Santa's Other Ride: The Extraordinary Story of the 2005 Ford GT
By Will Davis Studios
Every Christmas, Santa gets all the credit.
The sleigh. The reindeer. The impossible physics of a single night covering seven continents. We hear about it constantly, and fair enough — it's an impressive operation. But nobody ever asks what Santa keeps in the garage for the other 364 days of the year.
We have a theory. And it is competition yellow with black racing stripes.
Born From a Legend
To understand why the 2005 Ford GT is one of the most emotionally significant automobiles ever built in America, you have to go back almost forty years — to the sun-baked asphalt of Le Mans, France, in June of 1966.
Ford Motor Company had attempted to purchase Ferrari in 1963. Enzo Ferrari walked away from the deal at the last moment, reportedly insulting Henry Ford II personally in the process. Ford II's response was perhaps the most expensive act of corporate revenge in automotive history — he authorized a full factory racing program with a single objective: go to Le Mans and beat Ferrari. Decisively. Publicly. Memorably.
What followed was the GT40 program — four years of development, enormous expenditure, and fierce competition that produced one of the greatest racing cars ever built. In 1966, Ford GT40s finished first, second, and third at Le Mans. They did it again in 1967, 1968, and 1969.
Ferrari didn't win Le Mans again until 2023.
The GT40 didn't just beat Ferrari. It dismantled them, systematically, in front of the entire world, on the most famous racing circuit on earth. And then it did it three more times just to be thorough.
The Long Wait
For thirty-five years after the GT40 program ended, the car existed primarily as legend — as poster fodder, as the subject of breathless magazine retrospectives, as the answer to "what is the greatest American racing car ever built" in every automotive pub quiz from Detroit to Dubai.
And then, in 2002, Ford did something extraordinary.
They announced they were building it again.
Not a tribute. Not an homage. Not a "spiritually inspired by" marketing exercise. A real, mid-engine, supercharged supercar directly descended from the Le Mans winner, built to celebrate Ford's centennial and to remind the world exactly what this company was capable of when it decided to get serious.
The automotive world lost its collective mind.
The Car Itself
The 2005 Ford GT was, by any measure, a genuine supercar. Under that swooping, aerodynamically sculpted body — so clearly descended from the GT40 that the family resemblance was unmistakable — sat a supercharged 5.4-liter V8 engine producing 550 horsepower. Zero to sixty in 3.3 seconds. A top speed north of 205 miles per hour.
And it was built in America. In Wixom, Michigan. By Ford.
The interior was as dramatic as the exterior — a narrow, purposeful cockpit with the driver and passenger sitting low and close together exactly as in the original GT40, with the massive transmission tunnel between them and the flying buttress roofline overhead. Every surface, every detail, every line of the car was a conversation between the present and 1966.
The competition yellow with black racing stripes variant — exactly as depicted in this card — was one of the most visually arresting color combinations available, a direct echo of the Gulf Oil livery cars that had become so iconic in the late 1960s racing scene. On the road, in a parking lot, or in a snowy Christmas scene with Santa on the rooftop, it is simply impossible to look away from.
Ford built approximately 4,038 examples of the first-generation modern GT between 2004 and 2006. They sold for around $150,000 new. Today, well-preserved examples regularly change hands for $300,000 to $500,000 or more at auction — a reflection of just how clearly the market understands what this car represents.
Ford vs. Ferrari — The Movie, The Myth, The Legacy
The 2019 film Ford v Ferrari — starring Matt Damon and Christian Bale — introduced the story of the GT40 program to an entirely new generation, and the result was entirely predictable. A new wave of GT40 obsession swept through automotive culture, auction prices for original GT40s went completely vertical, and a generation of younger enthusiasts discovered for the first time just how extraordinary this chapter of American racing history truly was.
The 2005 GT sits at the exact center of that legacy — the bridge between the Le Mans legend and the present day, the proof that the story wasn't over, the car that said "we remember what we did, and we haven't forgotten how."
The Card
Our 2005 Ford GT Christmas greeting card captures all of that heritage and passion in a single magnificent image — the competition yellow GT gleaming under a snowy Christmas sky, painted in rich, warm, almost impressionistic style that gives the whole scene the quality of a cherished memory.
Santa is on the rooftop of the snow-covered log cabin in the background, reindeer at the ready. A glittering Christmas tree sparkles with warm golden light. A lush garland of evergreen, red bows, pine cones, and twinkling lights frames the entire scene like the world's most festive winner's podium.
And in the foreground, silent and magnificent in the snow — the GT. Exactly where it belongs.
This is the card for the Ford GT faithful. For the Le Mans devotees. For the people who still feel something profound when they hear a supercharged V8 at full song. For everyone who knows that some cars aren't just transportation — they are living history, rolling proof that extraordinary things are possible when someone decides to stop compromising and simply build the best thing they can imagine.
Merry Christmas to all of them. You know who you are.
The 2005 Ford GT Christmas Greeting Card is available as a 5×7 fine art card at willdavisstudios.com — blank inside for your personal message, printed on premium matte card stock, with envelope included.
