2004 Ford GT

[decooney]

At Monterey / Concorso Italiano they had the first White/Blue car there with the Team Leader / Chief Design Engineer present.

The Design Engineer (seemed to be a young guy, late 20s/early 30s) had a chance to speak to the crowd with the car up on the show podium. It was preceeded and followed by some very exotic Lambos. It was interesting to hear this guy talk about the experience of developing this car from the start, and when he was selected to do the project. He said when they first started the project, and selected him to head it up, they sat him down in front of the decision makers. They brought in an original GT40 right in front of him and said "okay, so now, how are you going to improve on that?". He knew then it was going to be a challenge. Then commented to say the project was exciting and challenging trying to come up with something that kept all the original lines and shape, same doors and entry approach so you wouldn't hit your head getting in (as Ford originally designed it for Lemans). So, they decided to make it a just a little longer, wider, taller, but did not want to stray too much from the original car - ONLY making upgrades and technology changes where it made absolute sense.

In comparison, it sounded pretty quiet and tame with the stock exhaust compared to the 64-Valve Lambo right behind it. When you rev it up, it has that unmistakeable GT40 type exhaust note.

Nice to see some real effort and thought put into this car. I wonder how it will do against the Vette and Viper on the road race courses in the future ?????