I've been to every single Goodwood Revival since it's inception. I wasn't going to go this year, but changed my mind when the all GT40 race was announced. It was quite a sight probably never to be repeated! I actually spent most of the weekend in the GT40 paddock looking at as many cars as possible in detail. The great thing about GT40's is they were all a little bit different. It is quite obvious that so many of the "original" cars have very few original parts on them. It's also obvious many have been re-tubbed have very few original parts. In fact the Gelscoe cars while recently produced are probably comparable more technically with period specification and cosmetic presentation than many of the supposed "originals"! The attention to period detail detail and workmanship is quite superb.
Dave I find this comparison pointless because Gelscoe, Superperformance, Holman and Moody, Southern GT, Tornado (etc) and every other "modern GT40" should be better than a fifty year original. If their not there something very wrong! In fact the modern GT40's panel lines and doors shuts are better than the originals had because they are hand built with no racing deadlines.
But the point you miss is that all the "modern racing GT40 cars" never had to compete in the 24 hours Le Mans in the 1960's. Even if they use original type parts they are brand new cars.
Basically whatevers left of the original car if it has an established history means obviously they were there at the time. They did not have the total development time that has built up with the GT40's now. In fact there were limited number of cars available an example would be GT40P/1004 which was converted into Gulf specs for the 1968 Spa (becoming GT40P/1084 in the process) When the JWAE team were short of a car. There must be in all forms of modern GT40 perhaps 4 or 5 times the amount of the original cars.
The "New GT40's" however, must be the future because of the Originals value and cost of the 'original parts' if you could get them in the event of a breakdown or crash.
I really like the fact that 'originals' have been retubbed or had parts changed to keep them racing.
I also like the fact that the prototype GT/105 and the GT Roadster were racing. I like the diversity. It was from the similar bodywork of the cars that raced especially the 1965 type cars that I really liked the 4 or 5 cars nose to tail racing. I still wondering what made the winners cars so much faster than the rest? As for the future what I do not want but might happen especial racing is that every 'GT40' is a Gulf spec clone.
I still cannot equate the MKIV Ford not being compedititive but this car and the MKII would have been designed for long distance racing and not sprints. They would be heavy in comparison to even the 1965 type MKI's?
Regards Allan