Git yer order in now! The Retro-Cool V8 Powered SP40 Restomod.

 

Edsel Ford’s affinity with sports cars and racing peaked with the creation of a unique personal car, the Model 40 Special Speedster. Designed by E.T. “Bob” Gregorie, Ford’s first designer, it had an aluminium “speedster” body (low windshield, no roof) design and Ford’s new Flathead V8 for power. After Edsel Ford’s passing in 1943, the Model 40 Special Speedster passed through several hands, was painted red, given a new engine at one point, and eventually rediscovered by Will Warner, the founder of the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance. The car was fully restored, returned to the original gunmetal paint job and Flathead V8 engine, and auctioned off in 2010 by RM Auctions with a hammer price of USD 1,76 million. Today, it resides in The Ford House’scollection in Grosse Pointe Shores, Michigan, which happens to be Edsel Ford’s old house.

Iconic Auto Sports is a small-scale restoration specialist and manufacturer of hand-crafted recreation cars founded by Arturo Arrebillaga and Francisco Orden. Based in San Isidro, Argentina, near Buenos Aires, the company is known for top-of-the-line recreations of several iconic classic cars.

In 2018, they brought something really special, a one-to-one recreation of the original 1934 Edsel Ford Model 40 Special Speedster, taking home the trophy yet again. This sparked the idea of taking the company and their work to the next level, using the Model 40 Special Speedster as a stepping stone, yet reimagining it in a slightly more modern style. The result of all that is what you see here: the SP40 Restomod.

The SP40 is built upon a tubular steel space frame chassis with a carbon fibre body. It replicates the lines of the Model 40 Special Speedster, almost down to the letter, but takes a few creative and sometimes essential liberties here and there. The wheels are bigger, it has LED headlights (obviously), and the interior is vastly more modern than the original could ever have been.

The lineage is very obvious. The stretched-out profile, the vertical and horizontal front grille, the cycle fenders over the wheels, the louvres in the engine cover, the speedster windshield, the boattail rear section- it’s all there. Yet at the same time, it feels much more modern, sort of like a weird glitch in the loop of time.  All the lines and elements are a little more enhanced, but very respectful to the original

Underneath that very long, straight hood is a 5.0-litre Ford Coyote V8, producing about 480 horsepower. Paired with a dry weight of just under 1,200 kilos and the fact that it sends all the power to the rear wheels through a 5-speed manual transmission and a limited-slip differential, the SP40 is quite a potent machine!

Iconic Auto Sports states only 40 will be built, at a starting price of USD 500,000.