2005 Ford GT

For anyone lucky enough to have witnessed an original GT40 race car in action, it was a sight to put a lump in the throat: Flashing onto the straightaway off the distant high banking, a hazy shimmer of red blooming quickly into that unforgettable shark prow, the Ford streaked toward us like a ghost from the past coming back to life before our eyes. At first, our ears detected only the faint whoosh of a pressure wave, the red wedge pressed into the asphalt, the incredible speed both breathtaking and disconcerting. Suddenly, almost with a leap, the Ford screamed past us, its exposed exhausts scorching the air with a razor-edged rip of redlined V-8.

Back in the pits, the computer revealed all: Herta had just managed to edge the GT over the magic number, recording a top speed of 200.1 mph. It was 1966 all over again. Sound too perfect--maybe we were giving the GT a grace mph or two to obtain a nice round number? Not so. There was zero wind, and the two separate GPS-linked recorders on board were within 1/100th of a mile per hour of each other. Both confirmed that the Ford had done it.

"A little bit of movement over the bumps," said Herta after his run, "but still really smooth, and even at top end I didn't have any issues with the steering getting light or the car wandering around." Herta also confirmed that the GT, like all members of the 200-mph club, was probably too fast even for APG's five-mile banked oval. "On my first lap I had it in sixth, but on my next lap I found that it ran faster in fifth. I was definitely over 190 mph coming off the banking, and by the end of the straight [each one is 0.84 mile long at APG], it still felt like it had a little left. On the other hand, it's probably not a good idea to try to find that last tiny bit on this track. There's a lot of desert out there, and if you made a mistake, you'd find most of it."

On a few exploratory laps of our own, reaching 175 mph on the straights with ease, the GT (a preproduction pilot car) felt as buttoned-down and confidence-inspiring as we remembered from our drives of a few prototypes at Laguna Seca last year (November 2003). Our hands immediately sensed that Ford has increased the steering effort a bit since our last drives--a welcome change that Ford later confirmed. Herta remarked that he likes the look of the small "retro" steering wheel, but added that if it were his car he'd prefer a slightly larger wheel for improved steering precision.

The clutch remains a jewel, easy to engage slickly and remarkably light in effort--a real achievement given the 500 pound-feet thundering through the driveline. Over bumps at speed, we noted the same small vertical chassis movements Herta had mentioned; they're no doubt partly attributable to the fact that the GT wears slightly taller-sidewall tires than the Ferrari or the Porsche. The GT's fine ride quality, we think, is worth that minor tradeoff, especially since stability isn't affected.