Part of Ford’s drive to revive its “heritage” nameplates, the 2004 Ford GT also celebrated the American automaker’s centennial.
The GT was Ford’s second road-legal supercar, created in the original, Le Mans-winning GT40’s image; well, almost, as it is bigger, wider, and taller compared to its predecessor. But even with its increased dimensions, it isn’t what you call “user-friendly”, or “ergonomically optimized” as Doug DeMuro demonstrates in his latest video.
Surprisingly, the Ford GT is easy to handle on the road and very well put together, but it becomes a nuisance when it comes to parking, mainly due to its doors – which open with a portion of the roof.
The interior, bespoke as it is, also features some components “borrowed” from the Focus. But (unsurprisingly), those mass-produced elements are actually the most unlikely to go wrong or be expensive to replace.
Basically, the Ford GT is a proper, storage-lacking, exotic supercar, which introduced new and unique technologies when it was launched (including aluminum body panels, a friction stir welded center tunnel, a magnesium center console, one-piece door panels and so on). Sadly, it wasn’t a commercial success, as only 4,038 were ever made, 462 less than originally planned. Nowadays, though, they fetch ~$400,000 on the second-hand market, nearly three times more than the original $139,995 MSRP.
Interestingly, only the 2002 pre-production show car comes with the GT40 name, after negotiations between Ford and the company who owned the trademark failed.