While Ford has been tempting everyone with the idea of offering a successor for their famous GT supercar, tuners are hard at work with the current model they do have on hand. The GT Guy, a garage that tunes Ford GT models exclusively has announced their latest project - the Ford GT "Merkury 4" - developed in cooperation with Camilo Pardo – the designer of the original GT.
The Merkury 4 is based on a solid red Ford GT that features a Mirrachrome abstract custom paint job with a florescent orange center stripe separated with a satin black pinstripe. The car was equipped with HRE center-bolt rims with 275/30ZR19 front and 345/30ZR20 rear Michelin tires. And because one of the most impressive features of the GT can be found under the hood, the tuner has equipped the car’s 5.4 L supercharged modular V8 with a second generation Whipple supercharger and a GTG cold air intake kit that increased the engine’s output to an amazing 725 rwhp at 19lbs of boost on 91 octane fuel.
The package continues with a GTG "Vintage" bumper delete kit, a passport radar detector/jammer system, custom "Ford GT" billet fuel door, billet clamshell center and side clamshell vents, GTG clamshell release hooks, and Penske triple adjustable shocks with custom alignment lowered about 1".
Jesse James is well-known for his romantic rendezvous behind the back of his then-wife and actress, Sandra Bullock, but before his sexual trysts became a topic of media concern, James was better known as the builder behind West Coast Choppers. Now it seems as though James is taking a break from infidelity and motorcycle builds to take his Hennessey GT1000 Twin Turbo for a bit of a rougher ride.
On a road that has been dubbed a "super twisty lane" by a source that was at the location, Jesse James lost control of his 1000 HP supercar and crashed it into a neighbor’s yard near his house in Austin, Texas. The funny thing about the incident is that Hennessey seems to be pleased with the incident. They spoke with fellow automotive site, Jalopnik, and stated, "It’s nice to know that Jesse drives his Hennessey GT hard enough to find the limit. After all, if you don’t crash or break every now and then you’re not going fast enough."
Jesse James seems to take a lot of things to their breaking point. At least his Henessey GT1000 is covered by insurance.
Reminder: The Hennessey GT1000 Twin Turbo is powered by a 5.4-liter supercharged V-8 engine that produces 1,000 horsepower at 6,600 rpm with a 0-60 mph time of 2.8 seconds, a quarter-mile time of 10.6 seconds at 142 mph, and an increased top speed of 245 mph.
For those of you who follow the Formula 1 racing series, the name Jenson Button should absolutely ring a bell. Button is a British Formula One driver currently signed to McLaren and as any other Formula 1 driver, his garage houses some of the most impressive vehicles on the market, including vehicles like the Nissan GT-R, Bugatti Veyron, and a variety of Ferrari models.
Another model he has enjoyed taking out and about is his Ford GT supercar. Until now. Button has just announced that the GT will be available for sale for anyone interested. It only has 3,500 miles on the odometer and is priced at £130,000 or about $203,000 at the current exchange rates.
When talking about his car, Button said: "It’s exciting to have such a rare and great vehicle in stock – this one is certainly in a league of its own. It’s a really good investment with the current value increasing by ten per cent each year, and since it was owned by Jensen Button, it’s perfect!"
We can’t blame him for getting rid of his Ford GT; his new ride will be a new McLaren MP4-12C.
Some may say that Ford will have to step up its game if it’s going to compete with Chevrolet’s plans for a new Camaro model every six months. To those people we say, if the second generation GT supercar and the varying versions of the Mustang aren’t enough, then check out this proposed model from designer Andrus Ciprian. His all-new lightweight sports car - the Cobra Snakehead - could just be the high-top model needed to win over some votes from the Camaro clan.
It may not look like your typical Ford supercar, but Ciprian’s two-seater concept does carry over some of Ford’s latest design language, albeit taken a bit to the extreme. This new design language is already present in the latest Fiesta and Focus models, so you’ll see a resemblance to their design on the front end of the Cobra Snakehead. Its extreme muscular stance with those huge, bubble wheel arches and kamm tail design inspired by the classic lines of the original GT40s would put even the beefy Mustang to shame. The design is even more aggressive than the proposed GT supercar.
For power, Ciprian envisions a front mounted V8 for the Ford Cobra Snakehead, so naturally we would of the aluminum 5.4 Liter supercharged V8 found in the GT500. This engine produces 550 HP and 510 lb-ft of torque, but is rather close to the hybrid powertrain speculated for the future Ford GT.
Bottomline: We think the Ford Cobra Snakehead looks amazing, but chances of it becoming a new model for Ford are slim to none. However, we would like to see some of its aggressive design carried over to the new Ford GT. Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
The Ford GT is one of those vehicles that is and always will be an American icon. Originally produced in 2005 and 2006, the GT drew inspiration from Ford’s classic GT40 race cars of the 1960s and had the 550 HP necessary coming out of its mid-mounted 5.4 L Modular V8 engine to back up the design. Ford has already talked about producing a second generation of the model, but until that happens, we will bide our time by finding true pieces of tuning art like AE Performance’s version of the Ford GT.
The full specs of the package have not been released as of yet, but we did get some pictures to drool over, as well as a few hints as to what we should expect. The Ford GT by AE will get an extra 130 HP to add to the mix, along with a new set of ADV.1 wheels and a discrete body kit. Surprisingly so, these pictures show that AE Performance has done away with the original’s racing stripes, but has left a vibrant candy apple red paint job to shut us up about it.
That’s it when it comes to details about the package as of right now, but already we would have to say that if the price is right, we’d take this version of the Ford GT over the Ferrari 458 Italia any day of the week. Hit us up with your thoughts on the matter in the comments section below.
