Anyone thinking that the GT is an unholy alliance of Ford spare parts should think again. In its own way, this car is as properly engineered as the 1960s racers that inspired it.
The entire body (save the glassfibre bonnet) is made from aluminium and it clothes an aluminium spaceframe on which forged aluminium double wishbones are hung at each corner. The transmission tunnel is magnesium and cleverly houses the fuel tank, as far from any impact site as possible, and causing no change to the weight distribution as the level of unleaded falls.
The engine might owe its architecture to the Mustang V8, but there the similarity ends. It’s an all-alloy, 5.4-litre quad-cam powerhouse with forged pistons and an Eaton screw-type supercharger. Boosting at up to 14psi, it furnishes the GT with 550bhp at 6500rpm and a thunderous 500lb ft of torque at 3750rpm. A 500bhp Lamborghini Gallardo musters just 376lb ft of torque, a 400bhp Ferrari 360 Modena just 275lb ft.
Coping with such outsize outputs is a brand-new, six-speed gearbox designed and built in Britain by Ricardo. It is a challenge to which it rises with considerable success.
Naturally, the power is fed to the road through the rear wheels alone and with no traction control save the delicacy of the driver’s right foot. Sizeable 315/40 ZR19 Goodyear F1 tyres are the medium, with slightly more conservatively proportioned 235/45 ZR18 items in charge of the steering. Responsibility for stopping the GT falls to 355mm ventilated and cross-drilled Brembo brakes, clamped by four-piston callipers at each corner.
Interestingly, the GT’s shape would be aerodynamically unstable at speed, yet Ford’s engineers were forbidden from interfering with its outline. This is why you’ll spot a vital lip spoiler tacked on at the front and a Gurney flap on the boot lid. Underneath there is a small front diffuser and sizeable rear venturi. All of which, says Ford, makes the GT ‘remarkably uneventful’ at its claimed 205mph to