Ford GT at VIR

[kaz109]

Well obviously if you can afford $450k you can afford $160k. This whole thread started about the GT lap times. Therefore lap times are the the main focus, in which case my point was: if you care about lap times then an ACR with slicks seems to be the better bang for the buck. This would be a different story and a harder decision if the GT was $200-$250K.

The person buying a car at $450K doesn't give a shit about lap times. They want to stroll down the boulevard and gets looks from people. If that's your thing then that's your thing. Unless you are Treynor on here who will race his cars.

Take all this with a grain of salt though, my approach to cars stems strictly from a bang for the buck and performance. Hence why I drive a 1995 Z28 Camaro (bought with 50k mi for $5K) with a bunch of doodads on it to make it handle at autocross/road race.

Scale down the price of vehicles...the Camaro is my ACR...a C5Z or a C6Z at $20K+ would be the GT. Both the Camaro and C5/C6 are capable cars. One more so than the other obviously, but at an additional cost (4X the purchase price). Can the Camaro be made to hang with a stock-ish Vette for under $20K? Yes.

I'm not shitting on the GT, it just struggle comprehending $450K for a car lol.

At this price point the last thing the buyer is thinking about is " bang for buck". Lol...stop using that term with 160k and up cars.

Ppl on this site always seem to think that Ben is the only person who tracks exotics cars when in fact it is more common than ppl think. And they spend the extra money because the ACR is a one trick pony ( not to say it isn't a good trick) while spending the extra money gets you a car to drive on the Street in comfort and still be more than most ppl can handle at the track.

 

[specracer]

Bang for the buck, buy a Camry.

There is so much more to the NGT than any one lap will ever tell. The passion, design, and execution of the car is unreal. Its truly an amazing vehicle. If it has to be explained, you don't get it, and that's completely AOK.

 

[treynor]

I mean ultimately there is no reason to be butthurt. People put WAY too much stock in what these cars will do in any given test. People will flip out over one test or another, but there are so many variables that they are all basically useless.

Look at the C&D lap. Personally, I think that lap from Colwell looked pretty damn good for a magazine driver. I'd be willing to be about 98% of the people who will dog his lap time couldn't do better. I've driven VIR, and there's no way I would drive this car that hard there because the penalty for error is way too high. And yet still, his time is definitely nowhere near what he could probably do given more than a few hours with the car.

Then you get ole Billy J waltzing in wearing ****in flip flops and a t-shirt and obliterating the lap record in the same car on the same day Dodge presumably spent a fair amount of time trying to set. Johnson is not human. Guarantee you GM spent days getting their time out of the Z07 there.

And Ford, to their eternal detriment, NEVER sets up cars for magazine tests. They'll adjust the tire pressures. That's it. It makes me want to throttle the marketing department when these guys send out whatever ragged-out marketing car with a jacked up alignment and busted shock and dead fuel pump is sitting in the back lot available (see: horrible MT test, and they ****ed that one up twice!). Like I literally do not understand how this is a thing with them, but I digress. All I have to say for proof is "Mach 1 SUV."

That said, I'd be shocked if the GT was faster than the ACR on a shorter, less flowing track. GT is under-tired in the front and has no park bench so it's never gonna be a pure lap monster like the ACR is. I just do not see GT being faster somewhere like Laguna Seca. VIR is a good track for bullshitting because I would say it's the most demanding and varied track in the U.S.

The only way to ever truly compare these cars is to have same day, same driver, factory spec alignment, factory spec tire, factory pressures, same fuel load, etc. Basically, this is unpossible. And even if your car is faster or slower by a second, who gives a shit? Mortals don't race their road cars and then obsess over fractions of a second.

The video series I'd most like to see it's guys who argue on the internet about lap times in their street cars racing 20 year old club racers in Spec Miatas. Like "are you smarter than a 5th grader" but "are you faster than a Miata."

For the record, I agree with every point DBK makes in this thread. And I am damn impressed with the FGT now.

 

[Serpent]

^ @DBK should be championing your allocation!

LOL

 

[MachME]

"oh that shitty cheap Ford, I'll pick one up when they're $45k in 3 years."

This is how it is with all exotic owners, german car owners and most corvette owners. They wear their car brand hat to car shows. Their cars are factory stock. They thrive on magazine testing because they cant drive it like that. The magazine says how good of a car it is and handling, so they pick up their friends and drive around the block and are like "feel how amazing this is! it handles so great!" If the magazine said an f150 was the greatest handling vehicle ever, they would say the same thing. They don't do any work on their car, even oil changes. Then tell you how shitty American cars are.

Take a mid level german car and you can get same thing much cheaper now in an american car that is just as nice. Last year Motortrend said the camaro has nicer interior and tested faster on track than M4. Motortrend just also rated the CTSV better than the new E63 AMG. The AMG had a nicer interior BUT IT WAS A $18,000 INTERIOR PACKAGE. $18,000!

 

[treynor]

This is how it is with all exotic owners, german car owners and most corvette owners.

Some of them There's a driving enthusiast community in every group.

 

[blk02edge]

This is how it is with all exotic owners, german car owners and most corvette owners. They wear their car brand hat to car shows. Their cars are factory stock. They thrive on magazine testing because they cant drive it like that. The magazine says how good of a car it is and handling, so they pick up their friends and drive around the block and are like "feel how amazing this is! it handles so great!" If the magazine said an f150 was the greatest handling vehicle ever, they would say the same thing. They don't do any work on their car, even oil changes. Then tell you how shitty American cars are.

Take a mid level german car and you can get same thing much cheaper now in an american car that is just as nice. Last year Motortrend said the camaro has nicer interior and tested faster on track than M4. Motortrend just also rated the CTSV better than the new E63 AMG. The AMG had a nicer interior BUT IT WAS A $18,000 INTERIOR PACKAGE. $18,000!

We have a group of roughly 200 people with exotics in my relatively small area in western CANADA who track the shit out of their mclarens/ferraris/lambos etc. I can imagine there are a ton more in the USA..

My point is there are a lot more people tracking their high end cars than what people think

 

[MachME]

Some of them There's a driving enthusiast community in every group.

At least you drive Fords, even "shitty" Mustangs.

 

[treynor]

At least you drive Fords, even "shitty" Mustangs.

Folks in high-priced cars with "that attitude" tend to have a newfound respect for Mustangs after I pass them a few times...

 

[svtfocus2cobra]

Anyone watch the newest episode of The Grand Tour? They finally tested the FGT on their course. It came in third, .8 sec behind the Huracan Performante and the AM Vulcan that is of course in a class of its own. It did however top the McLaren 720 though. From the looks of it their track is one of the slower and more technical tracks.

Sent from my [device_name] using the svtperformance.com mobile app

 

[smitty2919]

Looks like the 2019 ZR1 clicked off a 2:37.25 at VIR.

Ford no longer on top...and hundreds of thousands of dollars cheaper

 

[DSG2003Mach1]

Looks like the 2019 ZR1 clicked off a 2:37.25 at VIR.

Ford no longer on top...and hundreds of thousands of dollars cheaper

so GM went out and dedicated themselves to setting the best track time they could while Ford went out there and did it on accident basically. Lets send the comp spec GT back out there for a couple days and see what happens

 

[13COBRA]

Looks like the 2019 ZR1 clicked off a 2:37.25 at VIR.

Ford no longer on top...and hundreds of thousands of dollars cheaper

Different circumstances.

Ford- No crew

Chevrolet- Prepped crew, multiple runs

 

[DSG2003Mach1]

Different circumstances.

Ford- No crew

Chevrolet- Prepped crew, multiple runs

and dont forget that they were apparently developing a new track program nobody else had access to on the chevy

 

[AustinSN]

Pretty damn fast.

If other companies start doing this the ZR1 will fall with whoever decides to run their car next.

 

[03Sssnake]

so GM went out and dedicated themselves to setting the best track time they could while Ford went out there and did it on accident basically. Lets send the comp spec GT back out there for a couple days and see what happens

Different circumstances.

Ford- No crew

Chevrolet- Prepped crew, multiple runs

and dont forget that they were apparently developing a new track program nobody else had access to on the chevy

Agreed, basically all of the above. If Ford takes the FGT back out to VIR with a crew, tires etc, that 2:38 is going to fall, won't even be in the same zip code. Billy Johnson ran that 2:38 while conserving the car/tires for the C&D Lightning Lap clowns who would run the car later that day.

 

[svtfocus2cobra]

Looks like the 2019 ZR1 clicked off a 2:37.25 at VIR.

Ford no longer on top...and hundreds of thousands of dollars cheaper

Impressive, but like said above, that time will not hold against the GT if they took it seriously.

Sent from my [device_name] using the svtperformance.com mobile app

 

[UBNZO6D]

Wah, wah, wah...Simple, there's 1st place and then all the rest...Ford did come in 1st though as the 1st loser...I gotta get my post count up so people don't cry.

 

[13COBRA]

Wah, wah, wah...Simple, there's 1st place and then all the rest...Ford did come in 1st though as the 1st loser...I gotta get my post count up so people don't cry.

Clown.

 

[ZYBORG]

Not a big fan of the FGT at this point.... Treynor dodged a fart.

The fact that the camaro, viper and vette are as close as they are to it, is sad.

Car being built / outsourced to a Canadian shop, while getting paraded as a true Ford / American product to the ignorant masses, is a disgrace.

Ford sure sure sold the hell out of it though! Got to give them credit for that.