Seven Days of Dream Car Garages: Day Six by Craig Cole
2005 Ford GT
But then again sometimes performance is all that matters, which is why the Ford GT has a parking spot in my dream garage, plus Jason Siu already claimed the Audi R8 I had my eye on. The company only built these magnificent machines for a couple years, but the short run doesn’t diminish their awesomeness, rather it burnishes it to a blinding glow.
Styled after the triumphant GT40s that stormed Le Mans and trounced Ferrari in the 1960s, the 21st-century version is an honorable homage to the original.
Probably one of the most distinctive-looking supercars to ever prowl the road, Ford’s awesome GT is a driver’s dream. A hand-built 5.4-liter supercharged V8 is mounted immediately behind the cabin, delivering a 550 horsepower kick in the ass along with an equal measure of torque. Quad camshafts actuate a veritable forest of valves – four per cylinder – for maximum airflow.
The car is a cocktail of exotic materials including aluminum, carbon fiber and magnesium. With a starting price of about $140,000 it was a bargain relative to the performance it delivered.
Even today the GT is brutally fast but civilized at the same time. It can rip your face off and eat it, for Sunday brunch. I’ll take mine in the orange and blue Gulf Oil livery, thank you very much.
