2005-2006 Ford GT40

[Bill Wells]

History Buff said :


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"The production run of 4038 GT's ended with the 2006 model year on the 21st of September, 2006, short of the originally planned 4500[6]. The Wixom Assembly plant, where the GT was finish-assembled, is scheduled for closure in 2007 and has stopped production of all models as of May 31, 2007[7]. Sales of the GT continued into 2007, from cars held in storage and in dealer inventories." But something about that rumor of dismantling ten finished cars doesn't make sense because if they stopped production at over 400 cars short of the number of cars they planned to build,they have lots of new old/stock leftover parts."

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Wally . I spent several years in production planning for one of the then BIG 3 .

When they ' plan ' a max build of 4500 units ( or whatever) they seldom order parts for that many 'up front ' . They typically hedge their parts purchases in increments to tie into their continually changing production planned build volume , either up or down. It is common knowledge, plus some inside info from SALEEN and Wixom, that some production was 'missed' or 'lost' in the early stages of building these cars , due to reworks, some bad parts , later engineering changes etc . Sometimes missed production can be made up by working over time or extending a planned last unit build date . Sometimes it is not made up.

However , decisions were made along the way to not make up the lost production - thus parts purchases would be adjusted accordingly.

As such, there are no massive amounts of parts laying around for the 400+/- units not built vs the original planned 'not to exceed' 4500 max build that had been reported in the press. You will not see 'continuation cars' built at a later date as some other folks have done in the past due to 'parts just discovered years later'.

Assuredly some parts are left over, some are required by law to be produced for future repair needs etc .

I am sure a call to Saleen in Troy Michigan might give you some info as to who has any left over parts - and what they are . ASC and Saleen are now combinded and housed together at the Troy plant that built the GT's. Most likely, any parts left over are now probably in the safe keeping of Ford for sale by dealers as needed for repairs .

Bill ........ ps. the old High School gang still asks about you - I tell them to buy one of your books and help out a fellow former classmate . LOL

[Historybuff]

Hi Bill:
OK, makes sense, but I wonder about those Roush cars. I think he calls his version of the GT the 600RE. In the publicity originally I thought they said they are "the last ten cars" but I think he may have meant the last ten built for UK or Continental importation. Do you think the sales of the European models didn't go as planned and Ford of Europe (or UK) said to Roush: "See if you can do anything with these?"

Here's an article from the Car Connection website: -----------------





The official stock of 101 Ford GTs that left America for Europe has sold out, but there's still new models available Stateside and legendary tuning firm Roush is now exporting them to the Britain.

Just ten cars are available, now badged as the GT 600RE. The first bit of the name is the power - up from 550 bhp on the standard GT - while the letters stand for Roush Europe.



Other changes a new exhaust system, tinted glass, color-keyed hoses under the hood, and black powder-coated wheels. Unique identity plaques are also available. The sprint to 60 mph is completed in 3.4 seconds and top speed is restricted to 205 mph.



The 600RE costs roughly $300,000, a good $40,000 more than the standard car was, and two have already found homes. "We've taken a winning formula and enhanced those areas with features which our customers have asked for," said a Roush spokesman.



The company is synonymous with the GT. It developed the car's powertrain, and also converted all the Europe-bound models to meet local legislation. Roush also has a history of creating special-edition Fords, and was the brains behind the 420RE version of the Mustang.
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Actually the answer to that isn't as important as 1.)did Roush bid against Saleen to build the Ford GTs and, if so, why did he lose when he already
had proved to Ford that he was very competent (and had the engine development contract as well). The only thing I can think of is that he had better connections with Ford brass, or maybe his Saleen S7 convinced Ford that if he could build a car that good, that building the Ford GT ought to be duck soup. Has there ever been an interview in print with Roush saying why he didn't get the assembly contract or didn't he even try?

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