“The Ford GT supercar serves as a test bed for new ideas…”Steven Armstrong, group vice president and president, Europe Middle East and Africa, Ford Motor Company
The ultra-high-performance Ford GT road car makes its Goodwood Hillclimb debut alongside the Ford Mustang GT4 race car, on show in Europe for the first time, at the 2017 Goodwood Festival of Speed.
Ford Chip Ganassi Racing drivers Billy Johnson, Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell take the wheel of the 216 mph Ford GT to tackle the challenging 1.16 mile/1.86 km Goodwood Hillclimb course. All three drivers are fresh from competing at the 2017 Le Mans 24 Hours in the sister Ford GT race car, where Priaulx, Tincknell and Pipo Derani grabbed the runner up spot in the GTE Pro Class with the #67 Ford GT during a thrilling finish.
The track-ready Ford Mustang GT4 is also driven by Johnson, and Ford’s Le Mans stars are joined at Goodwood by drifting ace Vaughn Gittin Jr., returning with his 750 hp Mustang RTR to participate in the festival’s first ever drift event.
Active aerodynamics change on demand to match different driving conditions, using moveable elements around the body, including special ducts in the front, and a large deployable wing. Hydraulic suspension can adjust ride height for optimal performance, and drivers can easily adjust the car’s settings for different scenarios with five unique Drive Modes: Normal mode, Wet mode, Sport mode, Track mode and V-Max mode.
The Ford GT’s carbon fibre construction delivers both weight savings and sleek body shapes that would not have been possible with steel or aluminium.
The fearsome Ford Mustang GT4 – a track-ready race car version of the iconic Ford Mustang that was last year the world’s best-selling sports car – is on show in Europe for the first time at Goodwood. The Mustang GT4 was engineered jointly by Ford Performance and Multimatic Motorsports to compete in sports car championship racing series globally, including the GT4 European Series, Pirelli World Challenge GTS/GT4, and IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge that was last year won by Billy Johnson and Scott Maxwell driving the Ford Shelby GT350R-C.
Available for racing privateers and teams to order through Multimatic Motorsports from mid-July, the race car is powered by a next generation 5.2-litre V8 engine specifically tuned for GT4 competition and delivering about 450PS and 600Nm of torque, subject to each race series’ Balance of Performance requirements.
The high performance engine features a dry sump oiling system, and ZF-developed twin-plate racing clutch and flywheel. A compact six-speed Holinger paddle shift transmission delivers pneumatic-activated gear shifts. Lightweight carbon fibre is used for the front splitter; bonnet and vents; rear diffuser; roof; tailgate; doors; and rear wing – the design of which was derived from lessons learned by the Ford GT racing program. Race-tuned stopping power is delivered with 380mm front discs and six-piston Brembo callipers; and 313mm rear discs with four-piston Brembo callipers.
Formula Drift Champion and three-time World Drift Series Champion, Vaughn Gittin Jr., returns to Goodwood with his bespoke Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-D drift car. Gittin Jr.’s Monster Energy Nitto Tire Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-D exhibition car is based on his competition drift car, and is powered by a Ford Performance Aluminator XS engine with a Vortech Supercharger that produces 750 horsepower and is able to rev to 8,000 rpm. Fully adjustable suspension enables the handling dynamics of the Mustang RTR drift car to be fine-tuned, and carbon fibre body panels reduce weight for even sharper responses.
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