Go, Speed Racer

TV star and competitive race car driver Patrick Dempsey blasts through his home state in Ford's flashy new $150,000 GT

After shooting wrapped for the first season of Grey's Anatomy, I needed to take a break and recharge. A couple of ways for me to do that are by visiting my family farm in Maine, where I always feel most relaxed and by racing high–performance cars on road courses. So I jumped at the chance to combine the two by driving Ford's limited edition GT, a new version of the car that Henry Ford II built in 1964 to challenge Ferrari's dominance at Le Mans. As I took this flashy race car around the winding roads of my boyhood Maine over a couple of late spring days, I'll wager the GT attracted as much attention as it did in its debut, when it stole the Le Mans prize from Ferrari.

Day One, 84 miles: South Harpswell to Camden
For the past few years, my mother and I have been lovingly restoring an 1830s farmhouse on the coast of Maine. On this trip, I only had a chance to take stock of the most recent improvements before I gave in to the desire to get into the car. I pulled out of the driveway and the adventure began.

Right from the beginning, people's expressions spoke volumes. They were like, "What is that car?" It's not something you typically see in Maine, or anywhere, quite honestly—only about 1,500 GTs are made each year.

As I drove north on Route 1, rain started coming down, and I hit a bit of traffic in Bath, the home of the Kennebec Company, maker of beautiful kitchen cabinets and other woodwork. Nearby are wonderful antiques stores as well as a barbershop that still gives shaves with a blade and has a bunch of old men sitting around in old chairs, talking about politics, the weather, and everything.

Next up on Route 1 was Wiscasset, nicknamed The Prettiest Little Town in Maine. This area was long known for shipbuilding. Most of that industry is gone now—it reached its peak before the Civil War, in the early 1800s—but what's left is a glorious small town that's all original architecture with little modern development. Thing is, Route 1 runs right through town, crossing a two–lane bridge at one point. In summer, because of the traffic, it can take an hour to get across the bridge. A lot of locals would like to see a bypass built, but many businesses have been fighting it. This has been a big conflict since I was a boy. For now, town officials have thrown up their hands and said, "Forget about it. We're just going to keep it as it is."

I entered Camden, where scenes from In the Bedroom where shot. I'm envious of the film's director: Not only does he have the good fortune to live there full–time, but he was also based there to shoot his movie. The best of both worlds. Camden has one of the finest sailing harbors in the state if not on the whole Eastern Seaboard. I turned onto a dirt road to get to the Inn at Sunrise Point, where I was shown to the Winslow Homer Cottage. Once settled, I looked out my window toward a narrow stream that ran down to the ocean. All of a sudden it seemed quite romantic—I was sad that I had come alone.