Gadgetory

everybody Shawn and I'm about to do something really stupid I'm out here in Utah because I'm going to get chance to drive the new Ford GT but I wasn't ready to just hop right into a supercar and go so Ford let me take one of their 526 horsepower Mustang GT 350s out on the track first the problem is I didn't know how to drive a manual car I've stalled this thing 10 times this is like eating your vegetables before having that sweet dessert except the dessert is like a rare dessert with like gold leaf on top of it and it served you by Butler on like a private island that you took a helicopter to get to yeah so the Mustang help me get comfortable with things like what the basic racing line is and where and when to brake on a track and how to get comfortable with pushing a car to its limits and I think this has me ready for the 40c I think so I had no idea how to drive a manual car today hey do it alright right now this gt's automatic I like my chances that noise is cool so I'd say my goals for today are don't wreck don't wreck don't wreck have some fun go fast and don't wreck you see the Ford GT is a very rare car it's one of the only American supercars and what was a VA in the old gt40 has been replaced with a turbocharged v6 that still makes 647 horsepower and if you want to buy one Ford has to personally select you from a list of applicants oh it's also four hundred and fifty thousand dollars so this is definitely not a car for everyone it's not even a car for the one percent it's not even a car for that half percent it is might as well not exist in all practical purposes but that said it does exist I'm here to drive it I'm gonna shut up because I want to get in this thing and show you what it's like you the guy next to me is James he's a Ford Racing School instructor and the person tasked to keep me from crashing the GTA it is just this is a poster carving this is a car that you would dream of driving and never get a chance to drive which is why it's so cool that we're here today drive Hammacher the Ford GT just looks like it belongs on the track and that's no coincidence Ford developed this car alongside the LeMond racecar which means the street-legal Ford GT is nearly identical to the car that won LeMond last year it's an aerodynamic masterpiece the rear wing works is an air brake but it also adds downforce and the front splitter even adjusts in real time to balance that out and keep the car planning like most sports cars you have a few different driving modes that alter the car's personality but the most dramatic is track mode which drops the car 50 millimeters and adds to that mind-bending downforce let's talk about the v6 behind my head Ford's argument is that using a smaller engine allowed them to do crazier stuff with the aerodynamics of the GT and I'm willing to buy that argument because while I was driving this car at my limit I was only scratching the surface of what the GT is really capable of it is like any other supercar in an especially performance car where it's so low it's so wide everything's built together so well that it just goes where you tell it to and the Mustang something like that you know you're rolling a bit here and there it was a wonderful ride whereas this was like about as accurate as you're going to get so that was my ride in the Ford GT I can't really think about what else to say because that was pretty unimaginable and pretty rad now the real test will be basically just what can Ford bring from this car to cars that you know more than a few hundred people can find so I'm really excited if this is what the future of Ford looks like really excited to see all of that play out I just the worst part was I've been first in line for everything so I've been stalling this car front of everybody and hopefully not doing too much damage to the clutch