A 1960s Ford Legend Hits the Road with a New Kind of Spirit

The Blue Oval’s Le Mans icon is being reborn through a twin-supercharged spiritual successor.

Close-up of the front side of a light blue sports car with red and orange racing stripes, gold wheel rims, and a number 1 decal on the door.

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In case you haven’t seen Ford v Ferrari, the Blue Oval made history at the 24 hours of Le Mans back in 1966 with an authoritative 1-2-3 win led by Ken Miles.

Beyond delivering on Hank the Deuce’s personal ambitions against the Prancing Horse, it was a result that solidified the company as a true racing presence. For good reason, as the GT40 amounted to quite a feat of engineering (and spending).

Two light blue race cars with white stripes and gold wheels, one with orange fenders and the other with red accents, on a gray floor. — The GT Mk II arrives as the spiritual successor to Ford’s Le Mans-winning GT40.

60 years after that performance, a company is taking that legendary Ford in a new direction. Though it bears some resemblances to the Blue Oval’s Le Mans winner, a closer look reveals a vehicle of a markedly different spirit.

A fresh take on a Ford icon

It’s called the GT Mk II, and it’s a project that comes from South Africa’s Cape Advanced Vehicles (CAV). The outfit has been offering GT40 replicas for 27 years now, and the creation you see before you is its vision of a spiritual successor.

Light blue sports car with red accents and racing stripes, front view with butterfly doors open. — The front-end thoroughly modernizes the GT40’s retro nose.

Accordingly, you’ll find a few choice nods to the Ford original. In addition to a similar front end, the Mk II sports some obviously GT40-inspired lighting and familiar duct and aero designs, among various other reinterpreted touches.

Beneath the retro-inspired bodywork, though, it’s a very different vehicle. CAV has designed the car around an aluminum and carbon fiber monocoque chassis that’s speculated to be from the first-generation Audi R8. (I mean, just a look at those A-pillars.)

Light blue sports car with red front fenders, gold racing number 1 decals, and bronze wheels. — From the livery and the lighting designs to the ducts and other aero choices, you’ll find plenty of historical inspo.

In any event, beyond modernities like ABS, TCS and airbags, this means that it brings an all-wheel drivetrain and a 4.2-liter V8. However, CAV’s engine setup notably differs from any alleged naturally aspirated Audi donor in that it comes with not one but two superchargers fitted.

As a result, this means that claimed output for the Mk II comes to 800 horsepower and 649 lb-ft of torque. Those numbers aren’t just for bragging rights, either, because zero to 60 is said to arrive in less than 3.0 seconds, while top speed clocks in at 204 mph.

Light blue sports car with gold rims, red and white racing decals, and a rear license plate reading "GT MKII - WP. — The rear end is where the neo-retro look is at its most ambitious.

Something unto its own

Towards that end, CAV has made some upgrades to the chassis to ensure that it can handle the power yielded from dual blowers.

As such, along with suspension gains in the form of three-way KW adjustable dampers at all four corners, the Mk II also packs improved stopping power thanks to a set of beefy Brembo brakes.

Light blue sports car with red and orange racing stripes, gold number 1 decals, and bronze wheels on a white and dark background. — The side profile does make for a pretty convincing homage.

Moreover, it rides on some staggered custom-forged wheels, and it boasts other trick upgrades like a lightweight Inconel exhaust system from Kline Innovation for active valving and sound control.

Though these kinds of touches make for a project that’s undeniably impressive in all that it promises from a performance standpoint, it’s nevertheless more than a little ambitious in what it’s attempting to capture.

After all, it’s not like Ford has forgotten about its Le Mans legend over the past 30 years. Between the first generation in 2005 and the second generation in 2017, the Blue Oval also has two modern GT designs of its own.

Light blue sports car with white racing stripes and visible engine through rear window. — With two superchargers, the 4.2-liter V8 is rated for a claimed 800 horsepower.

Still, if V8 power and all-wheel drive delivery are what you crave, the Mk II could be just the ‘Ford’ you need.

Availability and pricing

According to CAV’s announcement, a mere 40 GT MkIIs are slated for production. Of those, just 20 are slated to receive the pictured Miles Blue Metallic treatment, with the remaining cars set for two other 50th Anniversary Limited Edition treatments.

Light blue sports car with red front fenders, gold racing stripes, and bronze wheels on a gray surface.

Cape Advanced Vehicles GT Mk II

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About the Author: Gray is an associate editor at Gear Patrol, covering cars, motorcycles and anything else with wheels. When he’s not chasing the latest industry news, he’s probably wrenching on one of many projects. For better or worse, he believes classics make perfectly practical daily drivers.

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