Tuesday 25th March 2003

2005 Ford GT

GT(40) out testing in Los Angeles

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One of the first prototypes of the all-new 2005 Ford GT supercar was recently spotted during noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) testing. This wasn't in some deserted backwater, in the desert or the wilds of Alaska, but in the Los Angeles "River" Basin concrete expanses commonly used for action scenes in Hollywood movies.

Anyone looking for exciting clues as to what the 2005 car will look like will be disappointed though. The car has stayed true to its design and often appears without much camouflage.

Some subtle exterior changes are expected in future prototypes and the first three Centennial production cars which will incldue an integrated spoiler and bumper.

Los Angeles drivers were some of the first to see a Ford GT testing in public early in 2002. Part of Ford's Los Angeles NVH testing routine is to repeatedly drive a pre-established public city route to collect data on interior noise levels. The recorded data is then used to help identify and resolve noise issues, and then compared to more refined prototypes later in development.

The development engineers even perform burn-outs to determine how it impacts interior noise volumes - well that's what they tell us.

The early cars are using a 4.6-litre 400 horsepower engine before prototypes of the final 500-horsepower 5.4 litre production motors are available.

[rob.ellis]

Now, that looks like a really, really tough job...:



But hey, i suppost someone has to do it..

[danger mouse]

...not sure how that prototype rear bumper would fair in pedestrian safety testing.

[Captain Muppet]

danger mouse said: ...not sure how that prototype rear bumper would fair in pedestrian safety testing.

Come on - in reverse?

[grumpygitmode]
goddam safety regulations
[/grumpygitmode]

[robp]

I for one love this car.

The old 60's style GT40 gets me rather excited and this new incarnation does not let me down.

Nice one ford

[apache]

how can anyone say retro is a bad thing? that looks superb, christoff, are you down for one of these?

[rossh]

sorry, but the original car was good in its day, but this car is just pastiche crap.

Why am I continually dissappointed by the lack of imagination shown by these american car makers.. oh that's right.. it's Ford...

[tuscansix]

Remember 'Bland is the new Black'.

[robp]

I just hope the car turns out like its concept and does not get lost in all the safety/consumer bullshite the Americans seem to love. It would not suprise me if the car eventuly looked like a SUV when it hits the streets in a few years

[jvaughan]

looks ot me like someone ****ed up their GT40 Kitt .. sprayed it black and drove it around LA for a while.

look at the bonding on those front lights ....
and the tubular steel bumper .... dome a favour......

is this real or a piss take ?

Incidently, the GT40 Concept didnt have a bubble in the roof when it was shown over here ... this black thing has

>> Edited by jvaughan on Wednesday 26th March 00:25

www.new-cars.com/concept/photos/ford-gt40.jpg

>> Edited by jvaughan on Wednesday 26th March 00:26

[robp]

jvaughan said: looks ot me like someone ****ed up their GT40 Kitt .. sprayed it black and drove it around LA for a while.

look at the bonding on those front lights ....
and the tubular steel bumper .... dome a favour......

is this real or a piss take ?

Think thats just because its a prototype, the pictures in the magazines a few months ago look a lot better!

[Graham.J]

Is it still keeping to it's 40" height, looks bigger than the old one



May just be me though.

[308gt4]

according to a press release I saw with the specs it was 42.5" IIRC which means it should be a GT42.5

Either way it seems car makers have run out of ideas and we are getting re-runs (hopefully better built)

[pikey]

Ted - what was that you said about Ford being boring and unimaginative?

That beastie certainly floats my boat!