Have you driven a Ford lately? One that has over 600 horsepower, looks like a Le Mans racer and will come with a cool $300,000 sticker?
This is the new Ford GT, the undisputed star of the recent Detroit auto show, and a “Size 10” gauntlet thrown down to the likes of Porsche, Ferrari, McLaren and any other maker of 200mph supercars.
And it isn’t some pie-in-the-sky dream car built to wow the auto show crowds. Ford will put the GT into limited production towards the end next year to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Blue Oval’s legendary 1-2-3 victory with its GT40 racer at the 1966 Le Mans 24-hour race in France.
Talking of Le Mans, rumors are swirling that Ford will use this new GT to go back into endurance racing, kicking off with an appearance at this June’s Le Mans 24-hour race to commemorate that fiftieth anniversary.
But see this new road-going GT in the flesh, and photos simply don’t do justice to the jaw-dropping magnificence of this asphalt-hugging projectile.
While the last GT that Ford built – between 2004 and 2009 – was basically homage of the original ’60s GT40, this new GT is a true modern-day supercar in its own right.
Just tap the bodyshell. That dull ring is the sound of super-stiff yet super-lightweight carbon fiber. The entire body and chassis are built from this mega-expensive material.
And whereas the previous GT came with a honking V8 mounted behind the driver, this new version features a race-bred 3.5-liter twin-turbo EcoBoost V6 sitting in the back mated to a seven-speed dual clutch transmission.
With Ford developing high-output EcoBoost four and six-cylinder engines for pretty much its entire model range, showcasing a big V8 in the GT would have been way too retro.
And no owner is going to complain about V6 power when the car cranks out a massive 600-horsepower, which, incidentally, is 50 more than the last V8-powered GT.
Right now, Ford execs are keeping pretty tight-lipped on many of the details of this new GT. Like the price. The current guesstimate is between $200,000 and $300,000 with the latter figure thought to be more likely.
But with production expected to total just a few hundred cars a year, exclusivity – and a healthy return on investment – is going to be a given.
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