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<\/p>\n<\/div>Salt Lake City, Utah \u2013<\/p>\n
Whether winning LeMans or wowing the automotive press at 130 mph on the Utah Motorsport Campus race track, the 2017 Ford GT has realized its lofty dreams.<\/p>\n
Built to return Ford to glory 50 years after its fabled drubbing of Ferrari, the GT race car beat all production-based competitors last year at the world\u2019s premier endurance race. This month, the production version debuted to members of the automotive media who came here from across the globe to sample the supercar\u2019s twin-turbo thrust, active aerodynamics and sizzling track performance.<\/p>\n
So it\u2019s hard to imagine that the Ford GT might never have happened. Indeed, it was conceived as a Mustang.<\/p>\n
When Ford\u2019s Performance Team first plotted in early 2013 how to commemorate the GT40\u2019s historic 1966 LeMans win, Ford\u2019s pony car \u2013 no slouch in the performance department \u2013 seemed the perfect instrument. The LeMans 50th dovetailed with Mustang\u2019s 50th birthday and Ford\u2019s plans to take the iconic Yankee coupe global.<\/p>\n
In the end, however, the GT would not be denied as Ford decided it was not only the best race car for the 24 Hours of LeMans, but also a chance to test Ford\u2019s automotive know-how against the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t tell the story of the Ford GT without telling the story of Project Silver,\u201d Ford Performance chief engineer Jamal Hameedi said trackside in Utah. \u201cIt (started as) a Mustang. It was called Project Silver after the Lone Ranger\u2019s horse.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone felt the need to celebrate that win in a very special manner. So we began thinking. Could we align these two anniversaries and use the Mustang to go back to LeMans?\u201d<\/p>\n
But as captivating the idea of the Mustang conquering Europe\u2019s greatest race sounded, it soon ran into logistical hurdles.<\/p>\n
A race car based on a $30,000 muscle car was a vastly inferior species to Ferrari\u2019s exotic 488-based entry (like 50 years before, Ford eyed the prancing horse as its chief rival) with a much less aerodynamic shape than the low, wide, mid-engine Italian. Production-based cars compete in LeMans GTE-class, which includes Corvette, Porsche, Ferrari, and others.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would have been at a significant disadvantage with the Ferrari,\u201d Hameedi said. \u201cWe would have needed a few favors from the FIA [Federation Internationale de l\u2019Automobile, the LeMans organizing body] to be an aerodynamically competitive car.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the basement of Ford\u2019s Dearborn development facility, Mustang models were sketched and run through powerful computer-aided design programs. Modifying a front-engine coupe to compete in the brutally competitive GT class is not unheard of. BMW, for example, is campaigning its big M6 this year \u2013 but it is barely recognizable in race trim with enormous fenders and a steroid-fed drivetrain.<\/p>\n
Similarly, Project Silver\u2019s Mustang was becoming unrecognizable.<\/p>\n
\u201cLittle by little it was morphing into a car that didn\u2019t look so much like a Mustang,\u201d Hameedi said. \u201cIt was like fitting a square peg in a round hole. We went all the way up to [Ford CEO] Mark Fields and the project was canceled.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 50th anniversary of LeMans loomed and Ford didn\u2019t have a car. Project Silver had burned a lot of time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were were back to square one,\u201d recalled Hameedi. Inevitably, the conversation turned to a mid-engine, GT40 successor. At least his team had an engine to build the car around: the ferocious, 3.5-liter Ecoboost that Ford\u2019s competition partner, Chip Ganassi Racing, had been testing in another race series.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery year you get a question and a rumor about the next GT. That was always in the back of our minds,\u201d Hameedi said. \u201cCertainly GT and LeMans are a natural.\u201d<\/p>\n
A GT heritage car had been made once before \u2013 as a $150,000, 2005 model to commemorate the company\u2019s 100th anniversary. That car\u2019s collector status \u2013 it is the only one of its peer group (Ferrari 360, Lamborghini Gallardo and McLaren SLR) that has appreciated in price \u2013 appealed to top Ford brass.<\/p>\n
But a new GT would require a different level of effort. The 2005 car, powerful though it was, was not designed as a racer to beat thoroughbreds like Porsche and Ferrari. A new GT would have to meet that standard.<\/p>\n