John Cena GT
It must be sad to hear an auction house refer to a Ford GT as the “infamous” John Cena GT. Sigh. But tonight in Monterey, California the Russo and Steele Car Auction sold the John Cena GT. The 2017 Ford GT is touted as being the first “unencumbered” sale of the Ford GT.
History of the GT
The 2017 model of the Ford GT is actually the third version of the Ford supercar. The original model was called the Ford GT40 and was produced from 1964-1969 strictly for racing Ford dusted off the design and cranked out the second version from 2005-06 to honor their 100th anniversary. Interestingly in a quirk, Ford had never registered the original trademark and so had to call the second iteration the Ford GT.
Ford GT
When Ford announced the latest version of the GT they limited the production to only 1,000 cars and they required potential buyers to apply for the right to buy the car. The Ford folks vetted the applicants and required them to agree not to sale the car for two years. Since they came out, the GT’s have shown up at various events like this yellow GT. Exactly as Ford intended.
John Cena GT
Enter the pro wrestler John Cena who applied and was approved to buy a Liquid Blue GT. He paid $463,376.50 for the car on September 23, 2017 and promptly sold it to a California reseller a month later. Ford threw down the lawsuits suing both the dealership and John Cena. Cena ultimately settled with Ford by agreeing to pay an undisclosed amount to an undisclosed charity through Ford. He also encouraged all other owners to honor their agreement not to re-sell the cars.
John Cena GT Chapter Two
The John Cena GT was purchased by a California farmer (I’m not making this up). He cranked up the odometer to 625 miles before deciding his back was not conducive to the GT supercar. So now Russo and Steele had the chance to auction this car. Ironically the same dealership that Cena sold the GT to is representing the elderly farmer in this auction transaction!
John Cena GT at Monterey
The car auctions held during the week before the Pebble Beach Concours extravaganza mark the end of the “season”. Sure there will be more auctions for the balance of the year, but this week of auctions represents the other bookend to the start up of the classic car season that kicks off in January in Arizona. Russo and Steele is a big player in this arena and brought out plenty of potential bidders.
John Cena GT Sells
After some spirited bellowing by the auctioneers, the John Cena GT sold with a hammered price of $1,400,000 plus commission. Perhaps with that price it will lose the tag of being “infamous”?
Photos courtesy of Russo and Steele