Did you miss out on the Ford GT, which is currently wrapping up production with a 67-unit run of $1.7M, track-only swansong cars? You may have another chance. According to Fox News, an enthusiast named Fred Calero, who owns several Ford GTs including examples from 2005, 2006, and 2020, got wind of the fact that Ford had built 30 additional chassis of the mid-2000s Ford GT some 15 years ago to use for additional parts if needed.
Evidently they weren’t, and Calero bought all 30 chassis and formed a company, GT1, based at the M1 Concourse race track in Pontiac, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. Calero and his company plan to build out all 30 chassis as track-day cars—not street-legal—over the next few years.
What to do for a body? According to the GT1 website, the car “utilizes a full carbon fiber body with an obsessive focus on downforce and aerodynamic efficiency.” Calero struck a deal with a Swiss racing company called Matech, which, according to Fox News, “built competition versions for endurance racing, and tweaked them for higher production and the latest aerodynamic strategies. A new high-performance suspension was also designed.” Wheels will come from Forgeline.
For power, rather than use the twin-turbo V-6 that came in the 2017–2020 GTs or the 5.4-liter supercharged V-8 that came in the retro GTs from years earlier, Calero wants to use an aluminum Roush-Yates turbocharged 7-liter, or 427 cubic-inch V-8 capable of about 1,500 horsepower.
The engine will use Garrett turbochargers which, GT1 says, “At just 4 pounds of boost, the G35s propel the RY45TT [engine] to 1150 horsepower on 93 octane pump gas. The G35 turbos flow enough air to provide 1800 horsepower at peak boost and efficiency within their compressor map.” It will be, GT1 claims, the most capable engine “to ever be put in a Ford chassis.”
As you’d expect, the GT1 won’t be cheap. Fox says, “GT1 plans to complete four customer cars next year at an estimated price of $1.2 million, then increase the output to four per quarter until it runs out of chassis.”
You can get your order in at GT1cf.com.
@ only 4lbs of boost hardly worth the additional: weight, cost and complexity.
The very next sentence says, “ The G35 turbos flow enough air to provide 1800 horsepower at peak boost and efficiency within their compressor map.” Think that makes it worth it?