Ford GT Mk2 unleashed as track-only special
Blue Oval's supercar dons track-suited big aero package and gets more power but isn't road-legalThe drapes have been pulled off the Ford GT Mk2 at the Goodwood Festival of Speed that's been created to rival the Aston Martin Vulcan and forthcoming Brabham BT62.
Featuring the same twin-turbocharged 3.5-litre V6 as the regular Ford GT supercar, as predicted, engineers have wound power up from 483kW to 521kW.
Like before, all that power is channelled to the rear wheels via a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission that has been beefed up to cope with the extra undisclosed torque produced by the uprated engine.
Developed to spend its life being far harder than the road-going GT, the near race-spec motor gets a new air-to-air outboard mounted charge cooler that neatly incorporates water spray tech in high temperature conditions.
It's also hard to miss the GT Mk2 benefits from a new roof-mounted scoop that feed fresh air to coolers for the engine, clutch, and transmission.
The roof scoop is just one part of a huge overhaul of the standard GT's aero, that sees the Mk2 benefit from Ford Performance's involvement in motorsport with its Ford GTE race car that competed recently at the Le Mans 24 Hour.
That explains the new front splitter, diffuser, fender louvres, dive plans and a large rear wing that claims, in total, to boost downforce an incredible 400 per cent – it's thought the extra aero will mean the track-biased GT will have a slower top speed than the road car's 348km/h max.
Other changes including standard carbon-ceramic brakes, 19-inch forged aluminium wheels and a full race-spec suspension that replaces the GT's ride height-adjustable suspension carving more than 90kg from the kerbweight.
Now Ford claims the GT Mk2 can pull up to 2Gs cornering.
Some of that saved weight has been added back in with a full roll-cage, race-spec Sparco seats that include a six-point harness.
Ford Performance says it will make just 45 GT Mk2s with each priced from $1.2 million ($A1.7m).
Sadly, all 45 cars will be track-only but, like the McLaren P1 GTR and Aston Martin Vulcan, a small batch of cars are expected to be adapted for road user by third-party engineering firms.
It's rumoured a faster still race car based on the Ford GT could already be in development following the announcement that the World Endurance Racing hypercar class was confirmed for the 2020/2021 season.
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