What the blazes is this thing?!
It's Ford going mental on us with the GT MkII. It's the third model in the current Ford GT family. Only it's the fastest. Not only in a straight line, but also around the corners, too.
Hold on - you're forgetting the WEC racing version, aren't you?
We most surely are not. The Ford GT racer is limited by Balance of Performance regulations, which means it has to be capped to around 500hp. That's some way down on the road car's outputs of 656hp and 746Nm, albeit the racer somewhat makes up for that by being lighter and proffering up a shedload more downforce. Well, hold onto your hats: the GT MkII is more powerful than the road GT and it has more downforce than the race GT. Ooh-la-bloody-la!
Are you being serious?!
Absolutely. The MkII - its name coming from the historic GT40s, which ran MkI, MkII, MkIII and MkIV; it was the competition MkII which famously galloped to a 1-2-3 victory at Le Mans in 1966 - has the same 3.5-litre twin-turbo EcoBoost V6 as its siblings, but here the wick is turned up to 700hp. The aero on it is comprised of a dual-element rear wing which summons up more downforce than the race GT, that balanced out by an all-new front splitter, a rear diffuser, louvres in the wings and a set of dive planes. All-in, this thing generates more than 400 per cent EXTRA downforce compared to the road-going GT. And as it sits on forged aluminium 19-inch wheels with Michelin Pilot Sport GT racing tyres, the aero, the rubber and the race-proven suspension means this behemoth will haul in excess of 2g of lateral grip. That's enough to tear your face clean off.
I take it this is a track-only machine?
Again, absolutely. Just 45 examples of the GT MkII will be built, and they start life at the GT facility in Markham, Ontario, Canada, before being transferred to Multimatic Motorsports, where they are transformed into the full MkII majesty. It is actually Multimatic that will be selling the 45 MkIIs to be built... at a price of $1.2 million (around £954,000) each.
Good grief! Anything else you can tell me about the MkII's make-up?
Yup, it's 90kg lighter than the road-going GT, because it doesn't have adjustable ride height nor the drive modes. Instead, the MkII is fitted with five-way adjustable DSSV shock absorbers and a lower, fixed ride height, which both keep the aerodynamics as efficient as possible and which also make the handling even more nimble. A seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox - yes, the one from the street GT - channels the 700hp to the back wheels. And there's a load of cooling upgrade work, too, such as a high-capacity, outboard-mounted air-to-air charge cooler with water-spray tech and the roof-mounted intake. This apes the racer's engine-air intake but on the MkII, it doesn't feed into the V6 itself; instead, it leads to auxiliary engine, clutch and transmission coolers. Stopping power is enhanced to the road-going version's carbon-ceramic Brembo discs, measuring 394mm at the front and 358mm at the rear, while inside there's a bespoke Sparco racing seat with a six-point harness and a full MoTeC data-logging system, which doubles as a display for the rear-view camera. A passenger seat is optional.
Just one question: why?
Why not? Maybe Ford Performance and Multimatic just wanted to show what the GT was capable of, if unrestricted by pesky regulations. And so we go over to Larry Holt, Multimatic's chief technical officer, who said: "The true off-the-hook performance capability of the GT hasn't yet been fully showcased. The road car is obviously limited by the many global homologation requirements that it must comply with, and the race car suffers from the restriction of the dreaded Balance of Performance, resulting in it being 150hp down to the road car. The MkII answers the regularly asked question of how would the car perform with all the limitations lifted: the answer is 'spectacularly'."
Matt Robinson - 4 Jul 2019
