The 2017 Ford GT is one of the most hotly anticipated performance cars of recent years, if not the most hotly anticipated. But despite that, it’s only relatively recently that the full story on the car is starting to come out, with official power figures released just this week.
You’ll have to wait for a good few months yet before the first reviews of the car starts to come out, but just yesterday some rather interesting information on the new GT came out in one of the most unlikely places: the FerrariChat forum.
A member of the forum purported to be Brian Willis, an engineer and designer who has worked on cars for Ruf, Aston Martin and others, and who also worked extensively on the new GT as chief engineer, offered some surprisingly frank insights into the supercar’s development.
As with any information taken from a forum, it’s worth treating it with a pinch of salt until there’s official confirmation, but here’s some of the juiciest tidbits from Brian’s posts.
Ford’s engineers think the Ferrari 458 is the best car in the world
To make the new GT the best car it could possibly be, Ford’s team of engineers extensively tested a roster of between 10 and 12 supercars from the world’s greatest sports car manufacturers: Corvettes, GT-Rs and McLaren’s among them.
However, it was the Ferrari 458 Speciale that impressed the engineers the most, and it’s that car which Ford specifically had in mind when developing the GT.
The forum post states: “A huge database of competitor info was created from all this and was used in making sure the car would be better than its rivals.
“The consensus-on track and off track was the 458 Speciale was the best car there, and the best sports car in the world. So we set our sights and making a better car than that. Which I believe we did.”
It’s heavier than Ford wanted, but there’s a good reason why
Weighing in at 1,360kg, the Ford GT might seem super slim compared to many road cars, but in the supercar world it’s actually tipping the porky end of the scales, particularly for a car made with so much carbon fibre.
The post states that it’s simply an inevitability of how much advanced technology is incorporated into the car, but also states that the car is actually faster with the extra weight rather than without it.
It says: “The weight of the car was driven up from what I would have wanted by the addition of the active aero and active suspension bits. It just all adds up, bit by bit… But all the simulation work showed the car was faster with the added bits than without. So that’s why they are there.”
The V6 engine wasn’t their first choice, but it was the best choice
“The engine, I know, is not everyone's top choice. Hard to sell a “supercar” with a V6 - even a twin-turbo V6,” the post reads, echoing the sentiments of many who thought a V8 would be a much more appropriate choice for the new GT.
As it turns out, there are a couple of reasons why Ford went with a forced-induction V6, the first being a marketing ploy to further show off the capabilities of its turbocharged EcoBoost engine family.
More important, however, was that Ford just couldn’t get one of its existing V8 engines to run the sorts of horsepower it wanted reliably. A bespoke engine, custom built for the GT, would have worked but was deemed much too expensive, particularly when Ford won’t make much money off the car anyway.
It’s not all bad though, as the engineer’s post claims that FIA rules are moving towards turbocharged engines which would tie in to the GT’s motorsports programs, while a turbo engine will reap greater benefits from tuners – anything up to 1,000bhp from the V6 is possible, the post claims.
The whole Le Mans thing is much more than just a gimmick
According to Brian, Ford developing the GT racing cars to win last year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans race was about much more than just marketing, as components taken from the racing versions were adapted straight into the road cars.
A racing car for the road is a label that’s slapped around a lot these days, but Ford’s engineers worked hard to make the GT as legitimately authentic a racing experience as was conceivably possible.
The post states: “The big thing about the Ford GT is just how much effort was put into making the car's feedback as pure and linear and race like as possible. More so that any car out there. Add in the pure race car components the thing has and you have the purest race car to road car connection of any current production car.
“That was a big, big goal for us. Make a car that could win Le Mans, be superior to a 458 Speciale (it is) and have the best feedback possible for a street car. I think we hit that too.”
Unfortunately, Ford’s not giving out any freebies
Exactly how much the new Ford GT costs still hasn’t been officially unveiled, but needless to say it won’t come cheap: it’s rumoured to start from anywhere between £300,000 and £400,000.
The small number of just 250 made each year means that the car will be reserved for exclusive customers only, with prospective buyers required to fill out an extensive application form to prove they’re worthy of owning Ford’s greatest creation.
Unfortunately, that also means no freebies, even if you’re as vital to the success of the project as Brian Willis is. The post concludes: “I wish I could afford one. But being the chief engineer on the program didn't pay well enough to let that happen...”
Ouch.
