The all-new GT was designed from the outset as a race car aiming to win its class at Le Mans. However, this isn’t to say Ford hasn’t loaded the car with some cool features for the road, such as launch control.
Brooks from the DragTimes YouTube channel took delivery of his 2018 GT not too long ago, and with the run in period done, thought it’d be a good time to see just how quickly it accelerates.
Like almost all other launch control systems used in modern performance cars, the GT’s is very easy to use. You simply enable it, firmly press down the brake, pin the throttle and then let go of the brake. With the GT, Ford has designed the system to keep the engine at roughly 3.000 rpm, with the car bouncing off the artificial limiter much like a two-step system from a rally car.
Throughout his various runs, Brooks was clocking 0-60 mph (0-96 km/h) times of roughly 3.1 seconds. However, it’s important to note that these times were recorded on a normal street and the car was having some traction issues. It’s entirely possible that at a drag strip, and with the tires at their optimal temperature, a sub-3 second time could be achieved.
With that in mind, the GT is roughly on par with its rivals from Lamborghini, Ferrari, McLaren, and Porsche in the 2.5- to 3.0-seconds range. For the most part, this seems to be the best ICE-powered street cars can do with current tire technology. Electric hypercars, however, like the Rimac C_Two and Tesla Roadster, are both promising 0-60 mph times below 2 seconds thanks to the power being available from the get-go.