The Ford GT's creation challenged the company's best minds

[kscarbel2]

Autoblog  /  April 20, 2016

Just in time for Ford to start accepting applications from prospective Ford GT customers, company leaders like Bill Ford and Raj Nair are discussing the challenges of creating a successor to the famous GT.

The team conceived of the GT as a racecar and a production supercar from the beginning, which brought major hurdles to the project. In terms of engineering, the road-going version needed to connect with the wealthy clientele behind the wheel, but quick lap times are the only thing that matters when the GT arrives at Le Mans.

Ford's bosses admit using a turbocharged V6 is risky for a roughly $450,000 supercar, but they say the powerplant allows them to take the GT to the racetrack, and then market the technology's successes to the public. The same concept applies to the GT's cutting-edge aerodynamics and extensive use of carbon fiber.

Bill Ford apparently already has an order on the first GT and promises to drive it as often as possible. We hope he does. With just 250 of the supercars coming from the company each year, they will remain a rare sight on the road.

 

 

[kscarbel2]

 

[TeamsterGrrrl]

As a Ford shareholder, I think Ford needs to get a lot more serious about the GT and performance. Ford's win with the original GT in 1966 was the culmination of a several year long effort that broke new ground in computer simulation, materials science, and a bunch of other fields. There was also several years of trial and error failures that lead to that victory. That's what's required to win on a worldwide scale in motorsports and make history.

This time around Ford seems to be aiming at a one shot 50th anniversary "win" for PR purposes, with the GT hopefully enjoying a class win while getting lapped by the Porsche, Audi, and Toyota prototypes.  Even that class win is iffy, during a recent test day the Ford GT was no faster than competing Corvettes and Lamborghinis. That  assumes the GT can finish the race... Ford's untested GT has been having trouble finishing the early season races.

Ford needs to get serious about racing or quit wasting stockholder's equity on an also-ran effort.

 

[kscarbel2]

11 minutes ago, TeamsterGrrrl said:

As a Ford shareholder, I think Ford needs to get a lot more serious about the GT and performance. Ford's win with the original GT in 1966 was the culmination of a several year long effort that broke new ground in computer simulation, materials science, and a bunch of other fields. There was also several years of trial and error failures that lead to that victory. That's what's required to win on a worldwide scale in motorsports and make history.

This time around Ford seems to be aiming at a one shot 50th anniversary "win" for PR purposes, with the GT hopefully enjoying a class win while getting lapped by the Porsche, Audi, and Toyota prototypes.  Even that class win is iffy, during a recent test day the Ford GT was no faster than competing Corvettes and Lamborghinis. That  assumes the GT can finish the race... Ford's untested GT has been having trouble finishing the early season races.

Ford needs to get serious about racing or quit wasting stockholder's equity on an also-ran effort.

 

Ford's win with the original GT in 1966 was the culmination of a several year long effort........AND most of all due to the contribution of one lanky Texan named Carroll Hall Shelby.