By Dean Larson

Photos: Sellers, Craigslist and Hillbank Motor Corp.

When asked if you’d rather own a $100,000 dollar car or a $450,000 car, you’d have to have some pretty insane predilections to choose the former. Taking a look at these two Ford GTs, you’d certainly choose to put the 2006 Heritage edition in your garage for its inflated current value and future potential. But what if instead of owning one of the two cars, someone gave you the choice to drive one of the cars for a day. What would you choose then? Ignoring the prospect of temporary status symbols and infinitely improving your game with the ladies, the decision is actually not an easy one. In my opinion, there’s one way to make it easy though. Would you rather stab the pedal on a supercharged 5.4, or an aluminum small-block with Weber carbs and a true bundle-of-snakes exhaust. For a true GT experience, I think I know which one I’d choose.

Don’t get me wrong, the Ford GT is a spectacular car with timeless looks and mechanical excellence in its corner. But the Ford GT isn’t a race car. The GT has comfy seats, a heater and A/C, a stereo system and chunky interior parts.

With a Eaton 2300 supercharger bolted on, a dry-sump system, forged rotating assembly and four valves per cylinder, the aluminum Modular engine is no slouch, and makes a solid 550 hp. The supercharged mill can propel the GT to 60 mph in roughly 3.5 seconds and on to 205 mph flat out. But you don’t really get to enjoy things like that in most driving situations. To get the most out of the GT’s mechanicals, you’d have to rent yourself some track time, and again, you’d find that the GT isn’t really a race car.

Surely by now I’ve lost most of you, but hopefully not before giving the replica a real chance. Dressed in unmistakable Gulf trim with black BRM wheels, you can’t say the GT40 gives up anything in the looks category. And the Superformance replica is executed so accurately, that it could pass for the real thing in many settings. The car is also stamped with genuine GT40 chassis number, meaning it’s about as close as you can get to the original without a pricey custom build.

Now it sounds like we're talking dollars and sense here, but that says that the driving experience is authentic GT40. It means you’ll feel more like Dan Gurney behind the wheel of this machine than the ’06 — and not just because it has a Gurney bubble and the Heritage edition doesn’t. Did Gurney himself and Phil Remington sign the ’06? Nope, but they did sign the replica. How’s that for heritage?

All those things aside, I’d argue the GT40 replica is more exhilarating per mph and rpm than the GT. Now maybe that’s a preference, because I’m in it for the experience rather than setting lap times, but I think the argument holds. It’s a moot point in our example, but I’d also point out that you can drive the replica on the street without having to get a whole new insurance policy, but I digress.

Do you, or someone you know who owns a GT disagree with me? Then be sure to rant about it in the comments below.

Check out the 2006 Ford GT here on Craigslist, and the Superformance Ford GT here on eBay.

**The 2006 Ford GT has since been lowered to a more sensible $429,980.**