I hesitate to start a new thread, but since Dave said that Ford marketers listen to the Forum, let's see if this message has an effect.
I've had my 2005 for a little less than a year now, but I've put 6000 miles on it since buying it, so I have reasonable experience at this point on which to make some remarks about what I would change if I were redesigning the car. I started taking some notes to myself several months back as I was forming ideas about what I would change if I got sufficiently motivated to do so. I had no idea a new GT was in the works, but now that it has been revealed, I think some of those musings might be considered in the 2016 model, if there's still some opportunity to influence the final configuration.
Here are my notes on the 05-06 model:
- Front trunk: I’d really try to repackage the structure and accessories underneath here to gain some additional storage space. There’s so little storage space in the FGT that every little bit helps. I'm sure the 2016 structure is already finalized, but do give some consideration to storage space for those of us who may actually drive the car on the street.
- Wipers: A smoother design here would be nice. At least make them retract below the hood. I understand this was on the wish list of the design team, but didn’t make the cut due to extra cost. I didn't see the wipers on the 2016 show car, but same comments apply.
- Outside rear view mirrors. I would make them easy to detach from the outside (without having to take off the interior door panel). Handy for those impromptu high-speed runs.
'05-06 FGT Interior: I’d make lots of changes here. That’s not a hit on the design team, as they had to stay on schedule and cost, but with years of hindsight, we all can think of things to improve.
- Cup holders! C’mon, admit it. Unless you keep the plastic wrappers on your car and trailer it everywhere, you have thought about how to stuff your cup of coffee/cold soda/water bottle somewhere in that cabin, and other than setting it carefully on the floor or passenger seat, there just isn’t any place for a cup or bottle. And you almost certainly have cussed a few times after spilling it. So almost all of us have bought or improvised something to hold a cup/bottle. In the 2016 car, the doors are deep enough to put the upholders in the door panels, however with the butterfly opening, that might not work because it would probably dump out the cup or contents.
- Storage space: The 05-06 car doesn’t even have a place to put your sunglasses. It needs all the nooks and crannies to be used for holding stuff. It needs a center console storage bin, door pockets, dash compartments, etc. I'm sure the 2016 car will be at least as spartan, so any additional spaces would be a big plus.
- Seats: The 05-06 are pretty good seats for racing seats, but this is a street car. I’d make the upper bolsters at the shoulders a little less confining. Seat bottom fits me fine, but adjustability would be useful, including a lumbar adjuster. Obviously the 2016 car is quite different, with the seat built into the back and bottom of the car, but leave some room for big guys and build in inflatable pads to adjust it for the driver.
- Center dash console: The 05-06 should have the heat/AC controls here, in a conventional location. That would take your eyes off the road less when making adjustments, compared to the location on top of the center console. The radio should be more accessible, and putting it in a conventional center dash console would improve that enormously. That’s why Kip Ewing can sell a double-DIN replacement fascia panel for $2200 (gag). The passenger air bag off switch should be repositioned into a center dash console too. The 2016 car has a completely different center console and dash, but the idea applies: Put the heat/AC controls up where you can get to them easily and with minimum diversion of attention from the road.
- Parking brake handle: This is awkward too. Replace it with a foot brake on the driver’s side. Another option is to put it on the inside of the driver’s door sill, like in Porsche 944-series cars. Getting the parking brake off the center console gives more room for a storage compartment and cup holders(!). I didn't see where the parking brake is located in the 2016 show car.
- Door panels/armrests: The stock items look cool, but the upper part of the rectangular aluminum surround hits me in the middle of my upper arm. I would recess this about a half an inch, and I would raise the armrest a bit to make it more nearly level with the center console. Then make the armrest flip up, with a storage compartment under it. Every little bit of storage space helps.
- Bass speaker. Between the seats at shoulder height is a pretty awkward location. Instead, put it behind the passenger seat by bumping out some space in the firewall. It looks like the area of the engine compartment behind the firewall could be modified to do so.
- Front floor mats: 9 or so years on, the foam inside the mats is deteriorating into goo. I’ve had this experience with other products that use the same kind of foam for insulation or filling space (such as in some motorcycle helmets and early 911 engine sound insulation pads), and by now, the manufacturers should know not to use that particular material. Maybe it’s cheap. Anyway, if I could specify the floor mats, I would go to Weather Tech and get them to make the floor mats with their rubber material, and the mats would go up the sides of the footwell to protect the metal and leather around the sides. I also would cast a cupholder of some sort into the mat so that you could place your cup or bottle under your knee against the center tunnel. That might be a good location for a cup/bottle holder in the 2016 model too.
- Backup camera: make it stock. The FGT needs a backup camera more than any other car I’ve driven. I’ve chipped and scraped the diffuser a handful of times because I backed over a parking block or something else that I couldn’t see. And I know most of you have done it too.
- Overhead sunglass storage compartment and garage door opener compartment.
- Maplights: I’ve gotten used to them on the underside of the rearview mirror. Actually kinda like ‘em there, but I think I’d also put them in the ceiling above the rear window. I like reading lights to illuminate from behind the driver in a car, as it causes less glare and visual distraction for the driver. I didn't see any in the 2016 show car.
- Door latch release: The standard one works well, but I’d like to see a trigger on the door handle instead. So you wrap your hand around the door handle and squeeze the trigger to open the door. I think that would be pretty cool, and I’ve never seen it in another car.
Controls and instruments:
- Hi beam indicator is too bright. Really annoying at night.
- Make the master warning light flash to indicate a problem. That gets attention faster.
- Gauges: I like the appearance of the lettering and faces, but the reliability sucks. I’d also put the speedo next to the tach and double-stack the other gauges, in order to clear space at the center of the dash for heating/AC controls. Yeah, it’s not like in the original GT40, but that was a pure race car, and this is a street machine. Also put digital readouts and i/d lights in the gauges like the Speedhuts. With an LCD display, the 2016 car is entirely different, but also more flexible. Give the driver several options of configuring the display to show different readings or other info.
- Heat/AC controls. Get them off the center console and up on the dash in more conventional style. Clearing the center console will provide room for cup holders (!) and a storage compartment. Looks like that was done in the 2016 car.
- Switches:
- Ignition switch: Delete the “Engine Start” button. It’s totally superfluous and it takes up valuable dash real estate. They’re passe now anyway. A conventional key twist ignition switch would be functionally and visually superior.
- Cruise control: I’m sure there are plenty of options in the Ford parts bins. Should be standard equipment on a supercar. I saw that was added to the steering wheel controls in the 2016 car.
- Traction control: Although I like the mostly analog nature of the FGT, traction control would be nice to have. Along with a switch to turn it off when you want to. The 2016 car has it integrated.
I've had my 2005 for a little less than a year now, but I've put 6000 miles on it since buying it, so I have reasonable experience at this point on which to make some remarks about what I would change if I were redesigning the car. I started taking some notes to myself several months back as I was forming ideas about what I would change if I got sufficiently motivated to do so. I had no idea a new GT was in the works, but now that it has been revealed, I think some of those musings might be considered in the 2016 model, if there's still some opportunity to influence the final configuration.
Here are my notes on the 05-06 model:
- Front trunk: I’d really try to repackage the structure and accessories underneath here to gain some additional storage space. There’s so little storage space in the FGT that every little bit helps. I'm sure the 2016 structure is already finalized, but do give some consideration to storage space for those of us who may actually drive the car on the street.
- Wipers: A smoother design here would be nice. At least make them retract below the hood. I understand this was on the wish list of the design team, but didn’t make the cut due to extra cost. I didn't see the wipers on the 2016 show car, but same comments apply.
- Outside rear view mirrors. I would make them easy to detach from the outside (without having to take off the interior door panel). Handy for those impromptu high-speed runs.
'05-06 FGT Interior: I’d make lots of changes here. That’s not a hit on the design team, as they had to stay on schedule and cost, but with years of hindsight, we all can think of things to improve.
- Cup holders! C’mon, admit it. Unless you keep the plastic wrappers on your car and trailer it everywhere, you have thought about how to stuff your cup of coffee/cold soda/water bottle somewhere in that cabin, and other than setting it carefully on the floor or passenger seat, there just isn’t any place for a cup or bottle. And you almost certainly have cussed a few times after spilling it. So almost all of us have bought or improvised something to hold a cup/bottle. In the 2016 car, the doors are deep enough to put the upholders in the door panels, however with the butterfly opening, that might not work because it would probably dump out the cup or contents.
- Storage space: The 05-06 car doesn’t even have a place to put your sunglasses. It needs all the nooks and crannies to be used for holding stuff. It needs a center console storage bin, door pockets, dash compartments, etc. I'm sure the 2016 car will be at least as spartan, so any additional spaces would be a big plus.
- Seats: The 05-06 are pretty good seats for racing seats, but this is a street car. I’d make the upper bolsters at the shoulders a little less confining. Seat bottom fits me fine, but adjustability would be useful, including a lumbar adjuster. Obviously the 2016 car is quite different, with the seat built into the back and bottom of the car, but leave some room for big guys and build in inflatable pads to adjust it for the driver.
- Center dash console: The 05-06 should have the heat/AC controls here, in a conventional location. That would take your eyes off the road less when making adjustments, compared to the location on top of the center console. The radio should be more accessible, and putting it in a conventional center dash console would improve that enormously. That’s why Kip Ewing can sell a double-DIN replacement fascia panel for $2200 (gag). The passenger air bag off switch should be repositioned into a center dash console too. The 2016 car has a completely different center console and dash, but the idea applies: Put the heat/AC controls up where you can get to them easily and with minimum diversion of attention from the road.
- Parking brake handle: This is awkward too. Replace it with a foot brake on the driver’s side. Another option is to put it on the inside of the driver’s door sill, like in Porsche 944-series cars. Getting the parking brake off the center console gives more room for a storage compartment and cup holders(!). I didn't see where the parking brake is located in the 2016 show car.
- Door panels/armrests: The stock items look cool, but the upper part of the rectangular aluminum surround hits me in the middle of my upper arm. I would recess this about a half an inch, and I would raise the armrest a bit to make it more nearly level with the center console. Then make the armrest flip up, with a storage compartment under it. Every little bit of storage space helps.
- Bass speaker. Between the seats at shoulder height is a pretty awkward location. Instead, put it behind the passenger seat by bumping out some space in the firewall. It looks like the area of the engine compartment behind the firewall could be modified to do so.
- Front floor mats: 9 or so years on, the foam inside the mats is deteriorating into goo. I’ve had this experience with other products that use the same kind of foam for insulation or filling space (such as in some motorcycle helmets and early 911 engine sound insulation pads), and by now, the manufacturers should know not to use that particular material. Maybe it’s cheap. Anyway, if I could specify the floor mats, I would go to Weather Tech and get them to make the floor mats with their rubber material, and the mats would go up the sides of the footwell to protect the metal and leather around the sides. I also would cast a cupholder of some sort into the mat so that you could place your cup or bottle under your knee against the center tunnel. That might be a good location for a cup/bottle holder in the 2016 model too.
- Backup camera: make it stock. The FGT needs a backup camera more than any other car I’ve driven. I’ve chipped and scraped the diffuser a handful of times because I backed over a parking block or something else that I couldn’t see. And I know most of you have done it too.
- Overhead sunglass storage compartment and garage door opener compartment.
- Maplights: I’ve gotten used to them on the underside of the rearview mirror. Actually kinda like ‘em there, but I think I’d also put them in the ceiling above the rear window. I like reading lights to illuminate from behind the driver in a car, as it causes less glare and visual distraction for the driver. I didn't see any in the 2016 show car.
- Door latch release: The standard one works well, but I’d like to see a trigger on the door handle instead. So you wrap your hand around the door handle and squeeze the trigger to open the door. I think that would be pretty cool, and I’ve never seen it in another car.
Controls and instruments:
- Hi beam indicator is too bright. Really annoying at night.
- Make the master warning light flash to indicate a problem. That gets attention faster.
- Gauges: I like the appearance of the lettering and faces, but the reliability sucks. I’d also put the speedo next to the tach and double-stack the other gauges, in order to clear space at the center of the dash for heating/AC controls. Yeah, it’s not like in the original GT40, but that was a pure race car, and this is a street machine. Also put digital readouts and i/d lights in the gauges like the Speedhuts. With an LCD display, the 2016 car is entirely different, but also more flexible. Give the driver several options of configuring the display to show different readings or other info.
- Heat/AC controls. Get them off the center console and up on the dash in more conventional style. Clearing the center console will provide room for cup holders (!) and a storage compartment. Looks like that was done in the 2016 car.
- Switches:
- Ignition switch: Delete the “Engine Start” button. It’s totally superfluous and it takes up valuable dash real estate. They’re passe now anyway. A conventional key twist ignition switch would be functionally and visually superior.
- Cruise control: I’m sure there are plenty of options in the Ford parts bins. Should be standard equipment on a supercar. I saw that was added to the steering wheel controls in the 2016 car.
- Traction control: Although I like the mostly analog nature of the FGT, traction control would be nice to have. Along with a switch to turn it off when you want to. The 2016 car has it integrated.
