Thursday 30th July 2015

Ford GT: name not down? You're not coming in!

Ford of Britain boss tells us that he's fighting for allocation of the forthcoming GT, but don't expect many

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The new Ford GT won't be here until late next year but Ford is already plugging its forthcoming Ferrari-baiter. The concept that was unveiled at Detroit in January has been doing a tour of the UK, including being driven around London in a glass box on the back of a truck, and even got a swanky reception at the Royal Automobile Club HQ last night.

Win on Sunday, sell on Monday? No need!

We went along to neck some free Champagne, and also to talk to Ford of Britain's newly appointed chairman and managing director, Andy Barratt, about it.

Let's start with the good news: some will be coming to the UK, and expressions of interest are being received. As of yesterday, that totalled 107. Less good is the fact that only tiny numbers are likely to come here; so if you're name's not down then this is one club that you're unlikely to be allowed into any time soon.

"I'm fighting very hard for allocation," Barratt told us, "when we produced the last GT there was a global run of around 4,000, of those 101 came to Europe and 28 were officially imported into the UK. This run is a lot lower, it's only 250 a year and we haven't declared the absolute run that we'll be doing, but you can imagine that the numbers are going to be a lot lower... Seven per cent of Ford's global sales are in the UK, so my argument is that I should get seven per cent of that."

28 of these officially imported to the UK

To save you the maths, that would be 17.5 cars a year; let's round it up to 18. But still tiny numbers compared to the volumes sold by segment rivals in the UK. Informed speculation reckons the GT will be produced for either three or four years, meaning a global total of either 750 or 1,000 - and fewer than 100 coming to the UK, even on this best case scenario.

Barratt is determined to do all he can to keep speculators away from the car, insisting that the UK allocation will be prioritised towards those who have a history with Ford and who are planning to actually use their cars.

"We're nowhere near allocating cars yet, but when we do we'll definitely look for their history with Ford, whether they've done something with us in the past. Inevitably speculators will try to get onto the list, but we're looking for people who will love and cherish the car, but most of all drive it and enjoy it."

Drink it in - you won't see many!

And some good news for scuzzy journos, too. "I want one on the press fleet so that you can all have a go," said Barratt, "and what I really want is to get one that we then keep in our heritage centre too. I had that car in a showroom in Leicester at the weekend and 600 people turned up to see it. As the guy who runs Ford of Britain I have a huge responsibility to keep the engine running, and a draw like that is enormous."

[Orange Rocket]

The chances of me ever seeing one of these on the roads is exceedingly low but I would love to do so all the same; so pleased that UK allocation is being fought for!

That picture of the race version really should be Pic Of The Week this week...