2016 Ford GT at the Detroit Auto Show

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The Ford GT is an American mid-engine two-seater sports car manufactured and marketed by Ford for model year 2005 in conjunction with the company's 2003 centenary. The second generation Ford GT became available for the 2017 model year.[1]

The GT recalls Ford's historically significant GT40, a consecutive four-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans (1966–1969), including a 1-2-3 finish in 1966.

The Ford GT began life as a concept car designed in anticipation of the automaker's centennial year and as part of its drive to showcase and revive its "heritage" names such as Mustang and Thunderbird. At the 2002 North American International Auto Show,[3] Ford unveiled a new GT40 Concept car. Camilo Pardo, the then head of Ford's "Living Legends" studio, is credited as the chief designer of the GT and worked under the guidance of J Mays. Carroll Shelby, the original designer of the Shelby GT 500, was brought in by Ford to help develop the GT; which included performance testing of the prototype car. While under development, the project was called Petunia.

The GT is similar in outward appearance to the original GT40, but is bigger, wider, and most importantly 4 in (100 mm) taller than the original's 40 in (100 cm) overall height; as a result, a potential name for the car was the GT44. Although the cars are visually related, structurally, there is no similarity between the modern GT and the 1960s GT40 that inspired it. Three pre-production cars were shown to the public in 2003 as part of Ford's centenary celebrations, and delivery of the production version called simply the Ford GT began in the fall of 2004.

As the Ford GT was built as part of the company's 100th anniversary celebration, the left headlight cluster was designed to read "100".[4]

Naming difficulties
A British company, Safir Engineering, who built continuation GT40 cars in the 1980s, owned the "GT40" trademark at that time. When production of the continuation cars ended, they sold the excess parts, tooling, design, and trademark to a small Ohio based company called Safir GT40 Spares. This company licensed the use of the "GT40" trademark to Ford for the initial 2002 show car. When Ford decided to put the GT40 concept to production stage, negotiations between the two firms failed, thus the production cars are simply called the GT.

Production
The GT was produced for the 2005 and 2006 model years. The car began assembly at Mayflower Vehicle Systems in Norwalk, Ohio and was painted and continued assembly at Saleen Special Vehicles facility in Troy, Michigan, through contract by Ford. The GT is powered by an engine built at Ford's Romeo Engine Plant in Romeo, Michigan. Installation of the engine and transmission along with seats and interior finishing was handled in the SVT building at Ford's Wixom, Michigan plant.[5]

Of the 4,500 cars originally planned, approximately 100 were to be exported to Europe, starting in late 2005. An additional 200 cars were destined for sale in Canada. Production ended in September 2006 without reaching the planned production target. Approximately 550 cars were built in 2004, nearly 1,900 in 2005, and just over 1,600 in 2006, for a grand total of 4,038 cars. The final 11 car bodies manufactured by Mayflower Vehicle Systems were disassembled, and the frames and body panels were sold as service parts. The Wixom Assembly Plant has stopped production of all models as of May 31, 2007.[6] Sales of the GT continued into 2007, from cars held in storage and in dealer inventories.

The Ford GT has been campaigned in various racing venues. These include:

A highly modified GT was raced in 2006 and 2007 in Super GT's GT300 class in Japan powered by a 3.5 L Ford Zetec-R engine produced by Cosworth in the mid-1990s for Formula One.[30]
A Swiss team Matech Concepts entered three Ford GTs modified to GT3 class specifications in the FIA GT3 European Championship.[31] Matech won the Teams title in the 2008 Championship.[32]
Atlanta-based Robertson Racing entered a Doran-built Ford GT-R in the American Le Mans Series GT class (formerly GT2).[33] The team made its first 24 Hours of Le Mans appearance in 2011, scoring 3rd position overall in the GTE Am Class.
Black Swan Racing entered a Falken Tires-sponsored Ford GT-R in the GT2 class in the American Le Mans Series during the 2008 season.