Carroll Shelby’s idea was simple in the way that most transformative ideas are simple: take a light British sports car body, remove its inadequate engine, and install an American V8 of sufficient dimensions to make the result deeply alarming. The AC Ace weighed approximately 2,100 pounds. The Ford 427 cubic inch side-oiler V8 produced around 485 horsepower. The arithmetic of this combination — a power-to-weight ratio that embarrassed Ferrari and Corvette simultaneously — produced a car that was genuinely dangerous to drive and genuinely faster than almost anything else on a straight road in 1965.

Thirty-six cars were built. Every one of them is accounted for. Every one of them has a documented racing history, a chain of ownership that collectors and lawyers have traced with forensic precision, and a market value that has periodically set the record for the most expensive automobile ever sold at auction. The 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO is the car around which the collector market has constructed its most elaborate mythology, and the car whose actual driving experience most owners are too cautious about resale implications to describe honestly.