“Power, beauty and soul”, these were three words that I could have expressed over the course of a few days with the Ford GT. But they were not the first to come to mind.

Try “startling, scary and hold on!” For this is the 2005 Ford GT. Not a mere replica of the 60’s legend, but a fire-breathing (literally) 550hp all-American muscle car.

Of course, no look at the Ford GT would make sense without the perspective of the racing pedigree and history of the legendary race car of the 60’s - the Ford GT40.

The original racer was built in 1964 after Ferrari’s four-in-a-row wins at Le Mans, later to extend to six-in-a-row (a streak beginning 1960). Infuriated by Ferrari’s dominance, Ford’s managing board instructed its R&D team to build a Le Mans winning race car that would send Enzo Ferrari back to Italy with his tail between his legs. With the pride of America at stake, pen was put to paper to design the ultimate GT endurance racer.

The end result was the Ford GT40: ‘GT’ for Gran Turismo , ‘40′ as its roofline measured just 40 inches from the ground. It was a true GT endurance racer, measuring over four metres in length, with a width of 178 cm and a long 241 cm wheel base for high speed road-holding.

The engine came from Ford’s high capacity V8 racing line of engines, from 4.7 litres all the way to 7.0 litres in later versions. With a kerb weight of just over 900 kilograms, it was a winning design from front to back. It was also ready to be sent to Europe to grid up against the competitor it was designed to beat, Ferrari.

The first two years of endurance racing for the GT 40 did not bring the expected success, but the car was steadily improved. In the 1966 Le Mans, after 24 hours of racing, three Ford GT40  race cars finished first, second and third. Their success made a mark in endurance racing history so deep it is cemented forever in the annals of Ford history.

This historic clean sweep signalled a four year dominance in Le Mans endurance racing for the GT40, winning in seasons 1966 to 1969.

In fact, the GT40 transformed the rules that made Le Mans. By 1969 they were reaching a staggering 350 kph on the Mulsanne Straight. This led to safety concerns and sweeping rule changes to limit the engine capacity of all cars in an attempt to limit their top speeds. With its high capacity V8, this ended the Ford GT40’s dominance.

With this racing history within the bloodline, Ford’s decision to pay homage to the GT40 by creating a modern GT may have been an easy one.

The prototype was unveiled at the 2002 Detroit Auto Show to much acclaim and a full production version of the GT was announced soon after. It appeared in 2005: bigger, wider and three inches taller than the original, but still showing strong styling cues of the original Le Mans car - it was a hit.

A British engineering firm had naming rights to the original ‘GT40’ and was rumoured to be chasing $40 million for it, so the new car was simply named the ‘Ford GT’.

Some 4038 Ford GT’s were produced between 2004 -06 all in left hand drive and only two worldwide have gone through the costly conversion process to right hook. I was about to drive one of them.

It was with great trepidation that I held the keys stamped ‘car 002’ on a drizzly Friday morning.

The forecast for the day of pickup was torrential rain. Imagine the frustration: to be handed the keys to a car as rare, as steeped in racing pedigree, as beautiful as this, to be asked not to drive it and keep it off the road until tomorrow’s clear skies; it felt like the day before Christmas.