Under The Skin of the Ford GT: eight Cool Facts About the 647-HP Supercar

What makes America’s newest supercar special

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Aside from engine components, some minor switch hardware, and Ford’s Sync three software, the fresh Ford GT is otherwise unique. Here’s a look under the skin of the newest all-American supercar.

Carbon-Fiber Bath and Integrated Rollcage

The central structure of the GT is a bespoke carbon-fiber bathtub made from forty five different parts. The instrument panel is a structural element, and atop the bath is a tubular structure that not only supports the roof but is also certified as a race-approved rollcage. “We’ve been asked many times why we didn’t do the cutouts in the roof that were such iconic elements of the original GT40,” GT design chief Chris Svensson says. “Well, we couldn’t because the rollcage requirements dictated where we needed the structural members.”

Aluminum Castings

These massive aircraft-industry-standard aluminum castings are bonded to the front and rear of the bath and machined to ensure precise locations for the suspension and steering components and the front and rear crash structures.

Carbon-Fiber Figure Panels

The GT’s exterior panels all carbon fiber—there’s no plastic, no metal. Ford claims a dry weight of Three,054 pounds for the road-going GT. The race car is homologated at Two,778 pounds, but it actually weighs about Two,425 pounds. Ford is therefore permitted to carry a lot of ballast to bring the race version up to its required weight, and it puts that ballast down low in the car to improve treating.

Engine

The GT’s 647-hp Trio.5-liter EcoBoost engine shares sixty percent of its parts with the Ford Raptor engine. The block is the same as the one used in EcoBoost-powered F-150s. All ancillary drives have been eliminated from the front of the engine to permit it to be placed as far forward as possible. The tall, round element just behind the block is part of the dry sump system, which holds 15.Three quarts of oil. The seven-speed dual-clutch transmission is Getrag’s 7DCL750. The intercoolers are mounted in the sponsons ahead of the rear wheels, and cooled, pressurized air is fed to the plenum chamber via tubes inwards the dramatic flying buttresses that connect the sponsons to the GT’s roof.

Pushrod Suspension

The GT’s compact and sophisticated pushrod suspension is similar to systems used by F1 racers and Le Boy’s prototypes. A remote coil spring (green) works in series with a torsion bar spring (green), compressed by a rocker actuated by the pushrod coming off the lower control arm. A secondary rocker actuates the remote mounted DSSV shocks (blue). In Track mode the high-pressure hydraulic system compresses the coil springs, ripping off the rail height from Four.7 inches off the tarmac down to Two.7 inches, relegating all springing duties to the torsion bar.

Aerodynamic Floor

The inboard pickup points of the front suspension are close to the center of the car, permitting the GT’s floor to feature a race car–style “keel” that enables a high volume of air to pass into the wheelwell and bleed out via a low vent just behind the front wheel opening. This helps the airfoil-shaped front section of the floor generate downforce. When the rear wing is stowed, flaps open above the front splitter to guide air through vents in the front foil section (just under the 2nd set of arrows) to reduce the downforce and balance the chassis.

Rear Wing

As the rear wing deploys, it also switches its profile, courtesy of electrified motors inwards that switch the foil form underneath and automatically extend a puny Gurney flap along the trailing edge. The result is a fourteen percent switch in efficiency inbetween the stowed and deployed positions. Depending on how you look at it, you get fourteen percent more downforce while it’s in the air or fourteen percent less haul when it’s stowed. Ford has a patent pending on the design.

Steering Wheel

The GT’s steering wheel was designed with the help of Ford’s team of racing drivers. “They gave us their input, they told us what they dreamed, what functions needed to be at arm,” GT design chief Chris Svensson says. Controls include light and wiper/washer switches, the drive mode selector, turn signal buttons, audio, and cruise control. The spanking paddle detents are magnetic, as in the GT race car, to give better precision and feel.

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