Top Car

76 TOPCAR.CO.ZA|January 2016

2016’s most wanted:FORDGT

‘Otherthanthe obvious

changesthe roadcar

is the racecar and the

racecar is the roadcar’

T THIS MOMENT

in time, the new Ford

GT is like an iceberg

in the supercar sea.

We’ve seen it, it’s real,

we even know when

it’s going to arrive; but

exactly how big the

impact is going to be

when it hits depends

very much on what’s

lying beneath th e

surface. And the waters su rrounding it are deceptively

murky, despite initialconfirmation of over 450kW,

carbon fibre construction and exce ptional aero. It certainly

seems like a significant blip on our radar – just how

worried should the establishment be?

This has beena secretive project right from the start.

Genesis was a small team, located in a Dearborn

basement, working late nights and weekends – the only

time they could push the car outside and see what it

looked like in daylight. The faintest flutterings of rumour

heralded its arrival at the Detroit motor show in January,

but still it was a shock – suddenly there, a new Ford GT.

Not just in concept but as a statement of definite intent,

subsequently reinforc ed atLe Mansin June where Ford

unveiled the racing version, and with it a pledge to be on

the grid at La Sarthe the follo wing year, the ultimate 50th

anniversary celebration of the original ’s famous one-two-

three victory.

That, however, is about as

sentimental as the new GT gets. It

most definitely is not some kind of

self-c ongratulatory heritage pastiche.

Concrete details include the structure:

a full carbon fibre tub, clad in

carbon fibre panels, with aluminium

components front and rear to cradle

the engine, mount the suspension and tolerate cras h

testing. Much like a modern McLaren. Instead of a fire-

breathing, old-school V8, the engine is a race-proven

3.5-litr e twin-turbo Ecoboost V6, driving the rear wheels

via a seven-speed Getrag twin-cl utch automatic. The

suspension uses in-board push-rod dampers and an

unusual-enough-to-patent spring-and-torsion-bar

combination – an ‘active’ setup to gowith th e active

aerodynamics. The brakes are Brembo ca rbon -ceramics.

The interior features a digital gauge cluster, paddle

shifters and a steering wheel as laden with buttons as

any from Ferrari. But this lot aside, Ford has been

reluctant to reveal any specifics.

Dave Pe ricak, head of Ford Performance – the

organisational umbrella that now encompasses Ford

Racing and the blue oval’s high-performance pr oduction

cars – is keen to apol ogise for the cloak and dagger. ‘It’s a

bit moresensitive right now than it would typically be,’

he says , ‘and that’s only beca use we are ge tting ready to

race .’ The new GT’s first competitive event is set to be

the Rolex 24 at Daytona in January, while the production

version won’t be ready untilthe follo wing November.

But even this builds intr igue. The ro ad car and the

racing car are different beasts, aren’t they? Think again.

‘Other than the obvious changes you have to make

when you go racing – the fixed wing, ot her rules and

regulations you just have to follo w – the ro ad car is the

race car and the race car is the ro ad car,’ Pericak

explains. So much so that it’s difficult to examine one