As any Ford Lover will tell you the Ford GT40 captures the attention and wins hearts like no other. In the past when Ford was faced with negative press…think Pinto or Explorer tires… they could of made replica GT-40s that would instantly over-shadowed all problems. Look at the clamor over the Ford GT.  It was not name the GT40 as they somehow forgot to keep the copyright on the name….they just built them, raced them, and forgot them.

Luckily one company did not forget them and CAV out of Cape Town South Africa has been making replicas for a number of years using a Stainless Steel Monocoque frame with a 1965 Ford GT40 Body made from vinylester fiberglass.  Vinylester is stronger and more stable than conventional polyester resin.

Local Dwain Kremyr, carnut and race car fabricator/drag racer always wanted a Ford GT 40 and in his business he got to work on many tribute cars including numerous Shelby 427 Cobras and Daytona Coupes. Always bringing his own special talents to the task designing and fabricating many
suspension components in his shop, Kremyr Racing, in Cloverdale.

Family projects have included his wife’s 1966 Mustang Shelby clone (she’s owned the car since 1973), and a 1970 Cougar Eliminator he built with his son. Kremyr’s talents are legendary in the racing industry, including his own 1957 T-bird which was very well known and competitive in D/A Comp until the Mission dragstrip closed in 1978. A couple of other stellar projects include Dave Richardson’s 1972
Ford Capri that finished no.7 Super Gas in the World in 1992 and Joe Delehay’s first 1972 Chevy truck that ran as a Pro Mod in the high 6 seconds.

After the track closed and building race cars tapered off Kremyr went to work welding  and fabricating helicopters and  aircraft fir the airlines for 23 years and also built cars on the side.

Building a totally custom 1964 Daytona Coupe for a customer and winning an award at the 2008 Sema Show from Mothers Wax and Polish. One of his favourites was a 1965 AC Cobra Custom 4130 chrome moly tube chassis car for Vern and Fred Welsh. This car featured many custom pieces designed and fabricated by Kremyr and more knowledge was gained for his own project.

His brother was at the 24 Hours of Le Mans race in France in the summer of 2007 and brought him home lots of memorabilia, including a stack of brochures on the CAV GT40 out of South Africa. That was it – the seed was planted! He was like a dog with a bone – and nobody was going to deny him the opportunity.

The importing of the CAV Ford GT40 chassis was not an easy task. It took 1-½ years to get MOT to allow the car into Canada and after all the hassle Kremyr became the Canadian Dealer for the CAV GT40s (check out cavgt.ca). Purchasing the car in January 2009, it took him a year just to develop and build the
suspension and custom uprights. Fabricating patterns in-house for the parts needed, they were then cast and brought back for machining in-house.

The car’s stainless steel chassis has some custom touches done by Kremyr and the suspension is all Custom. The front is double wish bone built from 4130 tubing. While the rear is a 4 link independent rear suspension. Rod ends are aircraft quality throughout the car as are all the fasteners. Both
front and rear uprights are custom built in house as are many other parts which are too many to list.

The shocks are Penske 8300 series coil-overs, spring rates are 550# front and 750#rear, custom built for the car by Chris Billings at The Shock Shop in Oregon.  Custom braking system using 14in. full floating rotors, Brembo 6 piston billet Calipers and the Power Brake Corp. electric power brake system are more than adequate.

Powered by a 363 ci. small block Ford Built by Ken Orser. It has a Dart 302 block, Scat 3.4 stroke crank and rods, 10.2 compression Sealed Power pistons. It is topped with a TWM 8 stack EFI System wired by Dave Hartnell and tuned by Bill Bowering @ Indy Speed. Complete Stainless Steel exhaust system with 180 degree headers.

Harnessing all this power is a 5sp. ZF Replica Transaxle made by Quaife Engineering in England. To keep true to the spirit of the GT 40 the interior is trimmed in black leather on custom made seats including all
the cooling grommets. Black wool carpets are a luxurious departure from the Spartan racecar as is heavily soundproofed custom firewall to keep the interior quiet and safe from the motor just inches away. That being said, the custom sound system comes from the 363 ci. Ford engine and 180 degree
exhaust.

The custom wheels are 3 piece, using centers made from Billet by TCS using Kremyr Designs. The inner and outer halves are from BBS. The fronts are 10×17 with 255Kuhmo tires and the rears are 13.5x 17 335 Kuhmo’s.

Wanting to stand out from the standard red or Gulf colours the paint is a Lamborghini Tangerine tri-colour, picked in memory of Dave Smith whose golf cart got painted that colour just to see how it would look. Painted by Mike Ballendyne at Jaspers Custom Body and Paint in Langley it won Best Paint at the Vancouver Collector & Custom Car Show in Vancouver in June 2013.

The car was finished September 2011 and was just shy time-wise of being accepted as an entrant into the 2012 Carmel by the Sea Concours on the Avenue in Carmel California. It was on display in the Shelby owners group display at Laguna Seca raceway during the Montery Historic races in 2012.

The car drives amazingly well and is well mannered when in polite traffic but can become the monster it was designed to be when appropriate. It has only been driven under 1000 miles due mainly to Kremyr’s business taking up most of his time.

If you have the opportunity to see this striking GT40 up close and personal, you’ll see what an amazing craftsman Kremyr is. Now he’s looking forward to re-restoring his ’57 T-Bird, and building out his ’63 Falcon Ranchero for a shop truck. You know they’ll be done with the love and attention to detail that he is renowned for.