2015 Ford GT TSM - 154375 (resin)
Published 06/24/18
At the 2002 Detroit Auto Show, Ford unveiled a GT40 concept car. A homage to the winner of the Ferrari-Ford Wars, it would be part of the company’s upcoming 100th anniversary celebration in 2003. Because Ford didn’t own the “GT40” name anymore, the car was called just the Ford GT. Production started in 2005 and the car had some unique features. Just to name a few, it had a superplastic-formed frame, aluminum body panels and roll-bonded floor panels. The engine was an all-aluminum mid-mounted 5.4 l (modular) V8 engine with a Lysholm twin screw-type supercharger, mated to a Ricardo six-speed manual transmission with a helical limited-slip differential. The Ford GT was a bruiser, capable of a 0 to 100 km/h in just 3.3 seconds, with a top speed of 330 km/h. Produced from 2005 to 2006, a total 4038 rolled out of the factory.
In 2015, once again at the North American International Auto Show of Detroit, the second generation of the Ford GT debuted. Above all, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first Ford win at Le Mans in 1966. The chassis of the new car was a carbon fiber monocoque bolted to aluminum front and rear sub-frames. And to keep things light, body panels were all carbon fiber. The engine was also much more refined than what the previous generation used – a 3497 cm³ twin-turbocharged V6 engine producing 647 hp. To put all that power to the tarmac Ford used a 7-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox with manual shifting mode. Weighing about 1520 kg, at the time the GT delivered one of the highest power-to-weight ratios of any production car. That consequently allowed for a 0 to 100 km/h in 2.8 seconds and a top speed of 348 km/h.
Ever since it debuted in the 24 Heures du Mans, I’ve been hoping to have one in the Garage. Unfortunately though the good ones (= TSM) aren’t exactly easy to come by and not exactly cheap. However, Sensei Blythe (polka-dot purple belt of the 13th Dan in eBay-foo ) found a good deal on one. He was also gracious enough to intermediate the purchase for me. To be brief and save interweb bandwidth, I will just say that the model is just friggintastically gorgeous. Without a doubt the best TSM I have in the collection. Domo arigato, sensei!