Press Release
GT40 Guitars
It is a GT40! World Premiere of the first supercar guitar.
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Logo kit
Download a zip file of GT40 logos in raster and vector formats including .jpg, .png and .ai
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Press Kit-
When did Safir GT40 Spares start producing cars and how many have they made?
Safir GT40 Spares purchased the GT40 company from Safir Engineering. Safir Engineering (original trademark owners of the GT40) produced forty GT40 MarkV cars by the turn of the century and then decided to sell the company. Safir GT40 Spares, located in Ohio decided to purchase the company and licensed production of new GT40 cars to Superformance. Since the year 2000, Safir GT40 Spares is responsible for over 300 new GT40 supercars.
Why would the GT40 brand design a guitar?
The guitar was designed as a limited series commemorative item, recognising 50 years since the iconic GT40 race car made history at Le Mans. The GT40 won at Le Mansin 1966, 1967, 1968 and 1969.
Who designed the guitars?
The concept of the GT40 guitars were designed by Sheldon Ryll from marketing at Safir GT40 Spares Ltd. Sheldon, wanting to produce a commemorative product that would reflect the iconic GT40 cars, designed the guitars with a hood scoop, fenders and roundel pick guard to directly reflect the color, style and numbering of the cars. “When you look at this guitar, you should immediately know – It’s a GT40”
Beyond the conceptual design of the GT40 guitars from Safir, Hoodoo Guitars applied their professional design abilities balancing the GT40 style with the functionality of a world class electric guitar. The end result is the worlds first supercar guitar.
John Sadler, one of three owners of Safir GT40 Spares Ltd, immediately conceived the concept of adding GT40 chassis plates to the guitar, making these guitars unique and directly relating guitars to actual cars. “Our guitars should have chassis plates matching the chassis numbers of the GT40 cars”
For the Victory Series GT40 guitars (currently representing the four winning cars at Le Mans from 1966-1969), it was decided to produce only 100 guitars each of the four cars making this a limited collectors edition. Each guitar will have a metal chassis plate and reflect the coloring and numbering of the winning cars.
Why do the 1968 and 1969 Victory Series guitars look similar?
For the first and only time in Le Mans history, the same car chassis (GT40P/1075) won the 24 hours of Le Mans in both 1968 and 1969. The only difference to the car was the roundel number on the car. In 1968, the roundel reflected number 9 and in 1969, the roundel reflected number 6. For the guitar chassis plates, 100 guitars will be made for:
Victory 1968 - GT40P/1075 - roundel # 6
Victory 1969 - GT40P/1075 - roundel # 9
What makes the GT40 guitars interesting and unique?
Placing a hood insert into a guitar allows the body to also follow the shape of the fenders, therefore giving the guitar a view that looks like the GT40 cars. The GT40 Victory Series guitars were engineered to have a custom bridge mounted inside the hood scoop, therefore having the strings coming from inside the hood scoop. To represent the roundel race numbers, Safir designed the pick guard to have numbers on them. Since the same chassis GT40P/1075 won the 24 hours of Le Mans in both 1968 and 1969, it is important to have the guitars show a number on the pick guard so you can easily see which year the guitar represents”.
Ford builds the GT40
Ford decides to build its own race car after the deal to purchase Ferrari falls apart.
Ford wins with the GT40
The first Le Mans win for the GT40 is in 1966. The GT40 continues to win at Le Mans in 1967, 1968 and 1969.
The GT40 continues to be built in the 80’s
March 6, 1981, The Ford Company Newspaper "Ford News" Volume 20, Issue 5, covered the "graceful and stylish new GT40". This article also confirmed the agreement between JW Engineering, Ford and Safir, to build the GT40 Mark V.
The GT40 trademark
Safir Engineering applied for and received the trademark for GT40 (1985).
Safir GT40 Spares Ltd. purchases GT40
Safir GT40 spares purchased GT40 from Safir Engineering. The complete company is sold including engineering documents, chassis, parts and the trademark.
The GT40 today
Safir GT40 Spares licenses genuine GT40 cars to Superformance which now has produced over 2/3 of all genuine GT40 case and have registry entries with the GT40 World Registry.
Safir marketing designs a guitar to commemorate 50 years of the GT40
Safir marketing designs a concept to produce a limited series of guitars called the "Victory Series" that would be styled and numbered like the GT40 cars that won at Le Mans from 1966-1969. The limited series guitars have chassis plates therefore directly relating to the iconic cars that made racing history.
Safir GT40 REVEALS NEW LINES OF GT40® guitars
As the limited edition Victory Series guitars ended production in 2019, Safir still had customers requested GT40 guitars. Safir GT40 designed multiple guitars to cover the span of different GT40 cars including single inset hoods, double inset hoods and the two evolution series.