Ford GT Buyer’s Guide

After the iconic win at Le Mans, the GT40 was forever destined to be a legend in the history American performance cars. However, it wasn’t until 2005 that Ford revisited this hallowed territory – with the release of the 2005-2006 Ford GT.

The 2005-2006 Ford GT celebrates the 100th anniversary of Ford, and boy does it represent the company well. Also celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1966 Le Mans victory, this car is a blast from the past – in a good way.

For starters, the GT looks gorgeous. Emulating the 1965 Ford GT40, the car is low slung, with wide hips and a dashing racing stripe down the middle. Basically, it looks like a modern supercar mixed with a classic racecar, which is exactly what the GT is.

Boasting a lightweight space frame aluminium chassis, a mid-mounted supercharged 5.4-litre V8 pushing 550+ HP, and aluminum body panels, the GT boasts supercar power to weight ratios.

The Brembo brakes show no fade whatsoever and the massive Goodyear tires practically velcro the car to the road.

Nowadays many people replace the Goodyears with the stickier (and less expensive) Bridgestone Potenza RE050A Scuderia tires. Either way, you can’t go wrong – the GT handles way better than it has any right to.

What It’s Like To Drive A 2005-06 GT

Getting onto the freeway, you open the car up from 35 to 75 mph in the blink of an eye – and it seems like you’re barely pushing on the accelerator. But make no mistake, the GT handles hairpin turns just as well as straight line acceleration, as the Brembo brakes and massive tires help you weave S curves with delight.

The intuitive, light steering is so easy to use, you almost forget you’re driving a supercar.

The Ford GT is one of the most drivable supercars ever built. The steering gives you a great feel both on center and off, and the turning is very linear (if a bit light). You always feel in control of the car and able to turn predictably and smoothly.

The clutch has no weird snags or other issues that sometimes plague cars of this class – it’s really smooth and fun to use. Basically, shifting through gears is just like butter – not too soft, not too hard, just real smooth and nice without any notches or catches.

Compare that to old Ferraris Testarossas, which would take 15 minutes for the oil to warm up enough that you could put them in second gear. You basically had to drive in first and third until the cranky clutch was ready to go. Nothing like that with the GT.

The GT is also surprisingly comfortable on the ears. At normal speeds, it has a nice throaty sound like you’d expect an American muscle car to have, but it’s not the high pitched whine of a Ferrari. Of course, if you open the throttle up, you can indulge your ears in a song of horsepower and RPMs.

Also, you’ll often find that with supercars, you’ll have a rattle or some other odd noise that makes itself known when driving in parking lots or sitting at traffic lights. Not with the GT.

Basically, the 2005-2006 Ford GT is very drivable and functions much like a normal (albeit extremely fun to drive) car in a lot of ways.

However, when you open up the throttle and feel all of those 550 horses, you realize – this car is FAR from normal.  Not only does it have gobs of torque and acceleration (apparently you can create tire smoke in both first AND second gear) but it has some of the most accurate and on point steering we’ve come across in a supercar.

What About Performance?

The Ford GT is fast.

How fast? Well, it goes from 0-60 in 3.4 seconds, and the top speed is an electronically limited 205 mph. It also does the quarter mile in 11.5 seconds, getting up to 128.7 mph along the way.

When you’re driving the GT, stuff starts to get scary when you’re pushing the accelerator about halfway down. Push it down further and…. Well, we hope you’re on a racetrack or a stretch of open road, because once you start going that fast you won’t want to slow down.

But if you need to slow down real fast for some hairpin turns, the GT delivers. Braking from 60 mph to 0 is done in an impressive 114 feet.

Quick side note: back in the 60s, the Le Mans race actually started by having the drivers run into their cars. So the Ford racing team designed the car doors to go straight up, which saved a few precious seconds by allowing the drivers to  jump in the car instead of having to bend down. The 2005-06 GT mimics that decision.

Possible Upgrades

The GT has numerous bolt on, bolt off upgrades (no cutting or splicing required). These upgrades are incredibly inexpensive and simple to add on. They’re also very easy to remove from the car if you want to return it to the original layout.

About 50-60% of current GT buyers add the pulley in tune option which gives the car another 100 horsepower. Another popular upgrade is the Whipple supercharger, which adds another 200 horses to the already powerful GT. Finally, you can upgrade the muffler, long tube headers, trans cooler and throttle bodies for better cooling and another 35-40 horsepower.

If you want to customize your GT further, the GT Guys and Guyett Performance know the GT inside and out and will do a superb job for you.

Basically, for about $10,000 to $20,000 dollars you can easily add on 200+ horsepower to your GT. That kind of power to dollar upgrade is unheard of. Compare this to upgrading a Ferrari or Lambo, which is going to cost you over $100,000 to upgrade, and with no easy way to return the car to stock condition.

Specs and Options

Engine

Type: 90-degree DOHC 32-valve supercharged V-8

Displacement: 5.4L / 330 CID

Horsepower: 550 hp @ 6500 rpm

Torque: 500 lbs.-ft. @ 3750 rpm

Bore x Stroke: 3.55 in. x 4.17 in.

Compression: 8.4:1

Suspension

Front: Independent double wishbones, coil springs, tube shocks, Stabilizer Bar

Rear: Independent double wishbones, coil springs, tube shocks, Stabilizer Bar

Brakes

Front: 14.0 in. cross-drilled & vented disc, four-piston monoblock calipers

Rear: 13.2 in. cross-drilled & vented disc, four-piston monoblock calipers

ABS: Four sensor, four-wheel ABS system linked to electronic brake force distribution

Wheels/Tires

Wheels:  18 x 9 in. (Front); 19 x 11.5 in. (Rear) BBS One-Piece Alloy Wheels

Tires: Goodyear Eagle F1 P235/45ZR-18 BSW (Front); P315/40ZR-19 BSW (Rear)

The Four Options:

1. A McIntosh sound system
2. Racing stripes
3. Painted brake calipers
4. 10 spoke forged alloy wheels

Cost of Ownership

As far as supercars go, the Ford GT is relatively affordable to maintain, and doesn’t have many issues you should be concerned with.

As David Jones, owner and director of Ford GT specialist GT101 Limited says, “The cars are robust…The engine is over-engineered.

It will run up to 800 bhp on standard internals and uses a timing chain, so there are no dilemmas with belts.”

Essentially, unless you’re using your GT as a daily driver, the only yearly maintenance you’ll have to do is a $150-200 oil change which can be done at any Ford dealer. Compare that to servicing a Ferrari or Lambo, which costs about $2000-3000 for an oil change and can only be done at a specialized dealer who probably is located nowhere near you.

Think about how incredible that is – with the GT, you have a literal supercar that only costs about $200 dollars a year to maintain. However, if you race your GT or drive it very often, you’ll eventually have to replace pads, calipers, and tires (just as you would with any car).

Here’s the cost breakdown for those:

• Brake pads: $500 USD for all four
• Calipers: $1000 for all four
• Front tires (last 15,000 miles): $225 each
• Rear tires (last 5000 miles): $450 each
• About every 25,000 miles you’ll need to replace the clutch, which costs about $5000 for parts and labor. Yes, $5000 for the clutch may sound like a lot – but on other supercars (such as the Lamborghini Gallardo) it’s about twice as much.

2005-2006 Ford GT Value

Depending on the mileage, color, condition, options, and production number, a 2005-2006 Ford GT can be valued at anywhere from $250,000 to $500,000.

The color and production number can highly impact the value. In particular, the Heritage orange and light blue color seen only in the 2006 model, with only 343 produced, regularly sells for $400,000 to $500,00 USD.

The following options add on to the value of the vehicle:

+ $10,000-12,000 for the BBS 10 spoke wheels

+ $5,000 for factory stripes

+ $5,000 for McIntosh audiophile system

+ $1,000 for painted calipers

The Ford GT – An Investment Vehicle

The Ford GT started out selling at $150,000 dollars, and now sells for $250,000 to $500,000 dollars. That alone should tell you what a great investment this car is.

“But wait”, you think. “Surely as these cars get older they’re going to get less valuable…”

Actually, the opposite is true. A couple of factors ensure that the GT will retain and increase in value as time goes on:

• There’s a low supply of GTs. Not many were made originally, and the new GT is quite different from the 2005-2006 version (and it’s also in very short supply).
• Demand is sky high. This car is a version of the Ferrari beater – the legend of Le Mans adds tons of value to this car.
• The price point of this car ensures that even if the car market tanks, the car will retain its value, as it’s only bought by a very high end group that isn’t affected much by the overall economy. Since so few GTs were made originally, and since they’re only bought by a very high end market.

Other supercars tend to lose value over time. The price of the GT just keeps climbing and climbing. This makes it an attractive investment opportunity – after all, how many rock solid investments with this kind of ROI exist? And you don’t get to enjoy your stocks, no matter how well they perform.

With the 2005-2006 Ford GT, you can literally make money while driving America’s iconic supercar. It doesn’t get much better than that.

What You Need to Know About the 2017 Ford GT

The 2017 GT is a different beast entirely when compared to the 2005-2006 version. Whereas the previous GT emulated the 1966 GT40 in many ways and was designed for the street, the 2017 GT was engineered with one goal in mind: to win the endurance race known as the 24 hours of Le Mans.

And it did!

The 2017 GT is all carbon fiber with aluminum frame, and looks like a sculpted work of art. The car, which was heavily designed based on computer simulations of aerodynamics, has airflow coming through many different channels to produce tremendous amounts of downforce.

The interior looks like a racecar cockpit as well – it’s all business. When sitting with a passenger, you’ll be nice and intimate with each other, and the trunk doesn’t exactly leave room for your golf bags.

But that’s not what this car is for. No, it’s for turning heads – and going around turns at fierce speeds. The 5 different driving settings and the hydraulically operated air foil and rear wing give a mix of different feels to the car – from an incredibly fast street legal supercar on the “Normal” drive setting to a hunkered down track superstar with all aerodynamics deployed in the “Track” setting.

The GT boasts 647 horsepower coming out of a turbocharged V6 engine, and 550 lb-ft of torque at 5,900 rpm, with a top speed of 216 mph. Not much other data is available on times like 0-60 or 0-100, but then again… who needs them?

This car won the 24 hours of Le Mans… enough said.

Want A New GT? Better Get In Line

Due to the 24 hours of Le Mans win, and the incredible styling and performance of the new GT, demand for this car is sky high.

Not only is the sticker price a cool $450,000 before options but you have to send in an application to be given the opportunity to buy the car. Yep, you read that right – people are sending in applications and champing at the bit for the chance to pay Ford almost $500,000 dollars.

What does the application process entail, and how good of a chance do you stand?

Well, we’ll say this: Ford is only making 250 number of GTs per year for the next 4 years, and so far they’ve denied about 90% of the applications sent in. Some people have spent upwards of 20 hours on their application, only to get that dreaded letter in the mail saying, “We’re sorry to inform you that you haven’t been chosen…”

The Application Questions

Here are some factors that can influence whether or not you get a GT:

• Whether you’ve owned a GT in the past
• Whether you plan on driving the GT or not
• If you collect historic Ford cars
• Whether you work for a company that has a strategic alliance with Ford

These criteria all make perfect sense, but it gets even deeper. Do you have a large following on social media? That helps your chances. Do you intend to use your GT to raise money for charity? Bonus points.

Ford also seems to give preference to potential owners who enjoy racing their cars and are involved in motorsports.

Finally, you have the opportunity to create videos and submit images showing Ford why you would be a good GT owner.

Here’s an example of an application video that helped lead to acceptance:

Tips For Your Application

To be honest, we’re guessing that you know already if you stand a chance of getting a Ford GT or not. We’re not the selection committee, so take what we say here with a grain of salt. But it seems to us that there are a few main types of people who will get accepted:

1. Ford employees and business partners of Ford Racing
2. Racing enthusiasts who drive their Fords all the time at the track
3. People with massive followings on podcasts, Youtube, social media, etc

Think about it from Ford’s point of view: they want to sell their cars to people who are actually going to use them and expose them to the public – not just let them sit in a garage for 12 months out of the year.

2017 Ford GT Value

So, does that mean there’s no hope of getting a GT if you’re not one of the lucky few?

Well, that depends on how deep your pockets are. Ford has required GT applicants to sign a statement that indicates they won’t sell the GT within 24 months of receiving it – but that statement isn’t legally binding.

So it’s very possible that some GT owners will immediately flip the car for a profit. How much profit? Well, it’s hard to say, but we wouldn’t be surprised if the car sold for almost a million dollars on the secondary market.

There’s a few factors at play here, most of them revolving around the scarcity and the history of this vehicle. The Ford GT is one of the most iconic cars in American history. It’s the American supercar that beat Ferrari at Le Mans.

And while Ferrari releases another supercar every 5 years, it’s highly unlikely we’ll see another GT within the next 10-15 years.  And since only 250 are being made per year, for a total of 1000, their value will likely only continue to increase over time.

Due to the limited number of Ford GTs being produced from 2016-2020, and the incredible legend Ford has created at Le Mans, these cars are going to be worth more with each day that goes by.

Your best chance to get one of these bad boys is to be selected by Ford in the 2018 selection process. If you need help with your application, just give us a call at 1-559-917-7165 and we’ll be happy to talk.

Christian Rose

Christian’s favorite car is a 1996 Dodge Viper GTS with Blue with White Stripes. He loves marketing and social media almost as much as sports cars. You can reach him at: [email protected]