GT in new C&D
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I dont see anything particularly wrong with that article. It's a bumer, but it's what happened. We will all see the Ford GT vs. Z06 comparison in the future, so we will have to determine if it is fair then. However, whether we like it or not, we all know it will be.
If you compare the Z to the GT, then you must compare it to the other supercars which the GT is currently pounding...
stagger said:
Yes you must, and it will be. It should pound them as well, all for less than half the price of the GT.
It was great to see Corvette take first and second at the 24hrs. of LeMans. A real testimant to the Corvette. Why wouln't Ford race the GT?
Any racing development that they do have is mostly in the Mustang SCCA I would think. To launch a racing campaign with a mid-engine car with no development would be a long process, in which the costs would be great. Vettes been in competition forever. Kudos to chevy for sticking with the r&d. That's basically where most of the new Z06's design has come from.
I understand the money aspect, I guess I was referring to it as why didn't they race the GT from the beginning. It is a car ment to pay homage to the GT40 "dominating" race car. You would think they would race the darn thing. I dont understand a lot of their decisions.
Formula51 said:
Money. It cost millions of dollars to form a race team and develop a racing car. Why would Ford do this with a car with a production number of 200 or so? Sure it would have added prestige, but it would have been a major loss. Same reason they didn't pay for the rights to "GT40". It's an extremely low production car. They back Mustangs because they sell hundreds of thousands of them. Also developmental parts are sold through Ford Racing Parts.
black99lightnin said:
The Saleens, Ferraris, Aston Martins and Maserattis in the ALMS GT class are built in less production numbers but they have stepped up to race. It's too late for the GT now that production will end in 2007 unless a privateer does it.
A shame really.
-RR
DBK said:
actually it was roush that fed him up and jeremy was actually crying when the car left.
Sorry, Ford, I have to ask for my money back
PETER TARRY Thirty-five years ago I promised myself that one day I’d own a Ford GT40, the blue-collar supercar that took an axle grinder to Ferrari’s aristocratic halo at Le Mans. But 25 years ago my dreams were dashed as I grew too tall to fit inside. Happily, in 2002 Ford announced that it was to build a modern-day version of the old racer. It would, they said, cost less than £100,000 and do more than 200mph. They also said it would be much bigger than the original so pylon-people like me would be able to drive it.
And so, two years ago, having tested a prototype in America, I placed an order for one of the 28 that were coming to Britain.
As the months groaned by there were rumours of big price increases, insatiable thirst and catastrophic suspension failure. But there were also rumours of the supercharged V8 pumping out 550bhp and a mountain of torque so massive it was breaking the testing equipment. So I didn’t mind.
I didn’t even mind when it arrived at my house one month ago inside a truck which had “On Time” written down the side. As we know from America’s arrival into the second world war, their concept of “on time” differs slightly from ours.
And anyway, it looked so gorgeous, a mass of bulging muscle struggling to contain that massive 5.4 litre supercharged heart. It doesn’t look like a GT40 but it looks like a GT40 looks in your head. And it’s huge. Longer than a Volvo XC90 and as wide as a Hummer.
Which is why, on its first run, to London, it was like a blue and white Pied Piper trailing a stream of ratty hatches in its wake. Everyone was taking pictures, waving, giving me the thumb’s up. Never, not once in 15 years of road testing cars, had anything drawn such a massive crowd. And never had the crowd been so overtly supportive.
Of course you can’t run a car like this without a few problems rearing their head from time to time. It’s too wide for the width restrictions on Hammersmith bridge — backing up earned me a slot on the traffic news that morning. The turning circle means every mini roundabout becomes a three-point turn, and at oblique junctions, as is the case in a Ferrari Enzo, you absolutely cannot see if anything’s coming.
But set against this is a surprisingly quiet and civilised ride. It’s like a power station. Silent, as it gets on with the job of brightening up your life.
Mind you, you are constantly aware of the Herculean power that nestles just over your right shoulder. Partly because you can see the supercharger belt whirring away in the rear-view mirror and partly because it makes a deep, dog-baiting rumble when you do put your foot down.
Ford asked that I keep the revs below 4000 for the first thousand miles. But since 100mph equates to 1900rpm it’s not really a hardship. And at this speed you’re doing 15mpg, which isn’t bad at all. But three days later everything started to go very, very wrong.
Leaving the Top Gear studio, the immobiliser refused to un-immobilise itself. So the car was pushed into the hangar and I went home instead in a rented Toyota Corolla.
Ford sent a tow truck, changed the immobiliser and delivered the car to my house the following day. “Is it fixed?” I asked. “Yes,” they said.
At three in the morning the alarm blew. And then again at four. This meant my wife started to refer to it as “that f****** car”, which took away a bit of the sheen, if I’m honest
Jeremy Clarkson
It wasn’t. At three in the morning the alarm blew. And then again at four. This meant my wife started to refer to it as “that f****** car”, which took away a bit of the sheen, if I’m honest.
The next day, on the way back to the garage, I received a call on the hands-free phone from the tracker company. “Your car’s been stolen, sir,” said the man. “I’m sure it hasn’t,” I said, “because I’m in it.”
Fearing that I might be the burglar, the man asked if I could give him my password. Tricky one that, since I have a different password for everything on the internet and can never remember any of them. And that’s a big problem, because the man at the end of the phone has the power to remotely shut down the engine.
I threatened him, lightly, with some physical harm, but this didn’t work so I had to guess. “Aardvark,” I ventured. “Abacus, Aesop, additional . . .”
Eventually he took pity and I was able to deliver the car back to Ford with some stern warnings about the alarm, the immobiliser and the tracker system, all of which seemed to be malfunctioning. As a courtesy car they gave me a Ford Focus, with a diesel engine. Nice.
Two days later the GT was back. “Is it fixed?” I asked, again. “Yes,” they said
Five minutes out of the Ford garage I received a text to say my car had been stolen. And then, in the next half hour, three more. So, counting the two I’d received before I was even out of bed, that meant my car had been stolen five times before 9am.
This time I rang Ford and explained that I would personally come over there and insert the whole car up the chairman’s backside if it wasn’t fixed. And while I was on the phone a yellow warning light came on the dash. “There’s a yellow warning light on the dash,” I bellowed, like Michael Winner, only angrier. “Oh, that’ll be something to do with the engine management system,” said the man with the bleeding ears. “You’ll need to get it looked at . . .”
When Ford gave me the car back after its third hospital trip in as many weeks, I didn’t ask if the security system was fixed. Because the notion of it still being broken was simply inconceivable.
NI_MPU('middle');
So imagine my surprise when, one hour later, while at my daughter’s school play, I heard a familiar siren. I couldn’t believe it. The alarm had gone off again.
In a fury this time, I called Ford and explained, loudly, that Roush, the company charged with servicing and maintaining the 28 GTs in Britain, was plainly incompetent. And that there was simply no point asking it to fix the alarm again because it’d had three goes already.
I then did something the man at Ford wasn’t expecting. I asked for my money back.
And that, the next day, is what happened.
They put £126,000 in my account and sent a man to pick up the car. “Is it the alarm system?” he said. “They all do that.”
So there we are. A 35-year dream. A two-year wait. Ten years of damn hard work. And what do I get? The most miserable month’s motoring it is possible to imagine.
Strangely, however, as the GT rumbled down my drive for the last time, I felt like Julie Walters watching Michael Caine getting on the plane at the end of Educating Rita. I actually cried.
There’s a very good reason for this. I genuinely believe that some machines have a soul and I can’t bear to think of my Ford sitting in a warehouse now, unloved and unwanted. It is fine. It is perfect. It knows it’s a great, great car that was ruined by a useless ape who fitted a crummy aftermarket alarm system.
Ford has said I can buy the car back any time. It has even lent me an Aston Martin DB9 while I make up my mind. I don’t know though. I just don’t know.
Normally I finish these columns with an opinion of mine. But this time it’s the other way round. I’d love to hear yours.
One thing: I know I could sell the car privately and make a £50,000 profit. But I have never profited from my position as a motoring journalist. And I never will.
VITAL STATISTICS
Model Ford GT
Engine 5409cc V8 supercharged
Power 550bhp @ 6500rpm
Torque 500lb ft @ 3750rpm
Transmission Six-speed manual
Fuel 14.6mpg (combined cycle)
CO2 N/A
Acceleration 0-60mph: 3.8sec
Top speed 212mph
Price £126,000
Verdict So good you can have mine
Rating Five stars
I think he went a little overboard to get rid of a car he loved because of an alarm or Roush.
Formula51 said:
WTF are you talking about, the Mclaren has FE and the Ford GT cost two to three times lower than them all. :bash: BTW the only one that said anything good about the car was jeremy. :beer:
oke: :shrug:Can anyone explain why FoMoCo is getting the brunt of the blame here, the alarm, the tracking system and anyother whizding function he referred to is not a factory option rather an add on aftermarket option. And he was such a nice guy when he came over a couple years back.
bpt
bpt
It sounds like he is giving Roush the shalacking for the screwups simply because they can't fix it.
The best part of the whole Top gear video was when they made fun of it because they only got like 3 mpg ON THE TRACK, no shit your going to get that when your foot is on the floor 99% of the time and at 6000RPMS all the time, the best part is the dumb ass audience always agree's.
FordGTGuy said:WTF are you talking about, the Mclaren has FE and the Ford GT cost two to three times lower than them all. :bash: BTW the only one that said anything good about the car was jeremy. :beer:
Hmmmm.... yes. Last time I checked the Mclaren was not in this C&D comparison, nor did I ever mention it. You do know there are lots of other European cars right? Two of them in this comparison, the F430 and the Gallardo are low, sleek, mid-engine designs. Haven't seen what Top Gear had to say about the F430, but they liked the Gallardo as I recall. These cars are more expensive than the GT, yes, but they are not astronomically more expensive. The GT is a very similar design to the typically favored European sports cars and has a price tag close enough that they dont have too much trouble saying good things about it in comparison to the European cars. This is how Top Gear operates. However, it is still America and they will always find something bad to say. I cant wait for all the awful things they say about the "cheap" Corvette Z06.
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were talking in general now, we dropped C&D sometime ago. F430 is overrated and a dumb idea on Ferrari's part. Gallardo is cool but its a Lamborghini so why would you compare a Ford to a Lamborghini? the Ford GT is faster than both the Gallardo and F430 and cheaper what more do you need. I'm sorry but the Ford GT is going to be faster than the Z06 so could you stop comparing the two. You need to start comparing it to the F430 and other cars on its level of performance.
Are you ok??? So you acknowledge that you got all hiped up about the Mclaren, which I never mentioned? I was not even talking performance anyways. I was talking about Top Gears opinions of cars and the design of cars. As for performance, the F430 and the Gallardo are on the same level of performance as the GT. Just because they do not best it does not mean they are not on the same level. As for the Z06, it will be compared to the F430, Gallardo, Ford GT, etc. All cars on the same performance level. I dont doubt that the GT will be faster than the Z in a straight line, but the Z will stop faster and lap times should be close. That sounds like two cars on the same level that should and will be compared.
On the same day, at the same track, the GT beat all the European cars and that is awesome. I love to see American cars win.
On the same day, at the same track, the GT beat all the European cars and that is awesome. I love to see American cars win.
FordGTGuy said:
Ahh...I dont get it. Why wouldn't you compare Ford's supercar to Lamborghini's? You make me frustrated. Did your mom tell you that life is jsut about having fun and competition isn't important. "It doesn't matter if you win or loose, just try to have fun hunny." In the car industry, it matters who wins or looses!
Formula51 said:
noone argued the point of winning or losing. The Ford GT is a pace car for one company while on Lamborghinis end they only make supercars so yes I wouldn't compare. Ford GT was made in 6 months while lamborghinis are made over years, also the parts on the Ford GT came from many differen't companies while lamborghini uses their own. :read:
oke:Theres a way to compare performance and a way to compare perfection.
Performance: Ford GT destroys the Gallardo so much that if a I remeber correctly the Gallardo doesn't even brake 4 seconds 0-60.
Perfection: Ford GT was made in 6 months and using a V8 SC it keeps up with Europes Finest.
The Z06 will compete with the F430 on all levels of performance and perfection. But the Ford GT and Z06 will compete on some levels of performance but the Ford GT will beat it in perfection.
:rollseyesAhhh and I forgot something the famous qoute everyone is using, "The Ford GT is a supercar and the Z06 is a sportscar."
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Gallardo:
MT
0-60: 4.3
1/4: 12.5
60-0 B: 115ft
Popular Mechanics
0-60: 4.68
1/4: 12.53
R&T
0-60: 4
1/4: 12.3
60-0 B: 110ft
Ford GT:(all reviews in 04, R&T is before new exhaust)
MT
0-60: 3.6
1/4: 11.78
60-0 B: 111ft
Popular Mechanics
0-60: 3.43
1/4: 11.69
R&T
0-60: 3.8
1/4: 12.2
60-0 B: 117ft
MT
0-60: 4.3
1/4: 12.5
60-0 B: 115ft
Popular Mechanics
0-60: 4.68
1/4: 12.53
R&T
0-60: 4
1/4: 12.3
60-0 B: 110ft
Ford GT:(all reviews in 04, R&T is before new exhaust)
MT
0-60: 3.6
1/4: 11.78
60-0 B: 111ft
Popular Mechanics
0-60: 3.43
1/4: 11.69
R&T
0-60: 3.8
1/4: 12.2
60-0 B: 117ft
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