Ford CEO Jim Farley says the V6-engined GT was never meant to happen

[silvrsvt]

https://www.topgear.com/car-news/usa/ford-ceo-jim-farley-says-v6-engined-gt-was-never-meant-happen

[akirby]

I can understand why they wanted mustang from a marketing standpoint.  But from a historical standpoint it had to be a new GT.

[GearheadGrrrl]

Not hard to explain... Ford's DNA favors conservative decisions although every once in a while they let something like the Mustang and GT slip through. Meanwhile, GM gambled on the Corvette, Corvair, Toronado/Eldorado, etc.. So a seven decades later GM has survived bankruptcy and Corvette has evolved into a state of the art mid engine sports car while the Mustang soldiers along and will probably be competitive thanks to Multimatic and the ACOs and IMSA's intake and weight tweaks.

[DeluxeStang]

Interesting how they decided the s550 wouldn't be competitive with its shape. But have decided to give it another go with the s650, which has a very similar silhouette. Farley isn't never going to publicly state this, but it could be Ford saw all the work that went into making the gt wasted on the racetrack as a result of BOP.

 

Ford clearly had the best car in their class, but were restricted so much that even the outdated at the time Vantages were beating them in some races. So Ford could be like, why bother going all out when the regulations will carry us. In other words, making BOP help instead of hinder them. 

 

I like this idea of the mustang being a world beating supercar, I just hope it doesn't come at the expense of the gt being forgotten for like the next 30 years. 

[akirby]

28 minutes ago, DeluxeStang said:

Interesting how they decided the s550 wouldn't be competitive with its shape. But have decided to give it another go with the s650, which has a very similar silhouette. Farley isn't never going to publicly state this, but it could be Ford saw all the work that went into making the gt wasted on the racetrack as a result of BOP.

 

Ford clearly had the best car in their class, but were restricted so much that even the outdated at the time Vantages were beating them in some races. So Ford could be like, why bother going all out when the regulations will carry us. In other words, making BOP help instead of hinder them. 

 

I like this idea of the mustang being a world beating supercar, I just hope it doesn't come at the expense of the gt being forgotten for like the next 30 years. 

I think it’s all about the rules not just BOP.  Other mfrs bowed out too.  Also, gt3 and gt4 mustangs are targeted at far more than just LeMans and WEC.

[DeluxeStang]

9 hours ago, akirby said:

I think it’s all about the rules not just BOP.  Other mfrs bowed out too.  Also, gt3 and gt4 mustangs are targeted at far more than just LeMans and WEC.

I know there were be concerns about safety, and large manufacturers with massive budgets dominating, but we really need some sort of unregulated racing series again. 

[akirby]

9 hours ago, DeluxeStang said:

I know there were be concerns about safety, and large manufacturers with massive budgets dominating, but we really need some sort of unregulated racing series again. 

The problem for promoters is you may end up with one team dominating and the other teams and fans lose interest.  But making BOP changes especially mid season just disincentivizes hard work and innovation.

 

Things like minimum weight and max displacement that apply to everyone is fine and necessary.  But when you start crippling one model with extra weight just  because the others aren’t competitive then you might as well go to a spec series where every team starts with the same vehicle.

 

If they do use BOP on individual models I’d prefer to see it set in the off season and not changed during the season.  If one team finds an advantage they get to use it for the whole season.

 

Another option is to have multiple classes with the same vehicles.  You start in class 3 and winners from class. 3 move up to class 2, same for winners in class 2.  Class 1 becomes the de facto unlimited class but others with less resources can still compete in lower classes.

[Andrew L]

19 hours ago, DeluxeStang said:

I know there were be concerns about safety, and large manufacturers with massive budgets dominating, but we really need some sort of unregulated racing series again. 

 

I know not the same thing but related... NASCAR was a lot more fun to watch when the teams had more control over the cars I pretty much stopped watching when they switched to that "Car of tomorrow" and everything was pretty much the same.  I went to the Daytona 500 during that era though and the race was so boring it was almost like no one could pass or people were too afraid to til the last 10-15 laps. 

[silvrsvt]

On 8/31/2023 at 1:41 PM, DeluxeStang said:

Interesting how they decided the s550 wouldn't be competitive with its shape. But have decided to give it another go with the s650, which has a very similar silhouette.

 

I'm guessing that there was a lot more tweaking of the design during the styling phase that wouldn't have been possible with the S550. I'd guess that things under the car to help improve it for racing. 

[jpd80]

Just imagine how embarrassing it would have been for Ford to turn up to LeMans in a new vehicle that wasn’t competitive, I’m glad that someone accepted the message that MultiMac gave Ford and their advice on a superb vehicle with much better chance of winning.

 

[Hugh]

I for one, am very pleased it did happen.