The Iconic Ford GT Paint Job You'll Never See Again
The Ford GT is arguably the most distinguished vehicle produced by the Michigan-based manufacturer, and it turns out there's a way to make the supercar stand out a bit more. You can pay Ford a little extra and get your hands on a one-off paint job. However, in this situation, a little extra means the kind of six-figure sum that could almost net you a supercar on its own.
That's what second generation Ford GT buyer Justin Choi splashed out $100,000 on when he received his GT in 2020. Choi's pride and joy sports a Mystichrome paint job. It initially appears blue, but that color shifts with the light thanks to tiny synthetic flakes that are mixed into the paint. The flakes reflect light like a prism, which causes the shift in color.
While this is the first and only time the paint will appear on a GT, it's not the first time it's adorned a Ford performance car. Mystichrome was an option on the 2004 model-year SVT Mustang Cobra but was relegated to the Ford vault shortly afterwards. The name refers to the colors you can see on chrome exhaust headers when they get hot enough — including blue, green, gold, and purple. The manufacturer had to retrieve the color from the archives, and create a new color-level in its system so it could be locked out for future purchases.
It is just locked out on the GT, and not any other Ford. So your dreams of a Mystichrome Ford Edge need not be shattered, even if it will still take a lot of convincing before you get Ford to do that particular job.
A basic Ford GT isn't easy to get
Paintwork aside, Ford's premier supercar isn't easy to get on its own. Supplies are purposely limited by Ford in order to maintain a degree of exclusivity. Reselling clauses tend to be written into the sales contract and strictly enforced too, so you're unlikely to snag a brand new GT on the second hand market. Choi's second generation Ford GT is one of only 1,350. A few other cars from the run also have unique paint jobs, though many buyers were seemingly content with something from the standard palette.
Like many high-end vehicles with limited production, you have to prove you're the right kind of person before Ford will sell you one. The exact criteria is never published, but is understood to be broadly similar to the process used by the likes of Ferrari and Aston Martin.
Are you a loyal and long standing Ford customer? Have you shown a lot of enthusiasm from the brand? Have you attended events hosted by the company for the high-end of its customer base? Have you avoided doing anything to annoy Ford? Can you actually afford a GT? Well put an application in on the dedicated website Ford has for GT applications, and you're in with a shot of getting the chance to buy one.
Just don't try to flip it, like WWE Superstar John Cena did a month after receiving his GT in 2017. When word got out, Ford sued Cena and the whole situation ended with the wrestling superstar publicly apologizing and donating a large sum to charity.
One-off cars and features aren't unique to Ford
This type of agreement isn't entirely unheard of in the upper echelons of the luxury automotive world. For example, people who drop upwards of $20 million on a coachbuild Rolls Royce can rest assured that an identical vehicle will never roll off the factory floor in Goodwood. They aren't just purchasing an ultra-high end vehicle, they're purchasing something that no one else will ever have.
Usually if you're spending millions of dollars padding out your car collection, you'll have the kind of bank balance that would keep a small country afloat for several years. So will your friends. When money is no object for you and the others around you, you need another way to get the kind of thing absolutely no one else can have. This usually involves large sums of money and contractual agreements with automakers.
As for Ford's paint job, the exact contract details aren't available but it's safe to assume that Ford will be legally bound not to make that exact paint again and will probably avoid making anything extremely similar. Lawsuits aside, there's a degree of customer that manufacturers want to avoid upsetting — and the ones who splash out enough on a cosmetic feature to justify altering your manufacturing process are certainly in that bracket.
If you're somehow determined to get your hands on a Mystichrome GT, then it may be possible to have a third party reproduce the color and slap it on a vehicle you own. After all, Ford has no control over that and can't go as far as to make a color illegal. Still, as far as your chances of snagging one of the limited-edition supercars from the factory in that color go, it looks like you're out of luck.