Ford GT

[twobjshelbys]

Originally Posted by LMH

Car is fast, comfortable, brakes very well and easy to drive. Kind of benign IMO as high performance cars go. Lacks character like the Cobra. Draws as much attention as the Cobra does. That's my observations w/o actually owning it.
Larry

I put a pulley and tune on mine and its HP:weight ratio is better than my Cobra. It will get you into as much trouble as a Cobra just as quickly. The Cobra has more luggage space though.

[Bernica]

Originally Posted by twobjshelbys

I put a pulley and tune on mine and its HP:weight ratio is better than my Cobra. It will get you into as much trouble as a Cobra just as quickly. The Cobra has more luggage space though.

I am no expert, but there appear to be a LOT of GT's that were wrecked pretty fast after purchased. Seems like the first thing some inexperienced persons want to do is pulley them before they even learn do drive them. That results in the inevitable.

How many of the 4,000 produced have been totaled

[Cobra #3170]

Originally Posted by Bernica

I am no expert, but there appear to be a LOT of GT's that were wrecked pretty fast after purchased. Seems like the first thing some inexperienced persons want to do is pulley them before they even learn do drive them. That results in the inevitable.

How many of the 4,000 produced have been totaled

Unfortunately, having the money to buy one does not correlate with having the ability to drive one although some folks seem to equate their earning ability with all sorts of other skills. In stock form they are very safe in that they have all kinds of safety features like roll under steer and wheel rates heavily biased toward under steer. On cold days a stock GT can make 550 wheel horsepower.
High performance summer tires have very little traction as temperatures drop combine those factors with an inexperienced driver and you have an accident waiting to happen. They are still orders of magnitudes safer than any Cobra because of construction, occupant protection systems, wheel base and
vehicle dynamics. A Cobra can kill you, a GT can be destroyed in a big crash but the occupants will most likely survive. Although there have been lots of Cobra crashes I think the owners as a group are more aware of the dangers of inappropriate throttle application than GT owners were when the car came out. The GT forum did a lot to educate people as to the dangers of driving them in an unsafe manner, similar to what this forum has done for years with Cobra owners.

[Bernica]

Originally Posted by Cobra #3170

Unfortunately, having the money to buy one does not correlate with having the ability to drive one although some folks seem to equate their earning ability with all sorts of other skills. In stock form they are very safe in that they have all kinds of safety features like roll under steer and wheel rates heavily biased toward under steer. On cold days a stock GT can make 550 wheel horsepower.
High performance summer tires have very little traction as temperatures drop combine those factors with an inexperienced driver and you have an accident waiting to happen. They are still orders of magnitudes safer than any Cobra because of construction, occupant protection systems, wheel base and
vehicle dynamics. A Cobra can kill you, a GT can be destroyed in a big crash but the occupants will most likely survive. Although there have been lots of Cobra crashes I think the owners as a group are more aware of the dangers of inappropriate throttle application than GT owners were when the car came out. The GT forum did a lot to educate people as to the dangers of driving them in an unsafe manner, similar to what this forum has done for years with Cobra owners.

Very well put Sir!

[LMH]

Originally Posted by Cobra #3170

Unfortunately, having the money to buy one does not correlate with having the ability to drive one although some folks seem to equate their earning ability with all sorts of other skills. In stock form they are very safe in that they have all kinds of safety features like roll under steer and wheel rates heavily biased toward under steer. On cold days a stock GT can make 550 wheel horsepower.
High performance summer tires have very little traction as temperatures drop combine those factors with an inexperienced driver and you have an accident waiting to happen. They are still orders of magnitudes safer than any Cobra because of construction, occupant protection systems, wheel base and
vehicle dynamics. A Cobra can kill you, a GT can be destroyed in a big crash but the occupants will most likely survive. Although there have been lots of Cobra crashes I think the owners as a group are more aware of the dangers of inappropriate throttle application than GT owners were when the car came out. The GT forum did a lot to educate people as to the dangers of driving them in an unsafe manner, similar to what this forum has done for years with Cobra owners.

That's for sure! They come out to track events and cause a whole host of problems yet to listen to them talk, they just raced the 24 at Le Mans. On the track, they're more like bumper-cars!
Larry

[Bernica]

Yup. A friend of mine talked me into going to a show with him to meet this kid with an '06 GT. Rich kid, no brains. All he kept telling me is how he had spooled it up and thought he had almost 1,000 hp now. I asked him if he had gone to driving school yet and how much seat time he had and he said "no man, I know how to drive". Well, that car is one of the ones that is now a total wreck two weeks after I met him. But, you are right...he was safe and walked away to go find something else.

[twobjshelbys]

Originally Posted by Cobra #3170

Unfortunately, having the money to buy one does not correlate with having the ability to drive one although some folks seem to equate their earning ability with all sorts of other skills. In stock form they are very safe in that they have all kinds of safety features like roll under steer and wheel rates heavily biased toward under steer. On cold days a stock GT can make 550 wheel horsepower.
High performance summer tires have very little traction as temperatures drop combine those factors with an inexperienced driver and you have an accident waiting to happen. They are still orders of magnitudes safer than any Cobra because of construction, occupant protection systems, wheel base and
vehicle dynamics. A Cobra can kill you, a GT can be destroyed in a big crash but the occupants will most likely survive. Although there have been lots of Cobra crashes I think the owners as a group are more aware of the dangers of inappropriate throttle application than GT owners were when the car came out. The GT forum did a lot to educate people as to the dangers of driving them in an unsafe manner, similar to what this forum has done for years with Cobra owners.

If you can drive a Cobra competently in all conditions the GT will not be a problem. It's a very good driver training experience !!! They actually handle very similarly.

But don't for an instant think that a driving a Z06 or a McLaren or a Ferrari is relevant experience. On a track maybe, but with all the nannies on the others the FGT will bite you.

[twobjshelbys]

Originally Posted by Bernica

I am no expert, but there appear to be a LOT of GT's that were wrecked pretty fast after purchased. Seems like the first thing some inexperienced persons want to do is pulley them before they even learn do drive them. That results in the inevitable.

How many of the 4,000 produced have been totaled

Yes, they are a handful straight from the factory. I don't think as SFSDFGT said that the mid engine really is a factor, but that the original tires were hard as hockey pucks and would as he also said, let go in turns. Note my Cobra had a tendency to do the same thing with its hard tires.

[SFSDFGT]

Originally Posted by twobjshelbys

Yes, they are a handful straight from the factory. I don't think as SFSDFGT said that the mid engine really is a factor, but that the original tires were hard as hockey pucks and would as he also said, let go in turns. Note my Cobra had a tendency to do the same thing with its hard tires.

That is just my impression, but maybe my brain is biased because that is how I would expect a rear-weight-bias car to behave. All I know is that I also have a GT500 with over 750 rwhp and the same F1 supercar tires as my GT came with, and even with the upgraded Bridgestone tires on my GT, the tail end of my GT whips around ferociously once traction is lost, compared to my GT500, or any of my other cars too, for that matter. Just my $.02

[twobjshelbys]

Originally Posted by SFSDFGT

That is just my impression, but maybe my brain is biased because that is how I would expect a rear-weight-bias car to behave. All I know is that I also have a GT500 with over 750 rwhp and the same F1 supercar tires as my GT came with, and even with the upgraded Bridgestone tires on my GT, the tail end of my GT whips around ferociously once traction is lost, compared to my GT500, or any of my other cars too, for that matter. Just my $.02

That can also be due to the torque. The GT engine is real torquey and the transmission not as lossy.

Whatever you do don't miss your throttle blip on a downshift. Don't downshift and stomp on the accelerator. Don't stomp on the accelerator in 3rd. I had my tires break loose in colder weather even shifting from 3rd to 4th! Oh, and don't feed it after midnight.

As for the Goodyear tires, there were a few at the Vegas rally (and very high caliber drivers, among them one of the test drivers) that said he preferred the Goodyears over the Bridgestones on the track. But you'll never get them warm enough to get that benefit. He confirmed that overall the Bridgestones are a better street tire.

Be sensible, and remember "A man's got to know his limitations".

[SFSDFGT]

Originally Posted by twobjshelbys

That can also be due to the torque. The GT engine is real torquey and the transmission not as lossy.

Whatever you do don't miss your throttle blip on a downshift. Don't downshift and stomp on the accelerator. Don't stomp on the accelerator in 3rd. I had my tires break loose in colder weather even shifting from 3rd to 4th! Oh, and don't feed it after midnight.

As for the Goodyear tires, there were a few at the Vegas rally (and very high caliber drivers, among them one of the test drivers) that said he preferred the Goodyears over the Bridgestones on the track. But you'll never get them warm enough to get that benefit. He confirmed that overall the Bridgestones are a better street tire.

Be sensible, and remember "A man's got to know his limitations".

No, that's not it. My GT feels way less torquey than some of my other rides, including the GT500 I mentioned.

Granted, this is just cut and paste from wiki, but this better states what I was trying to express:

"Mid engined cars are more dangerous than front-engined cars if the driver loses control - although this may be initially harder to provoke due to the superior balance - and the car begins to spin. The moment of inertia about the center of gravity is low due to the concentration of mass between the axles (similar to standing in the middle of a playground roundabout, rather than at the edge) and the spin will occur suddenly, the car will rotate faster and it will be harder to recover from. Conversely, a front-engined car is more likely to break away in a progressive and controllable manner as the tires lose traction."

[twobjshelbys]

Originally Posted by SFSDFGT

No, that's not it. My GT feels way less torquey than some of my other rides, including the GT500 I mentioned.

Granted, this is just cut and paste from wiki, but this better states what I was trying to express:

"Mid engined cars are more dangerous than front-engined cars if the driver loses control - although this may be initially harder to provoke due to the superior balance - and the car begins to spin. The moment of inertia about the center of gravity is low due to the concentration of mass between the axles (similar to standing in the middle of a playground roundabout, rather than at the edge) and the spin will occur suddenly, the car will rotate faster and it will be harder to recover from. Conversely, a front-engined car is more likely to break away in a progressive and controllable manner as the tires lose traction."

I could not in the cobra and cannot in the gt do a straight line burnout. The rear end always wanted/wants to come around. Donuts all day long but won't go straight