2017 Ford GT sells for $2.4m at auction

Ford Motor Company includes a clause in the purchase contract of its 2017 Ford GT supercar preventing buyers from selling it within their first two years of ownership.

But that hasn’t prevented Mecum from selling one for more than four-times its original RRP.

The idea behind the contract was to avoid a Porsche 911 R, or HSV GTSR W1-style situation in which a ‘small-batch’ car skyrockets in value due to demand.

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John Cena famously landed in hot water recently, when Ford took legal action against him for allegedly ‘flipping’ his own GT.

At the Indy 2018 auction, Mecum Auctions president Dana Mecum spoke to the crowd before bidding kicked off on a 7-mile example of Ford’s supercar.

“I want you to just be assured to bid openly on this car and feel comfortable,” he told the crowd.

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“There have been a lot of rumours and so on, because of the ‘restrictive choice plan’ on these cars when they’re sold new.

“We had a little issue in the court house about this, and the judge did rule in Mecum’s favour. We can sell this car, and if Ford wanted it back they were welcome to come here and bid on it.

“So it is a publically legal sale of a Ford GT… there are no repercussions… you bid on it, you buy it, and it’s yours.

“It’s America, you can buy and sell what you want!”

Rather optimistically, Mecum started the bidding at USD$2 million (~AUD$2.65), but dropped to USD$1.5 (~AUD$1.99) as no one had jumped in. It then dropped again to USD$500,000 before things finally got going.

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Within two minutes from that point, someone had spent USD$1.65 as the hammer fell, with extra charges bringing the price to USD$1,815,000, or AUD$2.4 million.

Given its original starting price of roughly USD$400,000 in America (we estimate it’d cost around $600,000 here, plus optional extras and on-road costs), this GT’s value has increased by more than 450 per cent from the ‘showroom sticker.’

It goes some way to explaining why the clause was introduced in the first place, but sets a precedent that means this might become a more frequent occurrence.

You can watch the full day’s auction (almost 12 hours!) below, or skip to the 4:26:36 mark to see the GT cross the block.