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Ford GN34: The Secret ’80s Supercar With Ferrari Looks and a Corvette Price Tag

Fifteen years after the GT40 racecar managed to defeat Ferrari at Le Mans for the fourth time in a row, Ford began a secret project aimed to create a supercar that would rival the Italian manufacturer’s most popular road-legal models in terms of design and performance, all for the price of a Chevrolet Corvette.
Ford GN34 11 photos
Photo: Ford Motor Co.
Ford GN34Italdesign Maya ConceptItaldesign Maya ConceptItaldesign Maya ConceptItaldesign-Ford Maya IIItaldesign-Ford Maya IIGhia-Designed Ford GN34 ConceptGhia-Designed Ford GN34 ConceptGhia-Designed Ford GN34 ConceptFinal Version of the Ford GN34 Concept
An ambitious undertaking, to say the least, the top-secret project kicked off in 1983. It was handed to the carmaker’s Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) team in the U.S., but other divisions such as Ford Europe or the Ghia design studio pitched in to turn it into reality. Codenamed GN34, the car benefited from a budget that exceeded $160 million (around $455 million today), and the aim was to have it roam the streets by late-1988.

In 1984, SVO turned its attention to the car’s styling and contacted several European coachbuilders for the job. Although Ford’s Ghia design house was also commissioned to create a concept, Giorgetto Giugiaro’s Italdesign had a ready-built show car that checked all of SVO’s boxes. Dubbed Maya, the high-tech vehicle originated from a proposal for a Lotus Esprit successor and appeared at the Turin show in November 1984, powered by a Ford V6.

Italdesign\-Ford Maya II
Photo: Ford Motor Co.
Further development yielded the Maya II, an improved variant that was painted red and featured Ford badges. Both a styling model and a test mule were built, but Italdesign’s concept was sidelined in late-1985 in favor of two other design proposals by Ford’s Detroit-based International Studio and Turin coachbuilders Ghia.

These two cars were shown at a private event to a select group of supercar owners who chose the Ghia proposal over the one conceived by the American studio. The two design teams would then partner up and create yet another vehicle that combined touches from the initial concepts, including a removable targa top that could be stowed above the engine compartment.

Meanwhile, several test mules were put to a series of extensive tests against the world’s best sportscars. Although they performed well, the SVO team wasn’t satisfied with the results, so they sent a GN34 chassis to Canewdon Consultants in Essex, England where it was fitted with advanced components such as forged aluminum unequal-length control arms up front, and a multilink rear suspension with twin lower arms and a race-spec tension strut.

Ghia\-Designed Ford GN34 Concept
Photo: Ford Motor Co.
For the production version, various powerplants were considered. The Maya II mule used a twin-turbo V6, while later test vehicles such as a modified DeTomaso Pantera were fitted with a tuned V8. A second Pantera racked up thousands of miles with a new, naturally aspirated Super High Output (SHO) V6 that was originally being developed in collaboration with Yamaha for the high-performance Taurus SHO. An enlarged version of this engine with a targeted output of around 300 hp was chosen as the standard unit for the final production car, while a new 4.6-liter modular DOHC V8 together with all-wheel-drive would have been added as an option later on and fulfill the promise of delivering a Ferrari-killer.

With Italian styling, engineering work done by Japanese, European, and American experts, the GN34 was an international effort like no other. It was an extremely promising supercar that could have made waves on the market during the early 1990s. Unfortunately, by 1986 the projected cost had risen by 40% over what was initially planned, and Ford management decided to cancel the GN34 effort and redirect the remaining budget to the Explorer SUV project. Fans of the American brand would have to wait almost two decades for a true mid-engine supercar, the 2003 Ford GT.

You can learn more about the secretive GN34 in Steve Saxty’s Secret Fords Volume Two, a brilliant book that tells the story of the carmaker’s most interesting concept cars from the mid-1980s to the early 2000s.
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About the author: Vlad Radu
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Vlad's first car was custom coach built: an exotic he made out of wood, cardboard and a borrowed steering wheel at the age of five. Combining his previous experience in writing and car dealership years, his articles focus in depth on special cars of past and present times.
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