Track-only Ford GT Mk II revealed as ultimate iteration of road-going racer
The Ford GT Mk II cherry-picks the best bits from road and racer to create the ultimate modern GT
Ford has revealed a new track-only version of the GT at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed. The new GT Mk II combines the best bits from road car and race car to create the ‘ultimate’ version of this already pretty hardcore racing homologation. Developed in conjunction with Multimatic, the new GT Mk II will be limited to 45 units and cost from £946,000.
The GT shares much of its hardware with the GT race car, utilising the same basic 3.5-litre twin-turbocharged EcoBoost V6 engine found in both road and race car. To comply with GT3 homologations, the race car does with a mere 500bhp, some 147bhp less than the road car, but the Mk II actually builds on the road car’s power, with a total of 700bhp. Although the powertrain is mechanically very similar, the extra power being generated does mean the engine requires upgraded cooling, so in addition to the usual air-to-air charge coolers mounted in the outboard intakes is a new water injection system that sprays atomised water onto the surface to keep it cool. A GTE-Pro-style roof-mounted intake has also been fitted, replacing the transparent engine cover of the road car.
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The transmission is the seven-speed dual-clutch unit from the road car, the pneumatic sequential box likely a little too compromised for the audience destined to buy a Mk II. The road car’s active suspension system has also been ditched in favour of a lighter, manually adjustable system featuring Multimatic’s own dampers, which together with the removal of the GT’s active rear wing and stripped interior contributes to a 100kg drop over the road-going model.
The wheels are new larger 19-inch forged aluminium alloys wrapped in Michelin Pilot Sport racing tyres, the reason being that the Mk II borrows the road car’s carbon-ceramic brakes, which require a larger wheel to cover than the smaller wheels on the racer. The aero is anything but production-derived though, with the package dominated by a massive dual-element rear wing that has had to be balanced out with a new splitter, vented front wheelarches and dive planes. Overall, the Mk II has 400 per cent more downforce than the race car – an astonishing rise as the road-going GT is hardly a Honda Civic.
The car will be assembled at Multimatic’s Canadian facility. Buyers after a GT Mk II will need to buy it directly through Multimatic, avoiding the standard GT’s contentious selection process. We’ll see it in action over the Goodwood Festival of Speed weekend barrelling up and down the hill before construction starts later this year.
