Strolling Through Ford GT Heaven at Concours and Coffee's Latest Event
This private event mobbed the Marconi Automotive Museum with all three “generations” of Ford’s revered sports car.
Ford GT enthusiasts are an interesting lot. Generally, they’re sort of a mix of hardcore fans of the brand and more generic lovers of exotic cars. Only half of them would be caught dead in a Mustang, but all of them have a deep reverence for what Ford accomplished with the GT40 and the street cars inspired by those race cars.
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We got this broad impression after we spent a morning with 30-plus GT and GT40 owners at the Marconi Automotive Museum in Tustin, California, for Concours and Coffee’s Ford GT event. The private, invite-only shindig is the brainchild of organizers William Laporte and Michael Dirr, who created the C and C brand to cater to high-end enthusiasts with curated experiences.
The organizers reached out to us in advance of their second GT affair, and having never been, we said of course we’d come check it out. The event was everything you’d expect from a gathering of race cars and cars that look like they could race—which is to say, breathtaking everywhere you turned.
Let’s begin with the Ruffian Cars GT40—just as stunning now as it was when we featured it in 2022. Owned and built by Ruffian head Chris Ashton, this thing draws you in with its custom carbon-fiber-infused body, wild 3D-printed headlights, wide Signature Three centerlock wheels shod with Toyo Proxes R888Rs, and Toyota Cavalry Blue paint. It only gets crazier from there.
Ruffian rolled deep to the event. It also brought out its 1964 Galaxie 500 and 1967 FIA Mustang Ford project cars, both as immaculate as the GT40.
The main show area was bookended by two special three-car sections. On the far end was a special red, white, and blue selection of first-gen GTs representing America’s colors.
