The eager fight between the two brands has become legendary over the years and was even a subject of interest from producers in Hollywood, who got inspired and recreated this beautiful story in the movie “Ford vs. Ferrari.” In retrospect, Ford not only won the Le Mans competitions but also won the Manufacturer Championship because of their combined scores during the races and additionally obtained the Sports 50 title with the 289 GT40 because of their street version manufacturing.
Ruffian Cars is a vehicle customization shop based in Southern California, owned and run by one man only, Chris Ashton. Nothing is typical about him and his workshop. Actually, Chris is a videogame developer, and the fact that he works alone and in his spare time, at night and on the weekends, on creating world-class engineering masterpieces is even more impressive. He is well-known in the industry for some other notable builds, such as his widebody 1970 Mustang and Mazda RX7 or his twin-turbo, sequential transmission, sleeper C3 Corvette.
Chris has been working on cars for 30 years and, had been racing for the last 20. Each build he completes gives him more experience and confidence, and every time he starts from scratch, he steps up the challenge. The notorious Ruffian Mustang is the one that left him with the most expertise in designing, planning, and building a car from the ground up. This vehicle was also the one that shaped its workshop name. “Ruffian” was an American thoroughbred horse that won 10 consecutive races from 1972 to 1975 in such a smooth manner that it seemed like child play. This kind of attitude sits at the heart of every one of his creations.
Believe it or not, the Ford GT40 Mark 1 we are talking about was only supposed to undergo a routine engine and transaxle install. Faith made it that this apparently straightforward task transformed into a vast resto-mod project that commanded the new technological advancements in the realms of fabrication. The vehicle has been publicly unveiled at this year’s SEMA show, becoming an esteemed section of Toyo’s Treadpass booth.
The base vehicle is a licensed continuation car made by the guys at Superperformance, not an actual 1960s GT40 racing car. Being a videogame developer, Chirs has hands-on experience with 3D planning procedures. He put his high-tech expertise to good use, using 3D printers to fabricate custom parts after his own schemes or with the help of Kasim Tlibekov, a freelance automotive designer specialized in widebody car styling and the skilled guys at Competition Carbon.
The Ruffian GT40’s appearance is more of an evolution of the Ford racing legend. The …….