By the thinkBIG Team
Ford's re-incarnation of their all Ferrari conquering 60s GT40 race car typifies the American supercar. It's big, loud, fast, attention seeking and totally pointless. This is why it has received so much praise worldwide.
Many have said that the Ford GT is what a pure supercar should be. It's raw, has no electronic aids (except for ABS), and would only feel at home if it was on a race track. At 2m wide, it's just not practical to thread through the Sydney traffic and narrow roads. And with absolutely no storage (not even a glovebox!) you can't even take it up the coast for the weekend.
But all that is forgotten when you bury your right foot into the floor and Ford's fastest production car ever, leaps forward like a caged animal that has just been unleashed. However, with over 390kW available from the supercharged 5.4 litre V8, you have to make a few checks before you do this:
1. Make sure there is no one either side of you. With no traction control, it's likely to fishtail sideways – even on dry tarmac. Also you don't want to scare any other drivers with the enormous exhaust note.
2. Be sure there is at least half a kilometre of clear road ahead of you. The Ford accelerates so fast, that you'll be up the rear of anything within seconds.
3. Be prepared to lose your license.
4. Hold on!
With a top speed of 330km/h, I doubt few Ford GT owners have experienced its limits.
Speaking of whom, there are only 4,200 owners worldwide. Ford only made a limited number of the GT between 2005 and 2006. However in Australia, there are only two. One is owned by Lindsay Fox – housed with his private car collection, it rarely sees the light of day.
The other is owned by the Supercar Club, who generously lent it to ThinkBIG magazine to share with our readers. For most people in Australia, these photos are about as close as its gets
to experiencing one. Ownership, even for the ultra wealthy, is almost out of the question as the car was never designed to be driven here. Government taxes, steering conversion, servicing and lack of manufacturer support make it all too expensive and hard. However the Supercar Club has gone to all this effort to make it available to its exclusive network of members.
The Supercar Club is exactly that – a club where members get to share in a pool of exotic supercars for a fraction of the price of owning them. "Unfortunately only Supercar Club members get to drive the Ford GT," says Peter Dempsey, CEO of the Supercar Club.
"We are about to take delivery of a Ferrari California and we are expecting a Lamborghini LP 640 before the end of September."
When asked what sort of people were members of the Club, he replied, "We have movie stars, bankers, doctors and dentists, green grocers and brokers."
However Peter exercises absolute discretion when it came to naming names.
