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Road Test

Ford GT

Test date 13 July 2004  Price as tested £120,900

After Ford failed to buy Ferrari in the early 1960s, it decided to build its own Le Mans challenger based on a new British sports car called the Lola GT. There were reliability problems initially, but the 7.0-litre Mk2 secured an emphatic 1-2-3 victory in 1966. Ford repeated that triumph a year later when the aerodynamically optimised Mk4 GT40 won a hard-fought battle against the P4 Ferraris.

The race success didn’t end there, despite a new 5.0-litre engine limit. John Wyer’s crack Gulf-sponsored team resurrected the small-block 5.0-litre V8 Mk1, continued to develop it and won Le Mans in 1968 and ’69.

Ford attempted a road-legal spin-off with the Mk3. This featured a detuned 300bhp 4.7-litre V8 and new bodywork. The headlamps were changed and repositioned and the tail was elongated to provide luggage space. Unfortunately, the immortal GT40 lines were lost in this transformation and the Mk3 lacks the brutish presence of its brethren — it’s no surprise the new GT copies the classic Mk1 for its style.

Ford made only seven Mk3s before the project quickly faded. An early car was road-tested in the States but fell apart disastrously, earning one of the worst write-ups in memory. Autocar drove a converted Mk1 race car back in 1966 and was amazed by its phenomenal pace, handling and brakes. We struggled to hand back the keys.

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