Ten years ago, an American sports car legend was reborn in Michigan. Of course, we're talking about the Ford GT, the modern interpretation of Ford's four-time Le Mans-winning racer, the GT40. Only 4,038 units were manufactured between 2004 and 2006, all powered by a 5.4-liter supercharged Modular V8 with 550 horsepower and 500 ft-lb (678 Nm) of torque on tap.
Ford toyed with the idea of a 21st century GT40 as early as the 1990s, more exactly when it introduced the GT90 concept car at the 1995 Detroit Auto Show. Although it wasn't a looker and Jeremy Clarkson described it as being a bit of a dog's breakfast on the driving dynamics front, the GT owes its existence to it.
The Ford GT could do 0-60 miles per hour in circa 3.5 seconds, even though the only transmission option available was a six-speed manual. It could keep up with the 2007 Ferrari 430 Scuderia, even though the Italian featured a fancy high revving V8 and flappy-paddle gearbox. The 2013 Dodge Viper SRT-10 is only 0.1 seconds faster to 60 miles per hour.
That's about enough nostalgia for today. In order to properly celebrate the Ford GT's 10th birthday, we recommend you have a look at the video below. Don't forget to turn your headphones all the way up to 11 cause there's a lot of wondrous V8 burble action topped with the whine of an eager Eaton supercharger.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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