A big thanks to Wallace Wyss (bitzman), for not only hooking up the forum with this report, but also for taking the time to send the photos to me to scan in for the site :cheers Read on...
A Short Report on the new Ford GT roadster
by Brian Winer
I have seen the future and it is no longer such a long way off. I speak of the Ford GT roadster.
Waiit a minute, you say, doesn't Ford only make a coupe?
Yes, Ford makes a coupe and an essential part of that design was the doors coming into the roof. Ford wanted to retain the major design elements of the original GT40s that raced at LeMans in the sixties. (winning in 1966 for the first of 4 LeMans wins in a row) When you do have space to open these doors all the way open, well, you are very unlikely to bump your head on the roof as you enter. But now there's an alternative, a guy in Wisconsin who transforms it into a delectable targa.
Now myself, I am a cornering purist. I don't want a car that flexes, and convertibles and targas do flex more than coupes. But after spending an hour riding around the hills of Malibu in a Ford GT transformed into the GTX-1 by Mark Gerish of Ganaddi Design, I am convinced that others will like this car because it puts the Ford GT into the more useable category if you have tight parking in your garage.
The new one of course has all the same mechanical specs--starting with the 5.4 liter DOHC V8 rated at 550 hp., and though that seems like a lot we didn't notice any cowl flex or windshield shake when you put the pedal to the metal. The new Ford GT uses an aluminum tube frame, square section tubes inserted into a cast alloy node at each of the corners and is incredibly rigid. Ford got the idea from Ferrari. They even bought a Modena 360, dissected it and put it back together so they knew all Ferrari's secrets.
Now when we were invited by the car's creator, Mark Gerish, to ride in the car, he hadn't brought along the four individual pieces that compose the top, but we know from his previous work that it is not beyond his capability to work it out; plus the fact that an engineer on the Ford GT team, Kip Ewing, put in thousands of hours working out the details and another firm that supplies the auto industry with latching mechanisms is contracted to work out the details as well. Ford wouldn't be co-operating with Gerish if they weren't sure of his expertise and track record.
The car was the star of the annual SEMA show in Las Vegas in November. Gerish is taking orders at the conversion price of $38,000 on top of what you paid for your Ford GT. If you don't have a Ford GT yet, he has the names of "friendly" dealers who can supply a Ford GT without the large "dealer premium" dealers were charging the car's first year on the market. The open version made its premiere in November '05 and Gerish already counts 50 orders. Production will commence in August,'06-- the same month Ford shuts down the Ford GT assembly line with approximately 3,500 to 4500 cars built.
Ironically, demand for the coupes was so high at first that many owners paid as much as $60,000 to $80,000 more than Ford's MSRP to get their cars. But now that prices have fallen to the '06 MSRP of around $156,000, the new buyers be able to buy the car and the Genaddi Design roadster conversion and still be under what the first wave of buyers paid for standard coupes.
But won't a cut car be worth less than a coupe, as Ferraris sometimes are (Ferrari 400i coupes cut into convertibles are now worth less than new Toyota Solara convertible!). Maybe, but this conversion makes the Ford GT more like a Porsche Carrera GT than it was before, at about one third the price, and with almost the same power and same top speed.
And it will cost Ford prices to fix, not Porsche prices. We predict the roadster versions will not depreciate in value, but be new superstars at every gathering of Ford fans, such as the Shelby conventions and at future Barrett-Jackson and Russo & Steele auctions. Gerish isn't stopping at the open top conversions--he plans to offer special wheels, which may or may not resemble the experimental wheels onthe car, carbon fiber bodywork and even accoutraments like clothing, etc. Every area that Ford didn't get covered with marketing the car he plans to cover.
I hope that you too, get a chance to try this open-air supercar. By the way, the name GTX1 wasn't made up, there actually was a one-off Ford GT40 called that, a special big block car modified by Bruce McLaren that he ran in Can Am uinsuccessfully. Shelby took it back in- house, added a regular Mk. II nose and tail and damned if Lloyd Ruby and Ken Miles didn't win Sebring with it in '66....
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE AUTHOR: Brian Winer owns a Safir GT40 M.V continuation car,and is co-author of Ford GT40 Photo Archive. His latest book, co-authored with Al Axelrod and Wallace Wyss, is entitled "Ford GT40 and the new Ford GT," and expected to be published in a limited edition in '06. To be notified when the book is in print, you can put yourself on an e-mail mailing list. Write Brian at Trueford@aol.com
A Short Report on the new Ford GT roadster
by Brian Winer
I have seen the future and it is no longer such a long way off. I speak of the Ford GT roadster.
Waiit a minute, you say, doesn't Ford only make a coupe?
Yes, Ford makes a coupe and an essential part of that design was the doors coming into the roof. Ford wanted to retain the major design elements of the original GT40s that raced at LeMans in the sixties. (winning in 1966 for the first of 4 LeMans wins in a row) When you do have space to open these doors all the way open, well, you are very unlikely to bump your head on the roof as you enter. But now there's an alternative, a guy in Wisconsin who transforms it into a delectable targa.
Now myself, I am a cornering purist. I don't want a car that flexes, and convertibles and targas do flex more than coupes. But after spending an hour riding around the hills of Malibu in a Ford GT transformed into the GTX-1 by Mark Gerish of Ganaddi Design, I am convinced that others will like this car because it puts the Ford GT into the more useable category if you have tight parking in your garage.
The new one of course has all the same mechanical specs--starting with the 5.4 liter DOHC V8 rated at 550 hp., and though that seems like a lot we didn't notice any cowl flex or windshield shake when you put the pedal to the metal. The new Ford GT uses an aluminum tube frame, square section tubes inserted into a cast alloy node at each of the corners and is incredibly rigid. Ford got the idea from Ferrari. They even bought a Modena 360, dissected it and put it back together so they knew all Ferrari's secrets.
Now when we were invited by the car's creator, Mark Gerish, to ride in the car, he hadn't brought along the four individual pieces that compose the top, but we know from his previous work that it is not beyond his capability to work it out; plus the fact that an engineer on the Ford GT team, Kip Ewing, put in thousands of hours working out the details and another firm that supplies the auto industry with latching mechanisms is contracted to work out the details as well. Ford wouldn't be co-operating with Gerish if they weren't sure of his expertise and track record.
The car was the star of the annual SEMA show in Las Vegas in November. Gerish is taking orders at the conversion price of $38,000 on top of what you paid for your Ford GT. If you don't have a Ford GT yet, he has the names of "friendly" dealers who can supply a Ford GT without the large "dealer premium" dealers were charging the car's first year on the market. The open version made its premiere in November '05 and Gerish already counts 50 orders. Production will commence in August,'06-- the same month Ford shuts down the Ford GT assembly line with approximately 3,500 to 4500 cars built.
Ironically, demand for the coupes was so high at first that many owners paid as much as $60,000 to $80,000 more than Ford's MSRP to get their cars. But now that prices have fallen to the '06 MSRP of around $156,000, the new buyers be able to buy the car and the Genaddi Design roadster conversion and still be under what the first wave of buyers paid for standard coupes.
But won't a cut car be worth less than a coupe, as Ferraris sometimes are (Ferrari 400i coupes cut into convertibles are now worth less than new Toyota Solara convertible!). Maybe, but this conversion makes the Ford GT more like a Porsche Carrera GT than it was before, at about one third the price, and with almost the same power and same top speed.
And it will cost Ford prices to fix, not Porsche prices. We predict the roadster versions will not depreciate in value, but be new superstars at every gathering of Ford fans, such as the Shelby conventions and at future Barrett-Jackson and Russo & Steele auctions. Gerish isn't stopping at the open top conversions--he plans to offer special wheels, which may or may not resemble the experimental wheels onthe car, carbon fiber bodywork and even accoutraments like clothing, etc. Every area that Ford didn't get covered with marketing the car he plans to cover.
I hope that you too, get a chance to try this open-air supercar. By the way, the name GTX1 wasn't made up, there actually was a one-off Ford GT40 called that, a special big block car modified by Bruce McLaren that he ran in Can Am uinsuccessfully. Shelby took it back in- house, added a regular Mk. II nose and tail and damned if Lloyd Ruby and Ken Miles didn't win Sebring with it in '66....
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE AUTHOR: Brian Winer owns a Safir GT40 M.V continuation car,and is co-author of Ford GT40 Photo Archive. His latest book, co-authored with Al Axelrod and Wallace Wyss, is entitled "Ford GT40 and the new Ford GT," and expected to be published in a limited edition in '06. To be notified when the book is in print, you can put yourself on an e-mail mailing list. Write Brian at Trueford@aol.com
