Fawning over the Ford GT – First Drive Impressions Flooding In
One day, your friends at Fuel Curve will get invited to join the elite press fleets to hop behind the wheel of the latest Super Car for our own driving impressions. Our Editor, Derek Mau, has long been a top-level car reviewer for performance machines but when it comes to supercar test-drive status, we’re not quite there yet. Baby steps.
Today’s flood of Ford GT driving impressions prove what we already know; it’s bad, it’s balanced, it’s furiously fast and it has Acura’s NSX, McLaren’s 720S, the LaFerrari Aperta and Lamborghini’s Veneno square in its sights. We also know that our friends at Ford are really good at anniversary rollouts. The GT comes some 50 years after their famed GT 40 stormed to a 1-2-3 Le Mans finish, packing the podium with the blue oval brigade. Last June, the new GT in track form roared to 1st, 2nd and 4th place in their class at Le Mans nearly repeating their 50-year old triumph.
And here we are today – with the new consumer-ready Ford supercar ready for a street near you. It will prove elusive, however. As The Verge’s Sean O’Kane points out, Ford has to “personally select you from a list of applicants” just to get one. If approved, you can head down to your credit union and get a cashier’s check for $450,000. No prob.
As far as how the twin-turbocharged EcoBoost V6 powered, wind-cheating dart handled at the Utah Motorsports Campus road course in Tooele, Utah – early returns are overwhelming. Wired Magazine said, “While some purists may be sad to see the big honking V8 of the GT 40 replaced with a turbocharged V6, this motor does its job and then some.” We are sad purists in this corner. You simply cannot beat the thunder of a naturally aspirated big cube V8 thundering down a stretch at 8,000 rpm but we understand that the game has changed. Smaller cube, turbocharged engines are the norm as we approach the new millennium’s third decade.
It’s not like the boosted V6 is meek. It blows hot with 647 bhp. Combined with the GT’s 3054-pound curb weight – it more than satisfies the butt dyno. Still not convinced? Let it roll WOT for a mile or two and you’ll be doing 216 mph. Jesus!
We loved Autoweek’s first drive impression which was simply “Hoo baby!” Motor Authority was smitten saying “The Ford GT feels special inside and out, cylinder count be damned. That, coupled with its race-proven underpinnings and scant production numbers, makes it one of the most gratifying ways to punch a $450,000 hole into the atmosphere.”
Does anyone have Edsel Ford II’s email address? We need approval for a Fuel Curve GT. Oh yeah…And a Kickstarter account for a half million hides. More here https://www.ford.com/performance/gt/
