Ford will sell an even faster, even more powerful version of its Ford GT supercar for $1.2 million. But only 45 will be built, the automaker announced Thursday, and it won’t be legal to drive them on public roads.
The 700 horsepower Ford GT Mk II is intended for track use only. It was also not designed to comply with the regulations of any particular racing series, giving engineers free reign to maximize the car’s performance potential, Ford said.
That means the 3.5-liter turbocharged engine in the GT Mark II will produce 53 horsepower more than the “standard” Ford GT road car and 203 horsepower more than the Le Mans-winning Ford GT race car. (The race car had to make do with much less power than the street car in order to comply with Le Mans’ race rules.)
“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 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.”
It also means this car doesn’t have some of the comfort features that are built into the street-legal Ford GT. For instance, it doesn’t have different driving modes, like Normal, Sport or Track, or the ability to change its ride height to suit those various modes. Instead, this car rides at a road-hugging height all the time to make it as aerodynamic as possible. The car’s seven-speed transmission is also tuned for aggressive track driving.
Since weight savings were a priority, the passenger seat in the GT Mk II is optional. For the driver, there’s a specially designed racing seat with a six-point harness. The car has no airbags, also to save weight. The GT Mk II also has the stronger brakes of the road-legal Ford GT rather than those used on the race car.
The Ford GT, even the street legal version, is already a very expensive and hard-to-get car. A little over 1,300 have been built since since the car entered production in 2017 at a starting price of $450,000 each. Interested buyers had to apply to Ford for the right to purchase one.
The new Ford GT Mk II is available for ordering immediately.