercars had 400hp or so, the Ford packed 550hp of supercharged swagger; even the Lamborghini Gallardo, complete with big V10, couldn’t match the GT for sheer muscle. But the real genius of the package was that it wasn’t merely some cynical cash-in or just a horsepower champ - the GT was a straight-up hero.

Even as a LHD-only prospect, and larger than was probably ideal for our roads, it was adored by those who drove it in the UK. Nobody expected it to be sub-par, exactly - but few would have reckoned on Ford creating such a deft, lithe, communicative mid-engined V8. One that, let’s not forget, looked crazily good as well. So it's no wonder GTs are still worth comfortably more than twice (sometimes three times) what those lucky UK buyers paid 20 or so years ago - they’re properly special cars. And while we’d more commonly associate limited editions with the later V6 GT - from Alan Mann to MkIV and Carbon Series to LM - there were undoubtedly some cool spin-offs of the V8. Remember, for example, the GTX1?

First shown by Ford at SEMA in 2005, the X1 was Blue Oval engineer Kip Ewing’s take on what a modern version of the GT40 X-1 could look like. That original car was an experimental, aluminium chassis’d GT40 Roadster built by McLaren, and which actually won at Sebring in 1966 - a lesser-known and very cool part of the GT40 story. Such was the understandable reaction to the 21st-century reimagining that around 40 units of the GT production run (it’s believed to be 38) were given the X1 treatment through Genaddi Design Group.

What makes this GT extra interesting is that it looks like an X1, but it isn’t. Well, not exactly. Because while it very much is a roofless GT, complete with viewing panels in the altered rear deck so the V8 remains on show, it wasn’t built by Genaddi Design Group and isn’t one of the 40 GTX1s. There aren’t the carbon roof panels, for one thing. Instead, this is a GT X1 by Bell, as in Bell Sport and Classic in the UK. Story goes that this car, originally shipped to New York, arrived in London in 2007, its buyer having missed out on the original GTX1 allocation but very much wanting one. So he had Bell Sport and Classic build him one.

It's likely to cause a stir wherever it ends up, the combination of familiar cues combined with a very seldom-seen body configuration raising it above even the enormous amount of attention a standard GT gets. Having been off the road for a few years, chassis 401202 has been resurrected this year, freshly serviced, recently MOT’d and ready to remind the rest of the world what a proper soft top supercar can do for your soul.

Interestingly, too, an unofficial GTX1 - thanks as well to a healthy mileage tally of almost 30k - is currently by far the most affordable way into this generation of GT. While cars that have been mollycoddled for two decades can still command almost £400k, this one is £280,000. Still a huge amount of money, clearly, and far beyond what its contemporary rivals are now worth, though also a useful amount less than any coupe currently available on PH. Rarer and cheaper sounds like car collector jackpot, right?

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CH80

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