Two years ago, when Ford announced its 2017 GT, the company touted this second-generation supercar as having ?one of the best power-to-weight ratios of any production car.? While we?re pretty sure Ford?s top tech officer, Raj Nair, didn?t mean power-to-wait ratio, filling in the missing info has taken ages.
We?ll cut the Blue Oval crew some slack because they?ve been busy with other matters, such as winning their class and earning respectable finishes with all four of the race cars campaigned at Le Mans last summer. Ford GTs also finished 1-2 at a pair of six-hour races in Japan and China.
The competition schedule resumes Thursday when the garages open for Daytona?s 24-hour endurance race, but Nair took a break from his frenzy to decode the ?more than 600 horsepower? rating uttered for the GT?s twin-turbo 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6 two years ago. The facts we?ve waited patiently to hear are 647 horsepower at 6250 rpm and a maximum 550 lb-ft of torque at 5900 rpm with 495 lb-ft available at 3500 rpm. The little engine that could redlines at 7000 rpm.
While the break from V-8 tradition disappoints some, a specific output of 185 horsepower per liter tops that of the Porsche 911 Turbo?s twin-turbo flat-six by a wide margin. Nair seems especially proud of Ford?s anti-lag strategy, which keeps the turbines spinning during shifts and lift-throttle moments for optimum response when accelerating out of a turn. The downside is guzzler-grade EPA mileage, but fuel bills are unlikely to ...