It’s not often that we encounter a car we’ve never seen before, but the Classic Driver Market is full of surprises. This 2005 Ford GTX1 may look like a regular Ford GT at first glance, but step closer and you’ll notice that this isn’t a coupe like all the rest. Built as a tribute to the open-top Ford GT40 X1 of the 1960s, this is one of four “SEMA Edition” vehicles, which were all commissioned by a single collector: Hamad Alkaz. 

The four cars were built by the Genaddi Design Group, who constructed the original Ford GTX1 SEMA show car at the request of Ford Engineering and Design Supervisor, Kip Ewing. “This has been my night project, off the radar, carried out in my own time,” said Ewing in reference to the GTX1, very much in-keeping with the skunk-works nature of the original Ford GT40’s inception. While built as a show car, the GTX1 was constructed to a similar level of quality that you’d expect from a production car. In fact, while testing the GTX1, Car and Driver remarked that there was “no creaking, no windshield glass moving, no cowl shake”; a testament to the quality of the Genaddi Design Group’s engineering. 

All four of the subsequent “SEMA Edition” GTX1s were built in exactly the same spec as the show car, finished in Valencia Yellow with Titanium stripes. GTX1s also received upgraded Sparco seats and a carbon fibre aero package with side skirts, a splitter, and a diffuser. However, the GTX1 wasn’t just an aesthetic upgrade: nestled behind the cockpit was a modified 5.4-litre supercharged V8 pushing out a whopping 700 horsepower. Of course, the GTX1’s true party piece is its targa top, which offered two configurations for open-top driving. With the roof panels removed, the centre bar could be left in for a ’T-top’ or also removed for a true targa experience. So if you fancy an ultra rare targa variant of one of the 2000s most iconic supercars, be sure to check out the Broad Arrow Auctions West Palm Beach sale on November 19th.