Ford planning LeMans Return + Ford GT revival

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I wish I could bathe in the butthurt over this car. Feels so good.

"Fuel efficiency in a super-car? How stupid can you get? Meow meow American Vee-Ate Meow meow 427 cubic inches."

It's almost as if lightness and fuel efficiency are great qualities in an endurance race car. But who would ever put a Ford GT(40) in an endurance race?
Yeah but V8's just have that special sound you know? What would you know about how great that is in an American car?
 
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Oh man...

As much as i love the new GT. The V6 could probably be the reason people choose the Zora.
 
But this GT was designed to go racing, not strictly be a street car. It will probably have very limited production like the 2005 did. It will probably sell out very fast and have an even more passionate fanbase than a mid-engined Corvette.

People who can afford cars like this don't "choose", they simply get what they want. The only one of them who really cares about the V8 sound is Jay Leno. I don't - I'm certainly disappointed the GT350 still sounds like a Mustang.
 
I hear those holes in the tail lights are for the turbo wastegate dumps.

I call BS. Why would you route a wastegate pipe all the way to the corners? That's heavy. Plus, you'd dirty up or melt the tails. I think the wastegates dump into the regular exhaust, or into the space between the outer and inner pipes sticking out of the rear.

The holes in the tails are to vent the space inside of those side pods where the intercoolers are.
 
I can't wait for MR 'Vette (I can't believe its happening) vs Ford GT. But really, that's just a team scrimmage. It's really Ford & GM tag team against the world. That's how I see it anyways, so I'm glad each one has a slightly different ethos.
 
This whole V8 vs. V6 thing just makes me shake my head at the car community.

People always seem to consider it a negative thing if a company uses older technology in their car, yet the moment they put a hybrid or powerful V6 in a car people complain about that as well.

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I used to be the same way but after hearing it I'd say they've redeemed themselves. At least at low revs it sounds amazing. :drool:
 
I call BS. Why would you route a wastegate pipe all the way to the corners? That's heavy. Plus, you'd dirty up or melt the tails. I think the wastegates dump into the regular exhaust, or into the space between the outer and inner pipes sticking out of the rear.

The holes in the tails are to vent the space inside of those side pods where the intercoolers are.
Most external dumps curve straight into the exhaust and if this engine is closely based on the race engine it probably has an external dump like that. If they were super awesome they'd put screamer pipes on it. I'm already loving the turbo whistle and open dumps would make it sound that much more terrifying.
 
This whole V8 vs. V6 thing just makes me shake my head at the car community.

People always seem to consider it a negative thing if a company uses older technology in their car, yet the moment they put a hybrid or powerful V6 in a car people complain about that as well.
Well thing is, there are a lot of people. Not necessarily all on the same side. If it is the same people complaining, then I'm surprised.

As for the engine itself a small part of me wonders how much of it is Ecoboost marketing. I know some of it is (and that's not necessarily bad), but not how much.
 
It makes sense though. That way you can tell the mongrels that yes, your F150 is powered by the same engine that just won Le Mans, and uses the exact same technology as the one in your Fiesta. It's not false advertisement in a way, because they share the same name.

Win on sunday, sell on monday.
 
Well thing is, there are a lot of people. Not necessarily all on the same side. If it is the same people complaining, then I'm surprised.

As for the engine itself a small part of me wonders how much of it is Ecoboost marketing. I know some of it is (and that's not necessarily bad), but not how much.

I wouldn't say it's a lot, the ecoboost has been basically now deep rooted into Ford and it's product lines, so saying its genes are in a super car is icing. "Want a Focus...here is your ecoboost, what a Fusion what flavor ecoboost...oh you don't like cars well here's your truck *coughecoboostcough*". The engine I feel is more marketing toward a potential LMP2 program and getting people other than Tudor to buy them some time in the future, but that to me isn't large. I think the main reason is Ford knows they can do a better job and get by with this configuration and be just as fast and yet come out ahead.
 
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It's not marketing, it's packaging. :rolleyes:

The engine makes the same or more power than all the other Grand Am engines with better fuel efficiency. It's a no-brainer. It was also powering the fastest car at the roar before the 24.
 
I think the main reason is Ford knows they can do a better job and get by with this configuration and be just as fast and yet come out ahead.
Right, that's why I said the marketing isn't necessarily a bad thing. If it really is the best engine for the job then they can point to it all they want. I can understand considering a "what if" situation where there was a V-8, but the turbo six is in no way ruining the car.
 
And that may not be the actual sound because that's the exhaust setup for the Riley DP. Could be different inside the GT GTE racer. But that's pretty much what it will sound like and MY GOD is it great. :D
 
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So I went to the NAIAC today. A few things:

-The new GT is unfathomably exotic in the flesh. The previous car is 10 years old, but next to the new one, it might as well be 30 years old.

-A Ford rep claimed it would be in the 458 Speciale and 650S price bracket and then mentioned "Around 300,000." Much higher than I expected.

-The tail lights definitely do not function as wastegate outlets. I looked carefully as the car spun slowly around and there appears to be a mesh screen. It's definitely not a wastegate outlet (that would be a metal exhaust pipe) but it does seem to be an outlet for something. I would guess intercooler waste heat.

-The new car possibly has a larger footprint than the 2005 car, but it's a lot leaner and flatter somehow. It looks very, very low. The car seems a very clear step beyond the Viper and Z06. It's in another league. Perhaps even beyond the 458 and 650S. It seems very, very special.

-The 2005 GT still looks absolutely gorgeous. And it looks quite compact in person. I really want to drive one.

-The MK1 GT40 is hilariously small. I've actually never seen one of these in person. It honestly looks like a child's toy instead of an actual car. It felt like a 3/4 scale model rather than the real thing. My girlfriend didn't think an adult could actually fit in it. (Her favorite car of the show was Juan Manuel Fangio's 1939 Alfa Romeo 158 Grand Prix racer.)

-The GT350R looks really, really mean in person. Probably the most aggressive production Mustang ever. I liked it a lot.

Overall Ford wrecked the show. Fantastic lineup.
 
-The tail lights definitely do not function as wastegate outlets. I looked carefully as the car spun slowly around and there appears to be a mesh screen. It's definitely not a wastegate outlet (that would be a metal exhaust pipe) but it does seem to be an outlet for something. I would guess intercooler waste heat.
It's probably as simple as a wheel well vent.
 
It's probably as simple as a wheel well vent.

It looked like some sort of heat exchanger was residing behind the vent ahead of the rear wheels. You can actually see what appears to be just that in this photo:

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Looking at the rear of the car, there does not appear to be an exit for the air that enters through this vent, except for the tail lights; the triangular shaped vents appear too low:

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The airflow on this car is very interesting
 
Overall Ford wrecked the show. Fantastic lineup.

They completely dominated the damn thing. I think the only brand that held a candle to the Ford/Lincoln display was FCA, and that's only due to the sheer rediculousness of the cars they had on display.

The most shocking thing, at least for me, was the fact that you could hardly get anywhere close to the GT, and yet... There were maybe 12 people looking at the NSX just a few yards away.

But, back to the GT: Long and low. Much smaller than I had figured it'd be, which I assumed wasn't going to be that different than its predecessor. The color was brilliant, the buttresses on the back much more fantastical than I had anticipated as well. I didn't get to see the interior, that was what I was most interested in. But, altogether, what a cracking concept that really looked production-ready.
 
I don't want to be rude, but if this is the rear, where the F. is the exhaust?

Out the sides.


Also, not the Ford GT. Don't know why he felt the need to use a purpose built Race car to tell us how the engine in a Road car would sound like (which will be horribly wrong once we can actual footage of the car in action.).
 
Out the sides.


Also, not the Ford GT. Don't know why he felt the need to use a purpose built Race car to tell us how the engine in a Road car would sound like (which will be horribly wrong once we can actual footage of the car in action.).
As I posted above, I think he meant to post that the LeMans racer might sound like that, given that's what the title of the video is about.
 
Ah. I only now just saw that and was confused on what he was trying to do.
 
The airflow on this car is very interesting
Ain't it? I have a feeling this isn't the finished product, either. Many things have yet to be sorted which is why it isn't debuting til...2016? And it's got a damn air shifter. Nobody's going to buy a car with an air shifter. This car is like 50% finished.
 
Ain't it? I have a feeling this isn't the finished product, either. Many things have yet to be sorted which is why it isn't debuting til...2016? And it's got a damn air shifter. Nobody's going to buy a car with an air shifter. This car is like 50% finished.

Isn't this car heavily based on the Daytona Prototype race car? At least the powertrain?

They completely dominated the damn thing. I think the only brand that held a candle to the Ford/Lincoln display was FCA, and that's only due to the sheer rediculousness of the cars they had on display.

The most shocking thing, at least for me, was the fact that you could hardly get anywhere close to the GT, and yet... There were maybe 12 people looking at the NSX just a few yards away.

But, back to the GT: Long and low. Much smaller than I had figured it'd be, which I assumed wasn't going to be that different than its predecessor. The color was brilliant, the buttresses on the back much more fantastical than I had anticipated as well. I didn't get to see the interior, that was what I was most interested in. But, altogether, what a cracking concept that really looked production-ready.

When I was at the NSX display, there were maybe 2 or 3 people around it. I honestly think the design has been around too long already, and it was fairly derivative even when first shown several years ago. Even the Viper had more people around it. My girlfriend said "it looks like they took details from a lot of other cars and put them into one design" after having just walked from the Audi booth.

The FCA display was pretty special. The Tipo 33 is a very special thing, though I was surprised to see that it appears more photogenic than actually beautiful. The MKI GT40 is a far prettier car in person.
 
Isn't this car heavily based on the Daytona Prototype race car? At least the powertrain?
It is. Problem: Race cars simply aren't refined enough to drive on the road, much less sell for road use. The plainness of the interior and exterior design says to me that overall the car is not finished yet. That's perfectly fine because they have plenty of time to finish it. My point is that I expect this car to be improved in various ways before launch.

When I was at the NSX display, there were maybe 2 or 3 people around it. I honestly think the design has been around too long already, and it was fairly derivative even when first shown several years ago. Even the Viper had more people around it. My girlfriend said "it looks like they took details from a lot of other cars and put them into one design" after having just walked from the Audi booth.

The FCA display was pretty special. The Tipo 33 is a very special thing, though I was surprised to see that it appears more photogenic than actually beautiful. The MKI GT40 is a far prettier car in person.
DeMuro wrote a funny article about the NSX. Did you read it?

http://jalopnik.com/acura-botched-e...79489073#_ga=1.102403593.964320070.1416955196

Honda really did mess up the launch. It's probably a wonderful car, yeah, but the marketing aspect is miserable. We were bored of the car long before the production version debuted.
 

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