It must have been a long, tough two years for the seller of this 2017 Ford GT '66 Heritage Edition. Imagine plunking down around half a million dollars on one of the hottest supercars on the road, watching a race version win at Le Mans, and putting just 30 miles on the GT sitting in your own garage. At the 2019 Barrett-Jackson Las Vegas auction, this virtually brand-new GT Heritage Edition sold to a packed auction room for some $1,540,000—roughly triple what the buyer paid. That's around a million-dollar profit for our seller's agony—before auction fees and capital gains taxes, that is.

When Ford launched its newest GT supercar, it followed in the footsteps of other exclusive marques who sometimes put clauses in their sales contracts limiting the ability of the purchaser to resell the car within a certain time frame. In the case of the GT, Ford restricted all future sales to two years after the purchase date. By doing this, Ford aimed to prevent the purchase of a limited-production GT simply for the purpose of profiting through resale. This is nothing new; Ferrari did something similar with the LaFerrari, for example.

What happens if you attempt to break the rules and resell your GT early? There were a couple high-profile lawsuits initiated by Ford, one involving pro wrestler John Cena that was settled and another for a car sold at Mecum auctions, also settled. The exact details of both settlements are sealed.

Strong as the sales price is, it didn't set a new record price for the model at auction. Technically, that honor belongs to the sale of the first 2019 Ford GT Heritage Edition sold at Barrett-Jackson's Scottsdale auction in January 2019 for $2.5 million (though with proceeds going to charity, that car's price was artificially inflated). Other auction sales we know of include the ex-John Cena car which sold at Russo and Steele during its 2018 Monterey auction for $1.435 million and the previously mentioned car that sold at Mecum's 2018 Indianapolis auction for $1.8 million.

With this 2017 Ford GT '66 Heritage Edition being the first legally offered preowned GT to be sold at auction, we get a first indication of what the market looks like. Our well-optioned subject car not only has the '66 Heritage Edition trim (available only for 2017 to commemorate the 1966 Le Mans-winning GT40; 2018 saw a '67 Edition released) but also has ultra-low mileage, so we'd guess this is about the top of the market for now. Values have likely been hampered somewhat by Ford's decision to expand GT production from the originally stated 500 cars to a total of 1,350.

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The 2017 Ford GT was the top-selling car at the 2019 Barrett-Jackson Las Vegas auction, which featured a rare 100-percent no-reserve inventory. Runners up to the Ford, like in Le Mans races past, were two Ferraris: a 2019 488 Spider at $368,500 and a 2013 458 Spider at $330,000. The fourth and fifth spots were taken by two previous-generation Ford GTs, a 2005 and 2006 model, at $324,500 each. Barrett-Jackson sold 677 vehicles in total for some $33.3 million.

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