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straight line speed is not the measuring stick for this car.
Agree, but that also applies to the 720 and NSX. Hence why I think it's disappointing the acceleration numbers are comparable to the F1 which came out 25 years ago.
Originally Posted by Costco
That's why it's still one of my favorite cars ever, possibly my one true dream car. There's nothing else like it anymore, and there never will be.
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Saw a F1 LM at Amelia Concours this year, yeah F1's are very special
straight line speed is not the measuring stick for this car.
Sure it is.
Of 500 being built, I'm willing to bet less than 15 will ever see a track. So what do you measure them for? Price tag? It's over priced by about 2 to 3 times. Looks? Sure. Looks sexy like all super cars. Limited production? Meh, nothing new there. Actually, it's a shame more than anything. So how do you measure it?
The F150 does it's torque limiting via throttle plate restriction. You don't get 100% WOT in 1st or 2nd gear, according to what I've read on the F150Forum.
The Explorer sport is like that as well. You can feel 2nd has more pull than 1st and the rush/pull you get in 3rd is a lot more than 1st. A simple tune really helps to eliminate Fords TQ management, especially in 1st and 2nd and really wakes the vehicle up.
Yeah I can see on the FoST and even the FoRS (don't those cars have diff/trans issues....as well?) but on a 500k supercar? Limiting power to the first two gears? Are they overpowering their driveline I wonder and the power limit is to save/elongate life for the trans/driveshaft hard ware?.....
And at over 500lbs+ heavier too.
Let's see how it does on the track. I haven't followed the Ford GT for a while so not sure if magazines have gotten hot laps yet into tracks....but let's see it's times. IIRC, when the Ford GT is being released there was (maybe still is) a notorious lack of actual numbers from tracks....some speculated it's not as fast as much cheaper super-sportscars......
Yea, I'm eager to see how it does on a track. The likes of 488GTB and McLaren 720S aren't exactly slow on the track though. And in the case of the 488GTB, that's just a "regular" model too, not one of their challenge, stradale, etc.
Also, there are cars like the AMG GT R and Huracan Performante that are also very capable on the track. 7:10 and 6:52 respectively on Nurburgring.
Will have to keep an eye out. Right now, Livernois is probably at the top. Doesn't sound like many of the mainline tuners do datalogged tunes & the majority are just canned/OTS tunes.
Is the Ford GT meant to be a road car?
Well… Ford claims the GT was developed as a racer as much as a road car. And to be fair to them, it’s one of the very few cars where that claim rings true. On British roads this does actually feel like a racer – which is both a good thing and a bad thing.
What are the vital pub boasts?
Full carbon tub, fixed seating position with a pedal box that slides to find your feet and a body that’s designed to be aero-efficient as well as delivering downforce.
It’s mid-engine, rear-drive with a seven-speed twin clutch transmission and a 3.5-litre V6 twin-turbo engine developing 647bhp at 6,250rpm and 550lb ft at 5,900rpm.
There are inboard dampers, carbon brakes, a 50mm-lower, ground-scraping Track Mode, 0-60mph takes three seconds flat, the top speed is 216mph, the dry weight is 1385kg and the boot measure a ‘generous’ 11 litres. Sounds like a race car, doesn’t it?
Certainly not a lot of space for luggage.
No, and if you do put anything in the small compartment aft of the engine, it had better not be butter. Or possibly even a laptop. Things melt in there.
But then I expect it was fairly far down the list of priorities. The mission for the Ford GT was framed by a desire to win Le Mans. So the aero package was the number one priority, and that led to the fixed seating position and the oft-criticised V6 Ecoboost motor.
Does it look that wild in the real world?
It looks way, way madder. You can’t believe how low it is, how big those air channels are, how the cockpit tapers… you end up just walking around it, being bewildered by the thing.
And yes, getting in and out of Track mode is funny because it pops up and down so fast, but you don’t actually use it that often. You do use nose lift a lot though, and that’s almost equally amusing, with a similarly dramatic pop up from the hydraulics. McLaren’s system takes about 15 seconds to do the business. This is way more efficient.
And how about the cabin?
It’s a racing car. There’s a lot of bare carbon and little attempt at providing creature comforts or luxury touches. It does have a reversing camera and air con, but don’t go looking for surprise and delight features. Crisp functionality is what the Ford does best – the operation of the thumb wheels on the steering is a particular highlight.
I wish the same could be said for the seats. For a car of this attitude and focus, they’re too soft and lacking in support. I’m guessing they had to be like this to, ahem, accommodate the typical buyer, and yes, you can have full harnesses to lock you in place. But to really convey what the car is about the chairs need to squeeze your hips more, hug your ribs, perhaps tilt your thighs up – and ideally mount you slightly lower in the car.
But that’s it. Of course it would be nice if it had a kickass sound system (it’s pretty tinny and can’t match the V6’s volume) and a superlative infotainment setup. But none of that offended me because this is a Ford GT. It’s not about the tunes, dammit.
So how is it on UK roads?
Initially nerve-wracking on account of its value and rarity, later nerve-wracking on account of its susceptibility to cambers, limited visibility, width and noisy cabin. This is a car with presence.
It’s not a supercar that you can rest an elbow on the armrest and biff about in. It doesn’t appreciate city driving nor worry about making a hash of it. Wherever and whenever you drive it and no matter what the conditions (and we drove it in just about all of them), the Ford GT is only concerned about speed. Going faster. Attacking a road.
What’s it like when you do drive slowly?
Recalcitrant. Grumpy. The engine drones through the bulkhead and it soon becomes wearing. In many ways it’s not too bad. The turning circle is good, the set-back A-pillars give you a wide field of vision forward, the engine pulls cleanly on small throttle openings and the pedals operate easily. Same applies to the rotary gearknob.
The brakes are astonishing. You need to be careful with them at low speed as they aren’t designed to do their best work in queues of traffic, but as far as high-speed confidence goes, these are unsurpassed in my experience. Vast power, near-perfect pedal feel, they stop the car imperiously well. Which is good news for panicky stops on a motorway.
How about the rest of its motorway manners?
It gets bored. So do you. And then you might start thinking you can drive while resting your elbows, but a fraction after that you’ll hit some standing water or a deeper truck rut and instantly realise that you can’t relax. The engine isn’t too bad, but you can tell Ford’s energies were focused on the chassis and aerodynamics, and the engine’s role was to deliver the necessary force and energy.
This is not an engine that is fussed about building to a crescendo, it’s just doing a job. The force in your back is mighty, but progressive. On the road you rarely go much above 5,000rpm. The turbos have delivered enough to open your eyes wider by then.
Above that you’re into the silly sphere where roads suddenly become much narrower and brain processing speed becomes an issue. You’re not missing much by drawing a line at 5,000 – the experience is broadly the same, the intensity just creeps up. But this is not an engine that delivers the same scalding top end as a McLaren 720S or the nape-curdling scream of a Lambo V10.
Not much attention seems to have been paid to the engine note; it drones if held at constant revs, and at other times is raw, loud and unfocused. Listen to onboard of most Le Mans cars and you get this sense that they’re just developed to get from one place to another as quickly as possible, and that’s the same with the Ford.
It makes a lot of noise, but has none of the theatrics and tonal definition you get from most road cars. Acoustic harmonisation? Not in the Ford GT dictionary.
Is that a drawback?
If you measure your thrills in traditional ways, yes. But if you approach the GT with the mindset that you’re driving an actual Le Mans racer, not just a common-or-garden supercar, you view it very differently. Now it feels RIDICULOUS. You tune into its wavelength, its focus on speed, and it becomes fantastically absorbing. Of course you need to be on the right kind of road, and, no, a motorway is not a good stand-in for the Mulsanne Straight. I’m talking a good, well sighted country road.
You can’t relax, but maybe the GT isn’t quite as camber sensitive as you first feared. You just need to be alert to what it might do. Initially it made me tentative because it’s personality is so strong and uncompromising, but as I built up more seat time, I formed a deeper bond with it. And I came to realise the GT has perhaps the most talented, brilliantly balanced chassis of any car on sale today.
Isn’t that what you found when you drove it on track?
Yep, when I drove it at Laguna Seca earlier this year (Ford GT car review) I was astonished by how controllable and adjustable it was, how the handling favoured neither front or rear axles, but instead gave you a hint of push at the nose to let you know it was working hard, but otherwise worked all four tyres evenly.
It scorched around corners with no roll, absolute control and rock solid stability. If you wanted to be daft it would slide far more deftly than you might expect, too. It was a driving weapon.
The best possible news is that the GT gives you the almost all the same sensations at road speeds. The chassis doesn’t have to be working hard to reward. Just turn the steering wheel. It may be weirdly shaped, but it’s hydraulically assisted and serves up real, genuine feedback.
Even on hectically surfaced British B-roads, its manners aren’t as sharp and jagged as I expected. It rides expensively – minimal travel, instant control, crisp yet supple. The damping platform means it carves clean lines and reacts smoothly and positively to all but the worst mid-corner bumps.
Just don’t overdo it. Don’t get lulled into a false sense of invulnerability that cars more talented than you can often bring. Don’t use that extra half inch of throttle, don’t take risks with braking distances. Not on rough or wet surfaces. Never forget what the Ford GT was developed for. Clue: it wasn’t to be the ultimate weapon to tackle the B4009. If it gets rough, back off or things can get sketchy. Also: Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2s are incredible tyres. But not when asked to cope with a three-inch-deep puddle.
It’s not a B-road hero, then?
It’ll be massively absorbing, but… Look, I found it an amazing experience, really special, because it felt so exotic. No other supercar is closer to being a racing car, very few provide remotely as much tactility and feedback, equally few feel as expensively engineered. This isn’t the playing field it was designed to dominate, but my gosh it handles awkward road driving far better than I ever expected. You may not be able to fling it about with abandon, but you can get a lot of satisfaction from it. And then take it to a track to see what it’s really capable of…
Yeah, didn't realize that the street legal version has more power than the official race-car version (which is power limited) running at most tracks.....
Yeah, didn't realize that the street legal version has more power than the official race-car version (which is power limited) running at most tracks.....
most all do. they place pretty large restrictors on the race engines. last race i was at at road america the bmws, and vettes i saw looked like they were sucking air in thru something the size of a golf ball sized opening
Ford brought the GT back starting in the 2017 model year with 647 horsepower, a 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6 and a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission, letting potential buyers apply for the chance to buy a car with a $450,000 base MSRP. The company then handpicked 500 of the 7,000 original applicants to honor them with the ability to purchase a car, but other than the $500,000 payout, there was one big catch: Buyers had to sign an agreement to not resell the car within the first two years of ownership.
First, there was pro wrestler John Cena’s Ford GT, which went through several channels after Cena sold it. Ford sued both Cena and a dealer that later bought and resold the car again in late 2017, settling withboth in June. One of the main claims in Ford’s lawsuit against the dealer centered around the assumption that the dealer knew of Cena’s contract with Fordand bought the car anyway.
Shortly before those settlements, a mysterious new GT popped up on the resale scene: a silver car with black racing stripes on the Mecum Auctions website, scheduled to sell in the middle of May. Turns out, that GT has been sold more times than most Craigslist hobby project vehicles that “don’t look so bad” at first. Its latest sale listing is at Mecum, again, in August—just over three months after its current owner bought it from that very auction house.
Ford sued Mecum over the GT on May 17 as listed in Indiana court records, only two days before it was scheduled to, and did, sell at auction on May 19. Court documents in that case showed the Mecum sale wasn’t the first, and that its original owner had sold the car to the person sending it to Mecum.
A VIN report run by friend of Jalopnik Bozi Tatarevic showed that the original owner, Jack Miller, titled the GT in August 2017. It was later sold to Michael J. Flynn, and then wound up at Mecum’s Indianapolis auction in May, where it was listed as a main attraction. The listing also said the car was the 48th of 250 made for the 2017 model year, and that it had only seven miles on it.
The car popped up on a Facebook page for Type A Motorsports in Arlington, Texas that day, with the dealer saying it bought the car at Mecum. A DuPont Registry listing came around later with the seller listed as Type A and the car listed for $2 million (or $20,302, in monthly payments—cheap!), or about $350,000 more than the dealer paid for the car at its first auction.
That’s a total of three owners so far, if you’re keeping count.
Then the new Mecum listing came up, listing a silver GT as a main attraction at its Monterey, California auction in August. It had the same features as the first ad—No. 48 of 250 in 2017, same specs—with an extra mile on the odometer, clicking it up to eight miles on the clock in more than a year since it was built.
The VIN on the listing is the same as the one listed in Ford’s lawsuit against Mecum, meaning this GT will probably have yet another new owner soon.
Jalopnik reached out to Type A Motorsports on why it chose to take the car back to Mecum rather than selling it outright and on whether the dealer had heard from Ford about another resale, and the dealer didn’t have immediate comment on either. Jalopnik couldn’t find any new court cases from Ford about GT resales in state or federal courts since the Mecum lawsuit, but with how that one has gone so far, Ford hasn’t seemed to have much luck in pursuing it.
When Ford tried to stop all of this somewhat early on with the lawsuit against Mecum, Judge Heather Welch in Indiana denied Ford’s motion to stop the sale at auction with the following comments:
“11. Ford’s claim rests entirely on its theory that Mecum tortuously interfered with the contract between Miller and Ford. Ford argues “Mecum contracted with Miller to auction the Ford GT, intentionally inducing Miller to breach his contract with Ford.” (Plf. Br. at 7.) However, Ford has not presented any evidence to the Court that Miller is the current legal owner of the 2017 Ford GT. Mecum, on the other hand, presented evidence that Mike Flynn purchased the 2017 Ford GT from Miller. Specifically, Mecum presented Exhibit A, a written instrument signed by Miller and Flynn, and Exhibit B, the Affidavit of Michael J. Flynn Jr., indicating Flynn purchased the car from Miller.
12. If Flynn is now the true legal owner and titleholder to the car, as the evidence tends to show, Ford will not reasonably be able to show that Mecum tortuously interfered With a contract between Miller and Ford based on the current designations.”
Under Welch’s ruling, Ford’s case to stop sales essentially gets weaker with every new owner. The case is still open; that was just the denial of the request by Ford to stop the May auction.
But with how this GT is getting tossed around once every few months, maybe that confident Mecum representative with a microphone at the Indianapolis auction had the right idea.
“The Judge did rule in Mecum’s favor, that we could sell this car, and if Ford wanted it back, they were welcome to come here and bid on it,” the rep said as the GT came out for auction in May. “So, this is a publicly legal sale of a Ford GT. We had some people worried there were going to be some repercussions.
“There are no repercussions with this car. It was contested in court. You bid on it, you buy it, it’s yours. It’s America, you can buy and sell what you want.”
They did it wrong. They should have never actually sold the car to owners. Just like you never actually own a Ferrari, even if you own a Ferrari. Ferrari is able to control buyers to a much higher degree than Ford can.
That dealer, New Autos Inc. in Chico, California, has a good reason for selling it again, too: The dealer’s president, Bernie Knaus, said the 78-year-old California farmer the dealer sold the car to wanted one last great supercar—an American one, at that—and can no longer get in and out of the car well about a year after buying it, so he wants it to go to someone who can drive it more.
Knaus’ anecdotes of the GT’s owner sounded almost like a movie character who couldn’t be real, giving back to communities and the people he meets in ways that can make even a person who’s never met him struggle not to cry. He’s also the epitome of a Ford person, from the way Knaus described him, since he has a “whole boatload of F-Series pickup trucks running his farm, and has from day one,” along with a 2005 Ford GT.
“This is a guy who could afford a Pagani,” Knaus said, adding that the farmer applied for the new GT but was denied by Ford. Jalopnik has reached out to Ford to confirm this and will update it if we hear back, but the company likely won’t comment on customer matters either way.“He could afford a Bugatti. Any car that’s for sale today is within his reach. The [Ferrari] 250 GTO that’s going to break records at the auctions this week, he could afford that car.
“Yet here’s the person who, taking delivery of the Ford GT, when he sees it for the first time, he didn’t want to get in it because he was wearing blue jeans and he had dirty work boots. He’s like, ‘Oh no, it’s too beautiful, I can’t get it dirty. I just love that it’s here.’ He was just so excited to see it. But he didn’t even get in it the first day.”
But nearly a year after buying the car, he’s having trouble getting in and out due to back issues, and wants the car to be in the hands of someone who can drive it rather than letting it sit in his garage.
Knaus said the farmer didn’t want Knaus giving out his name because he’s “a private guy,” but that he came to Knaus recently for advice on selling it. They decided to auction it at Monterey Car Week, and it’ll go across the block with the Russo and Steele auction house Saturday with 625 miles on the odometer—after Knaus said the farmer bought it with 30 miles on the clock. The last GT that went to auctionsold for nearly $1.7 million, and is part of an ongoing lawsuit by Ford against Mecum Auctions.
“He says, ‘Bernie, I don’t need to sell the car. But it’s getting to the point where I can’t get in the car, and it’s too difficult to drive,’” Knaus told Jalopnik over the phone. “He has some back issues, [but] he got the dream of owning it.
“This was going to be his last great car for himself, and he wanted it to be an American car. That was critical. And not only an American car, but he wanted it to be a Ford.”
But Ford tried to get the car back when it heard about Cena’s resale. The 647-horsepower, $450,000 GT that crossed through New Autos Inc. to its 78-year-old owner came with an application process, and a special agreement for the first people chosen to buy the car. That agreement said original owners had to keep the car for two years before reselling, and this car’s original owner, Cena, sold long before then.
(Ford announced recently that it would open the application process again, expanding the number of people chosen to own a current-generation GT from 500 to 1,000.)
The car and its quick resale then graced headlines for around eight months, as Ford sued Cena and New Autos Inc. over the transactions. Ford wanted the car back, New Autos Inc. said it sold the car before Ford came after it, the lawsuits went on for about eight months, and both were eventually settled in June. Both cases were “dismissed with prejudice,” which means, in legal speak, that “the plaintiff can’t bring this same case back to court.”
But the one big piece of information that never made it public was its newest owner, and that’s because the owner wanted it that way. Even as he’s preparing to sell it again, Knaus told Jalopnik the important thing was that a person who deserved the car got to enjoy it while he could—and that the lawsuit settlement allows this GT to be sold without any strings attached, he said.
“I don’t feel bad about getting him a car on the secondary market, because by doing that, I felt like we righted a wrong,” Knaus said. “We got that car in the right hands for the man who deserved it, and he even had to pay a premium for that.”
“In the end, I think the right thing happened by having a settlement agreement which has this car completely unencumbered. It’s back to where it should have been in the first place. All Ford GTs should be unencumbered, not just this car.”
Thus, the Ford GT that started with Cena and wound up at a dealership on the West Coast, with a couple of lawsuits in between, is back up for sale again. Its owner got to enjoy it, and Knaus said he’s happy the owner is “a person who thinks cars should be driven” and wants it go to to someone who can drive it, regardless of the fact that he could, financially, hold onto it.
“He’s a guy who thinks, ‘Hey, this car should be driven. It shouldn’t be sitting there. That’s not what it was built for,’” Knaus said.
Knaus is also happy that someone else will get to enjoy the car, he told Jalopnik, without having to worry about legal involvement over the sale.
“It’s really important for us, because it was a long-fought battle to make sure that this car is unencumbered by any past, present or future lawsuits from Ford,” Knaus said. “We had to go through heck to get there.”
Update: Wednesday, March 21, 2017, 9:40 a.m. ET: A Ford representative responded to Jalopnik, saying the company cannot discuss individual customer matters.
The Ford GT Carbon Series will be shredding tracks soon as the lightest of the road-going Ford supercars - and unlike its sibling racer, it will want to be driven home after time sheets are collected.
The new limited-edition model drops nearly 40 pounds with a host of lightweighting innovations such as carbon fiber wheels, a titanium exhaust, titanium lugnuts and a polycarbonate rear hatch with additional venting.
Ford engineers added just enough conveniences - air conditioning, a radio and SYNC® 3 - for those customers who want to drive to and from the track in comfort. But they drew the line to keep the weight in check by removing cupholders and the driver's side seat storage bin.
This third Ford GT special edition features more visible carbon fiber than any previous model, along with optional accent colors, to stand out from the lineup and communicate its chicane cravings.
"The Ford GT Carbon Series stands out on the road with its striking carbon fiber-rich design and on the track with its athleticism," says Hermann Salenbauch, global director, Ford Performance. "It is yet another example of how we can bring to life our Le Mans-winning supercar in new and exciting ways so our customers can share in that magical legacy."
The exterior boasts two exposed carbon fiber stripes with matching A-pillars, lower body panels and gloss carbon fiber wheels. The interior features matte carbon fiber sills, air register pods and center console for the most exposed carbon fiber of any Ford GT.
Customers can choose between four optional accent colors - silver, orange, red or blue - for the mirror caps, center stripe and calipers. The Carbon Series also features a unique seat pattern with silver stitching that is repeated on the steering wheel, as well as complementary clear anodized paddle shifters and a unique badge for the instrument panel.
"This is just another example of how we listen to our customers at Ford," says Lance Mosley, marketing manager, Ford Performance. "While the Ford GT Competition model appeals to hardcore racing enthusiasts, we found more customers asking for more exposed carbon fiber with the air conditioning and radio still intact. So we developed the Carbon Series to satisfy that need, while providing a distinct look."
Ever wanted to buy a brand new Ford GT? It’s still not too late – the Blue Oval company is extending the production run of the new supercar by adding 350 more cars through 2022. But now you can also buy a virtually brand new GT from the previous generation of the model.
A Ford dealer in Illinois is offering a 2005 GT with just 104 miles (167 kilometers) on the odometer. That’s probably the mileage of the car after it was taken off the assembly lines and driven through the showroom’s halls and parking lots. Maybe a couple of short test drives too, but nothing that can ruin its new car title.
The exterior is finished in Red Clearcoat while the interior features a contrasting black leather interior with sports bucket seats. Under the hood is an awesome 5.4-liter V8 mated to a six-speed manual transmission, sending power to the rear wheels.
Needless to say, everything looks to be in pristine condition – the leather seats and steering wheel are virtually untouched, and all other interior bits look equally unworn. It also comes with its original information sticker, which reveals a very interesting fact about its price.
Back in 2005, when this GT was actually brand new, Ford asked $156,595 for it. The base price was $139,995, but the single CD player, light forged alloy wheels, red painted brake calipers, and racing stripes, together with a couple of taxes, added almost $17,000 to that price. The seller is currently asking $449,900 for it or more than three times the car’s base price. It’s not a surprise then that some customers are actually buying brand new GTs only as a future investment.
Texas tuner John Hennessey created the 1,000 horsepower Exorcist and a 605-hp VelociRaptor 6x6 pickup truck, but there's a line even he won't cross.
It's the Ford GT.
Hennessey told Motor Authority in his "qualified opinion" a V-8 engine simply won't fit in the current Ford GT supercar.
Hennessey owns a 2018 GT, so it's not as if he hasn't popped the engine cover behind the passenger compartment with a tape measure in hand. It's a car that is "near and dear to my heart," he said.
From a visual standpoint and the driving experience Hennessey said the new GT checks all the right boxes, but if it had a V-8 it could be just that much better.
Hennessey has built a living around engine swaps, big motors, and huge power numbers, but he doesn't see a V-8 fitting into the engine bay of the Ford GT without radically altering the car's bodywork, including its unique flying buttresses. Those design cues were realized by Ford's engineers as part of the aerodynamics to go out and win Le Mans, and they paid off. The GT won the 24 Hours of Le Mans its first year back.
Ford simply didn't leave enough room for Hennessey to squeeze a V-8 such as a blown 5.0-liter or 5.2-liter unit from Ford's parts bin without destroying its distinctive styling, Hennessey said.
Nick Terzes, an engineering supervisor on the Ford GT program, said that's intentional. Shoehorning a V-8 into the GT is "not even something I've considered," he said.
Unlike a sedan or mainstream crossover SUV, supercars are engineered around specific parameters and not a wide range of engines that may go underhood during the model's lifetime. The timeline to design, build, develop, and test the GT, and the race car variant, was tight. Terzes told Motor Authority that Ford focused on its 3.5-liter twin-turbo V-6 and that Le Mans rules meant that the automaker never explored the possibility of fitting a V-8 engine.
Terzes said that Ford's goal was to have a powertrain with the best chance of winning, meaning that race fuel economy, packaging, performance, and durability were all factors. Ford's marketing team probably wasn't too upset that the V-6 is used in the automaker's other products, either. Race on Sunday, sell on Monday is still a viable justification for motorsports.
Hennessey agrees that the V-6 is part of the GT's identity.
"If a customer came to me with a bag of a million dollars and said, "Would you put a V-8 in the back of my Ford GT?' I won’t do it," he laughed.
Get excited, everyone. There's another Ford GT coming. Ford just dropped this teaser of a shadowy, winged GT supercar staring back at us, and it certainly has our hearts pounding.
Sadly, information about the unnamed GT version is even scarcer than most teasers we typically get. Here's the text direct from the Blue Oval: "Ford will make a special Ford GT supercar announcement during a dedicated press conference from 4:45 a.m. EDT, July 4, at the 2019 Goodwood Festival of Speed."
Multimatic will be on site for the announcement, with chief technical officer Larry Holt in tow. If you're in the UK for Goodwood, you'll want to be at the Ford stand in the Drift Paddock for the news. And that's all the official information available for the time being.
So for now we're left to gaze at this great teaser photo Ford provided us. The wing is absolutely massive, like race car levels of massive. Also, it has a roof scoop, which is something the normal Ford GT doesn't have. Beyond these couple of details, it's hard to tell much of anything apart from the Ford GT we already know and love. Clearly, Ford is after something a bit racier with this version. We'll have to wait until Independence Day to see the car in full, as a new American supercar makes its world debut in the country we declared independence from on that day's anniversary.
The Ford GT didn’t need any upgrades to be more appealing to supercar fans, but the Blue Oval did it anyway. There are two new special edition models, one which tickles the nostalgia button while the other embraces the glory of carbon fiber. Perhaps the bigger news is that both models – actually, all models – will also see a power boost.We start with the new trims because frankly, the Ford GT in naked carbon fiber just looks flat-out mean. It’s called Liquid Carbon and as you can see, the GT’s lightweight structure is completely devoid of paint. That doesn’t mean it’s devoid of protection, however. Ford applies a special clearcoat that’s designed to highlight each weave in its carbon fiber skin. If that’s a bit too much carbon fiber for you, personalization in the form of over-the-top stripes or the center stripe from the Carbon Series can be added, along with painted mirror caps. Carbon fiber wheels are also standard equipment, for obvious reasons.
From downright nasty to delightfully nostalgic, 2020 also brings an updated Gulf Racing livery to the table. The familiar blue and orange scheme is still there, but it’s crafted in a new design that includes a black stripe separating the shades. This pays homage to the GT40 that won Le Mans in 1968 and 1969, and the number 6 is also a nod to the winning car. And since carbon fiber seems to be a thing this year for Ford, the Gulf Racing livery can be had with carbon fiber wheels.
Now, let’s talk about that power boost. It’s not much – 660 horsepower (492 kilowatts) is the new norm for the GT’s 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6, representing a 13-hp gain. There’s more going on behind the scenes though, with a new engine calibration that creates a broader torque curve. Upgraded pistons and ignition coils are used, and aero changes to the buttress air ducts increase airflow to the engine by 50 percent.
Larger intercoolers make the most of the air, and when you step on the gas, a new Akrapovič titanium exhaust system creates a deeper tone while shaving nine pounds from the previous setup. Combined with increased suspension dampening in track mode, it appears Ford is keen to keep the GT exciting in the face of increasing supercar competition.
Of course, all this will apply to just a very small portion of the motoring population. The GT is still extremely expensive, and Ford is still on track to build barely a handful each year until production ends in 2022.
Ford’s new carbon-fiber weave GT is seriously gorgeous—but don’t let the “plain body” look deceive you. It’s actually way harder to outfit a GT in the Liquid Carbon scheme than it would be to just paint the thing. We’re talking three times harder.
You just have to get in close to the bodywork to see why: the carbon-fiber weave is incredibly intricate, and, according to MotorTrend, made entirely by hand by carbon-fiber specialist Multimatic up in Ontario. Here’s a little more about the logistics from the article:
The plant’s full production capacity is devoted to making the GT, and there is a limited number of people who can do the painstaking work. It takes skill and patience to ensure the weaves consistently line up perfectly.
Looking at the Liquid Carbon GT, the hood shows that intricacy, and the way the fibers continue to meet over the curves and shapes of the sports car is impressive. The direction of the weave and the color must match. Each car is made from a single batch of material. There’s plenty of trial and error in the engineering and tooling and actual assembly, said Jeff Tanis, Multimatic director of global operations for niche vehicles. The process takes three times longer than working with a carbon-fiber piece that will be painted.
Make sure you catch that last bit there: in the time it takes to produce a single carbon fiber GT, three painted GTs will be completed.These extra-special models of course come at a heftier price. While the painted GT will run you $500,000, the Liquid Carbon edition rings in at $750,000. And with a mere twelve estimated to be produced each year, it’s probably worth the extra money to the people who can afford it just to have something so limited.
If you want all the specs on this bad boy, head on over to Ford’s press release to check them out. But with a 3.5-liter EcoBoost twin-turbo V6 producing 660 horsepower, I’ve got a feeling this bad boy is going to be a lot of fun.