In the 1960s, the Ford GT40 racecar won the 24 Hours of Le Mans four consecutive times, beating Porsche and Ferrari from pillar to post. The striking vehicle’s first victory came out of nowhere in ’66, and the 50th anniversary of that triumph is coming next year.
To celebrate, the second-generation Ford GT will make its endurance racing debut in 2016 with a factory-supported, four-car effort. It will compete in the GTE Pro class in races like the Le Mans and the 24 Hours of Daytona, but first, there’s much testing to be done.
One such moment of analysis has been captured on film by YouTube user Lanky Turtle, and the video shows the GT taking several hot laps around Sebring International Raceway. The car has been fitted with a competition-style body, one that forgoes mirrors in favor of a massive rear spoiler and various aerodynamic enhancements.
And although the racecar will likely have a completely different exhaust setup than the road-going version, the film does give us an idea of the 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6’s singing voice. It doesn’t sound bad necessarily, but its forced induction setup has noticeably less character than the banging V8 from the old car. The whine from the turbocharger on downshifts, however, is certifiably fantastic.
When the production version of the GT begins its delivery process sometime next year, it will do so after its buyers are chosen through a meticulous application process. Each of the 250 planned examples will be doled out based on previous brand loyalty, which essentially means they’ll be hand-picked by the automaker, Ferrari-style.
Full specs are still under wraps, but the $400,000-ish supercar is expected to produce more than 600 horsepower and snap to 60 mph in around 3.0 seconds.
