Peter Volny, 74, a retired advertising executive living in Fountain Hills, Ariz., on his 2006 Ford GT, as told to A.J. Baime.
I grew up in Australia, a car fan from an early age, and around the time I started driving, America was producing fabulous cars—a lot of muscle cars and such. My dream was to come to America because of this. It took me a long time to get here. I lived in England and in Canada, and my wife and I finally moved to the U.S. in 2004.
We chose the Scottsdale area of Arizona because, to me, Scottsdale is Mecca for car fans. I’m not saying there are not larger numbers of beautiful cars in places like L.A., but in the Scottsdale area there seems to be the highest concentration of special cars and car lovers. In 2014, I started a car show called Concours in the Hills, thinking I’d get 100 cars. This year, before the pandemic hit, the show drew 1,052 cars.
Around the time we moved to the U.S., there was a movement among American car makers to redesign iconic models as direct homages to their original 1960s versions. General Motors redid the Camaro to look like the 1960s Camaro, as did Ford with the Mustang. Dodge redesigned the Challenger and Charger to look more like the originals. For me, the new car that was most authentic and true to the original vehicle that inspired it, and the highest performance of all of these cars by far, was the Ford GT, which Ford debuted as a concept car at the Detroit auto show in 2002.
I was there in Detroit when the GT was first unveiled. I wanted one immediately. The car is an homage to the Ford GT40 racing car that won Le Mans from 1966-1969. Ford only made this new GT in model years 2005 and 2006, and for a long time I searched the market for a used one with low mileage.
I found the perfect car in Las Vegas—the color scheme I wanted, and a car without the optional upgraded stereo system, because for me, the sound system is the supercharged 5.4-liter, 550-horsepower V-8 engine that sits right behind the driver’s ears. (The engine sits behind the cockpit in the GT.) This particular car had only 23 miles on it and, to my knowledge, the owner had literally never driven it.
I bought the car in 2009 and have loved it ever since. This is a totally analog car. It has no electronic stability control, no computer screens, no GPS. It has a manual six-speed transmission. It requires concentration to drive. It is so low to the ground, you have to be nimble to get in and out. The doors are designed to open and pull out part of the roof with them. Otherwise you would not be able to get your head low enough to climb inside. And, this car will go over 200 mph.
Since it is an homage to a 1960s race car, it has almost no room for anything but a driver and passenger—not ideal for weekend getaways. I have done numerous short rallies with it, and I take it to local car shows. Sometimes, I wake up early, before anyone is out, and I exercise it. To me this car embodies all the magic that made me fall in love with cars in the first place.
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