Dave, you sure are cocky for a guy who DOESN'T have his facts straight.
Here's my source, complete and documented. $40 million not a ripoff? Yeah,
whatever?
Now let's see your source!
Ford forced to rename GT40 sports car
By K.C. Crain
Automotive News Europe / November 04, 2002
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Bob Wood, an owner of the company that controls the rights to the GT 40
name, says he wanted Ford's new sports car to wear the GT40 badge. But Ford
and Wood's company, Safir GT40 Spares Ltd., couldn't agree on a price.
PHOTO: JIM CALLOWAY
Ford has failed in its bid to revive a famous automotive title: the GT40.
The reason? The company found out it doesn't own the rights to the name of
the short-lived but legendary sports car that dominated Le Mans in the
1960s.
So after unveiling a Ford GT40 concept car at the Detroit auto show in
January and announcing in February it would build the GT40, Ford last month
quietly changed the name to the Ford GT.
It seems in the 1960s, nobody at Ford bothered to register the GT40
trademark. When the current owner initially demanded $40 million (E40.4
million) for permanent rights, cost-conscious Ford decided to drop the "40"
rather than pay.
"We wanted the [new] car to be called the Ford GT40," says Bob Wood,
part-owner of Safir GT40 Spares of Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, which bought the
GT40 name in 1999. The company sells replacement parts for the 160 Ford
GT40s built through 1969.
"Ford was unwilling to negotiate and wouldn't make an offer," Wood said. A
Ford spokesman said only the two sides failed to reach agreement.
Ford plans to build three copies of the sports car in late 2003 to
commemorate the automaker's
1-2-3 finish at the 1966 24 Hours of LeMans as part of Ford's 100th
anniversary celebration.
Ford said it would build about 1,000 GTs annually starting in 2004, at
"substantially less" than $150,000 each.
Ford had negotiated limited rights to the GT40 name from Safir GT40 Spares
for the concept car, and assumed a long-term name deal would follow.
Preparing for its marketing effort, Ford had filed a dozen applications with
the US Patent and Trademark Office to use the GT40 name on a wide variety of
items, including clothing, luggage, jewelry and even can openers.
But that was abandoned after Safir's $40 million demand - a figure confirmed
by Ford and Wood.
Ford's trademark problem actually began in 1985, when Safir Engineering of
Surrey, England, acquired the rights to the GT40 name to set its vehicles
apart from other GT40 replicas.
Safir Engineering produced copies of the GT40 in the 1980s and 1990s, before
closing and transferring name rights to Safir GT40 Spares.
Said Ford spokesman Dan Bedore: "In the end, Ford decided to go a different
route, and we think it worked out very well for both parties."
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