Emelia Hartford, a car builder and an actress currently appearing in the film “Gran Turismo,” who is based in the Los Angeles area, on her Cape Advanced Vehicles Ford GT40 replica, as told to A.J. Baime.

I lost my dad when I was young, so I didn’t have that fatherly figure to help me figure out what to buy as my first car. I bought an Infiniti G35 with a manual transmission. I didn’t even know how to drive stick, so I pretty much roasted the clutch getting the car home.