: :
: All of these cars were used as what they were built for back in the
: day. Looking at pictures of the cars racing in period at events
: like the Tour de France you will see alot of completely thrashed
: cars! There are almost no original body panels on any of these
: cars. Secure and uncontested ownership of the chassis # is what
: cost the new owner about 34 million dollars. This is a terrible
: thought for sure but you can park a GTO on an active railroad
: track and cut out the chassis stampings, etc., walk away and not
: lose that much as long as you have those chassis stampings and
: tags. Make another one!

Not all 39 GTOs have been used in the way their maker intended - and for that matter the factory discarded them as soon as they were no longer competitive - very few are raced and very few have been smashed up or messed with. Octane magazine in the UK ran an article on restoring a GTO and the restoration people found most (if not all?) of the original bodywork underneath the paint. One common replacement is the engine, I believe Nick Mason's car has a tuned up engine from a 250 road car, with the engines worth so much money it's very sensible to stick the original engine in storage. One thing Mason found with his car was that it's been getting progressively slower at the Goodwood Revival as the E-Types, Cobras etc are developed to make more power. Since the racing is no longer representative of what it was in the day there's no real point anyone racing their GTO (or SWB or any other 250) anymore although Mason still does.