Value
The Most Expensive Ford Ever Sold
The most expensive Ford ever sold is a GT40 Mk II that finished third at Le Mans in 1966, at $9,795,000 through RM Sotheby’s in 2018. Ford’s entire value ceiling rests on one race: the GT40 won Le Mans four years running, and nothing else Ford has built comes near it. Ours is a Mustang.
| Car | Figure | What kind of number that is |
|---|---|---|
| GT40 Mk II, 1966 | $9,795,000 | RM Sotheby's, 2018. Third at Le Mans that year. |
| GT40 production | 105 built | 1964–69, across Mk I, Mk II and Mk IV. |
| Le Mans wins | 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969 | Four consecutive. No American car has repeated it. |
| Ford Mustang | $129/day | What our Ford costs. |
One race decides the whole answer
Ford has built more cars than almost any company in history, and its value ceiling is set by a hundred and five of them. Every figure above the low millions belongs to a GT40, and every GT40 that clears eight figures has a Le Mans result attached.
The GT40 ran from 1964 to 1969 and won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1966, 1967, 1968 and 1969 — four consecutively, with a Mk II, a Mk IV and then two Mk Is. Engines across the programme ran from a 4.2-litre V8 to the 7.0-litre 427 that carried the 1966 and 1967 cars. A hundred and five were built in total.
In 2018 a Mk II that finished third at the 1966 race sold for $9,795,000 through RM Sotheby's, the highest price a GT40 had reached at auction. Note what that car did: it finished third. Not first, not a works winner — third, in one race, sixty years ago, and that is worth nearly ten million dollars because the race was Le Mans and the year was 1966.
Two rules, because they are where these lists break
The chassis carries the money, not the model. There is no price for “a GT40”. A car with a Le Mans finish and a car built to the same drawings without one are separated by several million dollars, and lists that quote one figure for the type are averaging two different assets.
A continuation is not the car. GT40s have been built to original specification long after 1969, legitimately and openly. They are excellent and they are not the same market. Any figure quoted without a chassis number attached should be treated as unattributed.
Why Ford, of all companies, sits this high at all
It is worth stating plainly, because it is unusual. Ford is a volume manufacturer — the volume manufacturer, arguably — and volume is what keeps Corvette's ceiling at $7.7 million and Lamborghini's around six. By that logic Ford should be nowhere.
The GT40 escapes it because it was never a road-car programme with a racing offshoot. It was a racing programme, built to beat Ferrari at Le Mans after a failed acquisition, and the road-going examples exist because the rules and the budget made them convenient. Ford spent industrial money on a competition car for reasons that had nothing to do with selling cars, and the result is the only line in Ford's history that behaves like a Ferrari's.
The Mustangs that are worth something, and why
Below the GT40 the picture returns to normal. Mustangs have been built continuously since 1964 in numbers running to millions, and a car that common cannot be scarce. The ones that reach high six figures are the exceptions that prove the rule: the 1960s Shelby cars, the Boss homologation models, the handful built to satisfy a racing category rather than a showroom.
The pattern is identical to Corvette's and it is worth naming because it is the most useful thing in this article for anybody actually buying. Inside a high-volume model, value comes from a version almost nobody ordered — a competition option, a one-year body change, a colour-and-trim combination that turns up three times in a production run of tens of thousands. It never approaches the racing cars, and it is the only part of this market a normal person can enter.
The most expensive Ford in Los Angeles
Two Fords, and neither is close to any of the above. A blue Mustang at $129/day and a black Explorer at $114/day.
The Mustang is the interesting one for a visitor, and not because of the badge. It is the least expensive car in this fleet that makes a noise worth taking up a canyon, which is a specific and slightly odd niche: everything cheaper is quiet, and everything louder costs several times as much. For a Saturday on Angeles Crest with a budget that is not an exotic budget, the arithmetic lands on it more often than people expect.
What it costs, and how it reaches you
The Mustang carries a $500 refundable deposit and the Explorer $350, both back 5–7 business days after the car returns. These are the cars where weekly blocks bite hardest — the per-day figure falls noticeably across seven days in a way it does not on the exotics — so read the rate on the car’s own page.
Collection from our lot on Robertson Boulevard is free and delivery to the partner hotels in Beverly Hills is complimentary. Airport delivery is priced per direction: $75 standard, where the car waits in the airport parking structure and you take the shuttle out to it, and $150 VIP, where it is at the terminal when you walk out. Anything past the mileage allowance is charged per mile at the rate written into your agreement. The rest is in the terms.
The short version
The most expensive Ford ever sold is a GT40 Mk II at $9,795,000 with RM Sotheby’s in 2018, and that car finished third at Le Mans in 1966. A hundred and five GT40s were built and they won Le Mans four years running.
Everything else Ford has made sits an order of magnitude below, because everything else was built to be sold rather than to win a race. The most expensive Ford in Los Angeles is a Mustang in our garage, and it is the cheapest V8 noise in the city.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the most expensive Ford ever sold?
A GT40 Mk II that finished third at the 1966 Le Mans 24 Hours, which made $9,795,000 through RM Sotheby's in 2018 — the highest price paid for a GT40 at auction. Only 105 GT40s were built in total, between 1964 and 1969.
Why is the Ford GT40 worth so much?
Because of one race. The GT40 won Le Mans four years in a row, in 1966, 1967, 1968 and 1969, which no American car had done before and none has done since. Value at this level is paid for competition history, and the GT40 has the most quotable competition history any American car owns.
How many Ford GT40s were built?
105, across the Mk I, Mk II and Mk IV variants and the 1964–1969 production run. Engines ranged from a 4.2-litre V8 up to the 7.0-litre 427 that powered the 1966 and 1967 cars. That total includes the racing chassis, which is why individual cars with a Le Mans result carry the money.
Is a Mustang ever worth that kind of money?
Not close, and the reason is volume. Ford has built Mustangs continuously since 1964 in millions. The Mustangs that do reach high six figures are the competition specials — the 1960s Shelby cars, the Boss homologation models — which is the same pattern the GT40 sets in a more extreme form.
Which Ford can you rent in Los Angeles?
Two: a blue Mustang at $129/day and a black Explorer at $114/day, both against modest deposits. Neither is in the ranking above, and no rental fleet anywhere holds a GT40.