The Ford GT did not make much of a sense in the mid-2000s when the carmaker rolled it out. It was a tribute car, and it did look fantastic. But Ford pretty much gambled with it. It had the Mustang that it wanted to revive. Yet, it came up with another sports car. Later on, this one also became the poster car for several generations. And we have one of those poster cars right here.
It is a 2006 Ford GT, one of the only 2,011 that the carmaker built for the model year out of a total of 4,038 ever made. Ford was planning to build 4,500, but despite marketing predictions, it never hit that planned production target. 100 of them ended up in Europe, while 200 were exported to Canada, with the rest being reserved by American customers. When Ford unveiled the GT, the demand outpaced supply.
The GT was mostly based on the GT40 racing cars of the 1960s. While it was in development, the model was called Petunia. The first production unit rolled off the assembly line at Mayflower Vehicle Systems (MVS) in Norfolk, Ohio, on June 28, 2005.
The car sported an extruded aluminum space frame, roll-bonded floors, and, to keep the weight under control, light aluminum body panels.
The model that we have right here is finished in Centennial White with the optional blue racing stripes and Ford GT graphics over Ebony leather. The current owner installed a clear paint protection film on the front end in 2018.
Photo: Bring a Trailer
The 2006 Ford GT rides on forged lightweight aluminum BBS wheels of 18 inches on the front axle and 19 inches on the rear one with grippy 235/45 front and 315/40 rear Goodyear Eagle F1 tires. A Brembo-sourced braking system with four-piston monoblock calipers, sporting cross-drilled and ventilated rotors that measure 14 inches up front and 13.2 inches out back, provide the stopping power.
HID headlights, fog lights, and a front splitter round off the front fascia of the GT, while there are the air diffuser and the dual center-mounted exhaust system making the rules at the opposite end.
The model came out of the factory with air conditioning and a Macintosh CD stereo system. Rubber mats cover the bare aluminum floor. Keep in mind, it was a street-legal racecar, not exactly designed with comfort and luxury in mind. The occupants sit in Sparco seats with manual adjustment and carbon fiber shells sporting the GT40-style ventilation grommets that some may find terribly useless and uncomfortable. Again, comfort was the last thing on the engineers' minds while designing this sports car.
There are rotary climate controls in the center tunnel, something purists miss desperately in the cars of today. A leather-wrapped steering wheel affixed to a tilting and telescoping column sits in front of the GT40-inspired instrument cluster, which includes the central tachometer with a 6,500-rpm redline and the offset 220-mph (354-kph) speedometer.
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The first-gen Ford GT could hit 62 mph (100 kph) from a standstill in 3.8 seconds and could run the quarter mile in 11.8 seconds. A modified version of the GT broke the record for the fastest street-legal car: it reached 300.4 mph (483.4 kph) in March 2019.
A digital odometer only indicates 607 miles (977 kilometers). 344 (554 kilometers) of them were added by the current owner. Toggle-switch controls, placed right under additional gauges, show the coolant temperature, oil pressure, voltage, boost, and fuel level.
The GT went through a factory recall in 2017, when the driver-side airbag inflator was replaced. Also replaced was the passenger-side assembly in 2019.
This 2006 GT is powered by the supercharged mid-mounted DOHC 5.4-liter V8, which starts at the push of a button. The power unit was built at Ford’s Romeo Engine Plant in Romeo, Michigan. It sports an aluminum block, a Lysholm sere-type supercharger, a dry-sump lubrication system and a water-to-air intercooler.
Photo: Bring a Trailer
The engine is linked to a Ricardo six-speed manual gearbox and a helical limited-slip differential. 550 horsepower (558 PS) and 500 lb-ft (678 Nm) of torque, steered toward the rear axle, are the figures that this Ford GT brags about.
The car was bought new from the Tom Peck Ford in Huntley, Illinois. The current owner bought it in 2013 and has kept it ever since, keeping its garage queen status since today, the odometer only shows, as previously indicated, 607 miles (977 kilometers).
The model is now offered with no reserve in New Jersey with a window sticker, purchase documents, and service records. The manufacturer’s literature, a workshop manual, a car cover, the Deluxe Marti Report, and the Carfax report, as well as a clean Montana title in the name of the seller are also included. With seven days left to the end of the auction, bidding has hit $400,000 and counting.
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