Carroll Shelby presenting the keys to #1043 at Shelby American in June, 1966 to its original owner Mr. David Heeresperger.
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These photos are from http://www.colinsclassicauto.com where the car was once listed for sale. Info below is condensed form this page.
Ford GT 40 Mark 1 Chassis # GT40P/1043
1966 Sold new On March 9th, 1966 to Mr. David Heerensperger of Spokane, Wa. Note Carroll Shelby presenting the keys to #1043 at Shelby American in June, 1966 to its original owner Mr. David Heeresperger in the main photo above.
Factory options at time of sale: P/1043 is a factory Road Coupe, one of just 31 such cars to be built to this specification. For this car, a special high performance engine serial #SGT/6 was noted on the factory build sheet as “High Performance with Weber Carburetors,” a black leather interior a body finished in primer and relatively narrow Borrani wire wheels wearing Goodyear tires completed the package. Price $18,250, air conditioning was optioned for an additional $750.00, total sale price was $19,000.
1968 Sold to Ralph “Butch” Bockmier of Spokane, Wa. the car was painted an era-correct goldish/brown candy apple metalflake color.
1972 Sold to Larry Peterson, with approximately 6,000 miles on it.
1974 Sold to Herb Wetson, NY car dealer and burger/chicken/BBQ restaurant magnate. Mr. Wetson also owned GT40 P/1056 at the time.
1976 Sold to to Mr. Les Lindley of Anaheim, California. When Mr. Lindley took delivery, 1043 had covered 14,000 miles and was still in its road-going trim, painted Guardsman Blue.
Mr. Lindley, also owned an impressive stable of other GT40s that included chassis J-5, a Mk. IV car that placed 4th at the 1967 Le Mans, chassis number 1015, the 2nd place finisher at the 1966 Le Mans and chassis number J-3, the 1967 Le Mans trials Mk. IV.
Sold [date unknown] to Tom Shelton of Fort Lauderdale, Fl, a Ferrari dealer at the time.
1989 Sold to Bryan Mimaki of Oxnard, Ca.
2003 Sold to Mike Davis of Huntington Beach, Ca
2005 sold to John Brice of Ridgefield, Ct.
2006 Sold – Colin Comer.
Present owner assumed to be Mr. Colin Comer.
GT40 P/1043 is one of the very few 40’s that possesses an air-tight history with absolutely no gaps or missing owners according to this page.
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Grew up in Spokane. Back around 1969, the owner’s stepson, a Ferris H.S. classmate, showed me the (securely locked!) car in the owner’s garage on South Perry Street. It was awesome.
There is an urban legend about this car in Spokane. One of its owners (probably Bochmier) did a high speed (150mph?) run on westbound I-90, finally being stopped by a helicopter. At trial, the judge started to lecture him about public safety etc. He reportedly replied “Save the lecture, just tell me the sentence.”
A friend of mine, Jim Knowles was an area native who built and raced sprint cars. Jim was acquainted with Heerensperger, who was having trouble synchronizing the four Webers on the factory 289 in this car. Jim sold Dave on the idea he needed to road test the vehicle. He chose Bigelow Gulch RD, the nearest country road, which then (as now) was narrow, hilly and winding. He fondly remembers backing out of it at 120, in third gear.
Hopefully someone can advise me of the current owner of #1043. I owned #1051 from 70-83 and had spare panels from JW’s racing program. The nose was on 1075; the most famous having won Le Mans twice and sold the spares to Les Lindley (who passed in 04) I believe who has this nose panel is not aware of the significance (the only time an American manufacturer won the championship in 68) I di not relate the history of this panel to Les and wish to advise the owner before it’s lost to future owners. Regards; W. Rattey
Hi
You can contact Fred Ferguson at Palmer Motorsports Park
https://www.palmermotorsportspark.com/
Bill,
An associate of mine owns P1043 now. We would love to hear more of what you know.
Al
Hello Bill, I own 1043. I sent you an email with my contact.
Les Lindley of Anaheim, California owned chassis J-6, that car placed 4th at the 1967 Le Mans. J5 was the winner and is at the Ford Museum.