Limited-Edition Track-Only Ford GT MK II Unveiled At Goodwood

The fabulous brand-new limited-edition, track only Ford GT MK II was unveiled today, the first day of this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed. The car has been created by Ford Performance and Multimatic and is a limited-edition track car of just 45 vehicles, priced at $1.2 million and available to purchase now should your cheque book stretch that far!

Performance innovations and improvements on the Ford GT Mk II include aerodynamic enhancements for increased downforce, additional weight savings as well as some chassis updates to give the car better handling. It also gets increased power from the engine with a 700 horsepower 3.5-litre EcoBoost engine.

Ford GT at Goodwood Start

The GT Mk II has been co-developed by Ford Performance and Multimatic based on experience derived from Ford’s successful FIA World Endurance Championship and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship campaigns with the Ford GT race car. However, the GT Mk II has been engineered independent of any race series rules, regulations and limitations, allowing the engineers a lot more latitude in developing the car’s full potential.

“The GT Mk II unleashes the full performance potential of the Ford GT without any artificial performance limitations dictated by racing sanctioning bodies,” said Hau Thai-Tang, Ford chief product development and purchasing officer. “It’s the closest GT owners can get to the Le Mans-winning performance and exhilarating feeling of crossing the finish line in the Ford GT race car.”

Ford GT Rear

Multimatic’s chief technical officer, Larry Holt says: “The true off-the-hook performance capability of the GT hasn’t yet been fully showcased. The road car is obviously limited by the many global homologation requirements that it must comply with, and the race car suffers from the restriction of the dreaded Balance of Performance, resulting in it being 150 horsepower down to the road car. The Mk II answers the regularly asked question of how would the car perform with all the limitations lifted: the answer is spectacularly.”

The new Ford GT Mk II is built at the main Ford GT plant at Markham in Ontario, Canada before being transferred to a specialist facility at Multimatic Motorsports where the car is transformed into the Ford GT Mk II.

Side detail and rear wing

Many of the new car’s components have been track-proven in some of the world’s most challenging endurance races. For example, the large dual-element rear wing exceeds what the Ford GT race car offers in terms of downforce. And a new front racing splitter and diffuser have been incorporated into the design along with new fender louvres and dive planes, balancing out the extra rear downforce to give the car even better aerodynamics and generate over 400 per cent more downforce than the Ford GT as well as more than 2 g of lateral grip.

The new GT Mk II is not only more agile thanks to shaving off unnecessary weight, but also has the 3.5-litre EcoBoost engine that powers both the Ford GT race car and the road car. However the road car delivers an additional 200 horsepower as it’s not limited by race regulations. The engine is mounted to the same seven-speed dual-clutch transmission from the Ford GT but specially calibrated for this special track car.

Car interior

With all that extra power on tap, the engineers have given the car an uprated braking system that uses carbon ceramic brakes that are 15.5-inch at the front and 14.1-inch Brembo brakes at the rear. Unique and attractive forged aluminium 19-inch wheels cover the oversized brakes and are shod with race-proven Michelin Pilot Sport GT tyres.

The car’s interior comes with a bespoke Sparco racing seat and six-point racing harness and an optional passenger seat should you so desire. The car also comes equipped with a full MoTeC data acquisition system to provide vital information for a track racer, and also doubles as a display for the rear camera, which will come in handy as rear visibility is not that great for parking in tight spots!

Ford GT MK II profile

The limited-edition GT Mk II is being sold directly to customers by Multimatic, and anyone interested in purchasing a Mk II are invited to contact Multimatic via FordGTMkII.com.

Author Bio:

Simon Burrell is Editor of Our Man Behind The Wheel, a professional photographer and former saloon car racing driver.

Photographs courtesy of Ford Motor Company

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