Exclusive GT1 appears at the Classic Motorsports Monterey Kickoff

If you’re looking for a “hyper classic,” this GT1 might fit the bill. The car, which made a public appearance at the Classic Motorsports Monterey Kickoff, will weigh around 2700 pounds and push out nearly 1400 horsepower. How’s that for a horsepower-to-weight ratio?

When self-professed track rat Fred Calero found out that Ford Performance still had some first-generation Ford GT chassis, he wanted them.

“I was talking with my buddies and said, ‘Hey, why don’t we buy some of these chassis? Let’s pool our resources together and buy some nice track cars,’” Fred says. “We started doing that and one of them said, ‘If they have more, why don’t you buy them all? I bet there’s going to be other people who would like to do what we’re doing.’”

Fred and his buddies bought the remaining 30 chassis. Bare chassis in hand, they then had to build the rest of the cars.

Maytech Concepts helped develop the Ford GT for competition. When it went out of business, the molds for the carbon-fiber bodies wound up in southeastern Michigan, nearby where Fred lives.

A friend of Fred’s in Pennsylvania bought all the Ford GT cars–and a container full of spare components–the Maytech Concepts had in Europe. Fred then borrowed what he needed to reverse engineer the car and create components for the GT1.

The car uses an engine based on the RY45 platform developed by Roush Yates. It’s the aluminum version of the Ford FR9 used in the NASCAR Cup Series, which had a major presence in dirt late-model racing at one time.

The dirt late models ran it naturally aspirated, with a carburetor, generating 900-plus horsepower. Fred repurposed it and added fuel injection and a turbo that helped to bump the power output to nearly 1400 horses on 12 pounds of boost, and tailer the power curve for road racing.

Jim Dunham, with 32 years at Ford, serves as the project’s chief engineer, tasked with several responsibilities, one of which being the GT1’s suspension geometry.

“[Camilo] worked with us with a lot of the components to make sure it was cohesive in design,” Fred says. “Originally, he was involved to make sure that it was true to his vision. He designed the livery in his studio.”

Fred says the car will start at $1.3 million. Since there are only 30 chassis, once all those are used, the GT1 will no longer be sold.

He adds that the GT1 follows the trend of modifying Porsche 911s, such as Gunther Werks and Singer, to make them “works of art.” However, while Fred wants the GT1 to be beautiful, he also says the GT1 will be more than capable to tackle the track, too.