Let’s Race
The saga of the Ford GT continues with a look at its racing debut
By Steve Turner
Photos courtesy of Ford Motor Company
We are just over a month away from the Ford GT’s historic return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans. On the 50th anniversary of the car’s historic finish, Ford Performance is bringing forth its all-new GT on the world stage. In honor of this undertaking, Ford Performance is sharing a five-part documentary series, titled The Return, about the car’s development and the third installment hit the Internet today.
In the first Chapter, titled The Decision, Ford luminaries like Bill Ford and Raj Nair, executive vice president, Ford Global Product Development, and chief technical officer, gave us the background on the choice to revive the legendary GT. The next chapter, titled The Cutting Edge, Dave Pericak and the team discuss the challenges of simultaneously building a street car and a race car capable of competing with the best in the world.
“We’re proud of how far we’ve come, but we have a long way to go,” Dave said. “Every time we race the Ford GT, we learn something. Our ultimate goal is the return to Le Mans.”
The first step in that process was some on-the-job training at Daytona International Speedway covered in the third episode of the series, titled Let’s Race…
[video=youtube;G4r5nJ-Qi-0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4r5nJ-Qi-0[/video]
“This project is one that’s very close to the heart of who we are at Ford and Ford Performance,” Raj added. “It represents the very best of what we do; that same spirit that drove the innovation behind the first Ford GT still drives us today. We’re not after short-term success – our eyes are on the long-term gain having a halo product that is this exciting can do for us, both in offering a new chapter in the Ford GT legend for fans and behind the scenes in engineering.”
The series will continue with two more episodes, titled A Driver’s Perspective and The Road To Le Mans. As you might ascertain, the former gives the story of the Ford GT from the point of view of its drivers, while the final installment details the events leading up to the Ford GT’s return to Le Mans.
“The Ford GT is a showcase that will help drive even more advanced technologies into our vehicle lineup,” said Bill Ford, executive chairman, Ford Motor Company. “We are using it not only to see what is possible, but also to help write the next chapter in our racing history and our future production.”
Of course, it’s not too late to submit an application to own one of those future production Ford GTs. The process is open until May 12 over at FordGT.com.
The latest episode of the Ford Performance Ford GT docu-series covers the racing debut of the new Ford GT. In the next two episodes we’ll hear from the drivers and learn about the preparations for the 24 Hours of Le Mans race.
