Reportedly Ford is building a pilot run of 50 - GT-500s, starting today, Monday January 23, 2005. Possibly someone who works @ AAI can confirm this. The pilot run is usually cars for testing, EPA mileage, DOT crash, durability etc. Some of the pilot cars are usually loaned to the media so the car rags can have articles out at the same time that the car goes into full production. As a reference, 300 - 2005 MY Mustangs were built in June 2004 for those very purposes.
Pilot runs are done for final shake down of assembly processes, quality issues, and general development. But after the Barret-Jackson incedent I doubt that I'll be able to afford one of these.
Carol Shelby himself was the lucky $600K winner - it all went to his charity after all. (and he'll just end up selling it once again ... later on)
Somebody posted on TMS that they were at AAI today and saw GT-500s on the assembly line. Was told they are only building 10 of them.
I figured it was either Shelby, a very high-up ford exec, or even ford itself. It's a charity donation (everything above the actual value is deductible), and it creates a buzz for the product to get a number that high. Pure marketing exercise.
