Inside the restoration of the first Ford GT40 MkII

Being part of the GRRC brings numerous benefits. Aside from early access to motorsport event ticket sales, including Members’ Meeting presented by Audrain Motorsport, you can enjoy several exclusive locations across the Revival site. In one such spot, the GRRC Garage Enclosure, Members at the 2026 Revival were able to hear about GT40P/1011 from the team behind its resurrection.

The car’s owner is Mike Teske, an American who’s been determined to see his GT40 run again since he purchased the chassis in 2013. Bringing his car to life and doing the actual restoration work has been UK-based GT40 expert Sean Singleton, and assisting both is GT40 historian and author Ronnie Spain.

A small crowd gathered to listen to Teske, Singleton and Spain, with the restored GT40P/1011 chassis in front of them for all to see. Their discussion at the Revival highlighted the challenges of restoring such a machine to the point it is now, an immaculate chassis ready for the addition of an engine, gearbox, suspension, interior, wheels, brakes, bodywork and so on.

A significant hurdle was how to keep as much of the car as original as possible as, while it would have been easy to peel away the chassis number and fit it to an all-new chassis, Teske and the team were determined to repair and restore as much as possible and only replace if absolutely necessary. 

After their chat, we took a moment with Teske to understand why ‘1011’ is so significant.

“This is the first GT40 that Shelby American was given to turn into a MkII — and it was destined to race at Le Mans,” Teske told us. Sadly, it never made it to the Circuit de La Sarthe, as driver Walt Hansgen crashed the car at a rainy Le Mans test day in 1966 and died five days later. It was then hidden away, with no attempt at repairs, but up to that point it was proving itself thoroughly competitive in the USA.

“It did race at the Daytona 24 Hours with Dan Gurney and Jerry Grant,” Teske continued, “and they came in second place as they were instructed to do, because they were to lap two seconds per lap slower than the [Ken] Miles [and Lloyd Ruby] car. And so, the initial success at Daytona gave everyone at Ford, who were working so hard to try to win at Le Mans, the encouragement that they were heading in the right direction.”

Because chassis 1011 is the first MkII, it’s jam-packed with unique features. “There are 62 modifications on this particular one, where things were done a little bit differently.” Turning our attention to the front wheel arches, Teske said: “They were very worried about front-end lift because of initial problems they had, so they came up with this idea that the wheel would create wind pressure, and they wanted to get rid of that.

“They created this opening that you won’t see on any GT40 (street ones) so the air would go through and out of an opening on the body. But they learned that it really didn’t do anything and so that was not continued. If you look at 1046, the Le Mans winner, it doesn’t have these.”

We could have spoken to Teske for hours, soaking in every little detail of the small, excellently presented chassis. But we’re hoping this won’t be the last conversation we have about GT40P/1011, as the restoration work will soon continue with the end goal of getting the car back on track.

There’s some sadness in the car’s story, that’s certainly true. But considering it was driven by Ken Miles, Chris Amon, A.J. Foyt and Ronnie Bucknum in Shelby durability tests in December 1965 and then raced in 1965 — just one year before Ford’s triumph at Le Mans — we can’t wait to see it in action once again. The Goodwood Revival would be a suitable venue, don’t you think?

Goodwood photography by Charlie Brenninkmeijer.

The 2027 Goodwood Revival will take place on 17^th-19^th September 2027. Sign up for ticket alerts to make sure you don’t miss out.

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