2005 Ford GT

I had to do it. I wound-up the monstrous engine, just 10 inches behind my head, to 3,000 rpm and snapped the light clutch pedal out. Instantly, we were gone—charging past 60 mph in well under 4 seconds—and passing 100 mph by the end of the short back straight at Gingerman Raceway in Western Michigan. Grateful for the headrest on the bucket seat, nothing I've previously driven has pinned my head back with the G-forces that stretched my enthusiast grin even wider.

The aero design work was first alarming and then remarkably creative.

There were awesome sounds of power behind my head. Not just a potent exhaust note, but the sounds of fine machinery from 32 valves of the 5.4 liter, dry sump, all aluminum V-8 being force-fed at 12 pounds of boost by the Lysholm Supercharger mounted over the air-to-water intercooler in the valley between the cylinder banks. The force fed air is chilled to be able to carry more fuel, a double shot of premium from two injectors per cylinder. Officially, Ford rates the power at 500 horses and 500 pound feet of torque.


There was almost certainly more power than that under my right foot, producing drag strip times quicker than any other production car on the planet. Definitely quicker than the 2003 Dodge Viper with it's 500 horses, and much quicker than the Ferrari 360 Modena Coupe. The Ferrari has been the benchmark target for the small team of Ford engineers who created the Ford GT supercar in record time.


The mission began a month after the Concept Ford GT rolled out to a huge public welcome at the 2002 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Chairman William Clay Ford, Jr., great grandson of Henry the First and nephew of Henry the Second, presented the concept to a wildly enthusiastic press corps. Bill Ford had (only months before) taken control to restore Ford Motor Company to profitability. The response to the concept suggested that producing the Ford GT could be a symbol of the company's new future, while recalling Ford's success in international racing 40 years before.


It was Henry Ford II who had written a blank check to send Carroll Shelby and America's top racing drivers to beat Enzo Ferrari's racecars in the 1960s. That team of Ford's best accomplished the task, taking wins at Le Mans four years straight and winning the Manufacturer's Championship driving purpose-built GT 40 racecars.