I drove my friend's Ford GT for 4 days this week. It is truly an amazing car and significantly different than my Z06. It is quieter and power comes on more smoothly. Starts in first produce mountains of smoke unless you are extremely careful in feathering your right foot. There is no traction control except your foot. I miss the gutteral sound of the Z06.

Acceleration seems very similar except for 1st gear where the GT seems to get a better jump and is quicker.

Fit and finish appear to be outstanding and the interior is a bit plain but nicely done with leather and brushed aluminum. They did a nice job with the dash and the retro look and feel to the car. No power seats and low head room, less than a FRC. Very difficult to reach the seat release when seated in the car. Entry and exit is relatively easy because of the roof cut out.

I took it to the dyno this week and it produced 555 RWHP and 493 RW Torque utilizing 3rd gear. Depending upon what loss factor you use, for gearing, tires size, etc., crank HP is between 650-690 HP. Rousch Racing says that these are typical numbers for a Ford GT. A smaller supercharger pulley is on order which is supposed to provide anothewr 25-40 RWHP. After all you can never have enough power.

Biggest negative is trying to drive the car for two reasons. Visibility is limited to the rear and front because of the extremely wide A-pillars, but you soon adapt to the limited vision. But the real issue is the attention the car produces when driven on the road. Other cars literally swoop across 3 lanes of traffic and try to get as close as possible. They even pull in front and jam on their brakes. You literally need a blocker along side. When parked a crowd forms almost immediately and people stop their cars in the middle of the street to admire the car. BTW the car is black with silver stripes a very attarctive combination.

 

Awesome car. Must have been fun. One question....

When you dynoed the GT in 3d gear, were the rwhp/rwtq readings adjusted downward to factor out third gear's 1.23:1 ratio?

GT gearing:
1st 2.61:1
2nd 1.71:1
3rd 1.23:1
4th 0.94:1
5th 0.77:1
6th 0.63:1
Final drive 3.36:1

In a C5 with M6/M12, dyno is done in 4th gear, ratio 1:1.

TIA,

Ranger

 

Cool, sounds like fun. How many miles do you think you drove over the 4 days? I'd like to take one of those things for a little spin.

I have a friend that sometimes gets the newest coolest wheels(cars & motorcycles), & he'll just throw me the keys to test it out . The fastest car he has right now is only a lowly 996 TT, but it does have some mods .

 

Ranger

As far as I know yes. It pulled better in 3rd than in 4th. It exceeded the dyno's top speed of 180 mph in 4th. BTW the curve was literally at a 45 degree angle and never dropped, it just leveled at 6400 rpm versus 6500 red line never any drop in hp or torque.

 

Somewhere around 400-500 miles. Or two fill-ups.

 

Totally awesome car no doubt. Those dyno numbers sound very high.

I did up a Ford GT body for my R/C Nitro car

http://www.rbartick.com/hpi/gt_pntidx.htm

 

Awesome car!

 

The gear ratio shouldn't matter in determining the horsepower other than some gears have less parasitic loss than others within the same transmission. Usually the overdrive gears have more such loss than the gears that are closer to 1:1.

Anyway, this is because horse power is (if I remember correctly) raising 550 pounds one foot in one second. This is the same power if one pound can be raised 550 feet in one second; or 275 pounds lifted 2 feet in one second, etc. Lower gears move more weight, but move it a lesser distance than the higher gears.

1 horse power = 550 pounds lifted one foot = 1st gear
1 horse power = 1 pound lifted 550 feet = 6th gear

Chuck

 

Hi Chuck,

Dyno results come from software that measures parametric data from the dyno hardware.

The dyno operator must enter all the relevant data for the car being tested. Unless adjusted, the software default to values that assume the tranny provides 1:1.

If you dyno an M6/M12 C5 in third gear, unless that fact is "corrected for" the car will record higher horsepower and torque than it does when measured in 4th gear.

Ranger

 

your friend need another friend? Great car I always loved the original GT 40 when I was a kid. I give them major credit for having the guts to build it.

 

I kinda know how you feel minus the whole driving it part =(

 

That door looks like it could take the top of your head off. I guess you have to duck to shut the door.

 

Ranger,

The dyno operator should include misc. data for posterity, but I don't think the gear ratio is relevant to the horsepower. If such data was necessary, they should also measure the circumference of the tires too. Horse power is a measure of work done. If you use a block and tackle to lift a motor out of a car, there is no hp advantage as long as you can actually lift it. Lifting it slowly or lifting it fast is simply a factor of distance moved.

I have used 3rd gear, 4th gear, and 5th gear for dyno runs. In the case of my 69, 3rd gear gave the highest reading, but not by a large amount. Difference was probably because the engine was cooler than other runs. They were all pretty close, certainly not anything close to the approximately 23% difference between each of the gears.

Chuck

p.s. Even G tech calculates horse power by weight and time over distance. Gear ratio has nothing to do with its setup.

p.p.s. 550 rwhp sounds a bit hit to me too! Maybe somebody played with the boost?

 

Actually that's Steve Saleen's (yes Mr. Saleen) car and the seat hadn't been adjusted yet (he's short and I'm 6'4") After adjusting it I fit great and closed the door with plenty of room for a helmet.

 

Not today but I will let him know you volunteered.

 

You learn to adapt to the car's seating position. I don't know how they adjusted the seat since your are sitting on the floor to start with.

 

...

 

Its easier not being in the limelight.

 

Ahah...i see.

 

Awesome car!!! Did you get it into the turns and do a seat time comparo to your Z06??? Great ride!
Dave