A Ford GT, a pair of turbos and a lot of titanium.....


Heffner Performance

*Supporting Vendor*
Supporting Vendor
Feb 22, 2006
367
Sadly, since the GT has been out of production for over a decade now, we don't see quite as many in the shop as we did years ago. When we do, you can be sure that everyone is walking around with a smile, especially when we are given a little bit of creative freedom.

A while back we did a beautiful twin turbo yellow / black GT for our friends down at Wheels Boutique. A while later we did one for the forum's own W. Mitty. At Mike's request we built most of the inlet piping, charge piping and exhaust system out of titanium and it came out better than anyone could have hoped. Now a few years later, Ben from Wheels Boutique sent us another immaculate GT to have a twin turbo system installed. He had fallen in love with the hand fabricated titanium parts that we made for W. Mitty's car and asked that we build his new system out of titanium as well.

Always wanting to improve, we first re examined the layout of the system itself. No matter how many alternatives we considered, we all felt that the layout of the system and the aesthetics were very hard to beat. This combined with the fact that the system has proven itself to be powerful and reliable countless times over the years, we decided to use this as the foundation that we would build off of. Of course over the years our capabilities have expanded considerably so we kept an open mind and incorporated the benefits of this wherever we saw fit. I had a few ideas that I just couldn't get out of my head so while my guys got started on the car, mounting turbos and fabricating parts for the system, I started drawing up a few new things.



From a visual standpoint I was having a hard time with the idea of using the stock throttle body. So I decided to make my own. While I was at it I started thinking about a nicer way to connect the titanium tubing to a flange and then to the throttle body. Normally a silicone coupler with two clamps would be used. I thought that it would be cool to make a nice billet titanium flange as well. Of course I had never machined titanium before but once I had the idea I just couldn't do it any other way. In the end I created a throttle body that incorporated O rings around the perimeter to seal to the flange that I made. I used a pair of quick release aircraft fasteners to hold the two pieces together. It ended up looking very clean and unique.




Once the turbo system started coming together we had to really put some thought into what finishes we would put on some of the other pieces of the engine bay. In the past we have painted valve covers and intake manifolds to match the car or powder coated these pieces which has worked out really well. This being a red car with no stripes left us somewhat limited, in my opinion, as to what we could do. We all stood around the engine bay for a bit and discussed different ideas. We thought it would be great if we could incorporate some more titanium into the engine bay and tie the turbo system in with the engine. Off I went to draw up a few more parts. We ended up coating the intake plenum and valve covers in a lightly textured black finish that looks much like the factory reservoirs. I machined a custom set of ignition coil covers and then machined titanium inserts to fit into the coil covers and intake plenum. These of course are held down with titanium fasteners. The finished product left us feeling pretty excited about what we had created. I just don't know how you can equal the satisfaction that you get from taking a project like this from concept to reality.









My team and I can't thank Ben at Wheels Boutique enough for choosing Heffner Performance, Inc. with another beautiful GT. We have a few other really nice machined parts in the works right now for the 2005 - 2006 GT's as well as the 2017+ cars that I can't wait to show you.
 

GTMD

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Jan 4, 2011
957
NorCal
Holy smokes is that gorgeous! Drooling with envy here!
 

twobjshelbys

GT Owner
Jul 26, 2010
6,053
Las Vegas, NV
Beautiful work.
 

Sinovac

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Jul 18, 2006
5,832
Largo, Florida
^I agree. Wow.
 

nota4re

GT Owner
Mark IV Lifetime
Le Mans 2010 Supporter
Feb 15, 2006
4,177
Wood for days!! Those titanium tubing pieces don't look time consuming to make at all!
 

STORMCAT

GT
Mark IV Lifetime
Le Mans 2010 Supporter
May 25, 2006
7,549
Ft. Lauderdale
Nice job!! I'm hoping to see the car tomorrow at the loca Cars and Coffee event !
 
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2112

Blue/white 06'
Mark II Lifetime
Incredible craftsmanship.

Are these cars using stock exhaust manifolds or Headers?
 

roketman

GT Owner
Mark IV Lifetime
Oct 24, 2005
7,996
ma.
Brilliant as always!
 

DakotaGT

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Dec 9, 2012
1,694
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Wonderful craftsmanship! Always fun to see your projects. Thanks for sharing.
 

fjpikul

GT Owner
Mark IV Lifetime
Le Mans 2010 Supporter
Jan 4, 2006
11,475
Belleville, IL
I'm surprised you used the stock airbox.
 

Brombear

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
May 16, 2013
1,396
Frankfurt Area, Germany
Looking good.
 

mmlcobra

GT Owner
May 25, 2013
1,215
That's beautiful!
Jason, I need to get my car to you next week.
Will call you Monday AM.
My Best,
Mark
 

unotaz

GT Owner
May 24, 2018
85
Los Angeles
Wow, looks beautifully crafted. Please post more pictures and videos!
 

BtwoG

GT Owner
Dec 8, 2013
1,039
Atlanta, GA
Wow!
 

GTJack

GT Owner
Mark IV Lifetime
Le Mans 2010 Supporter
Oct 1, 2006
1,728
Saddlebrooke, MO
That is gorgeous. The craftsmanship looks incredible! Owner should be ecstatic!
 

junior

GT Owner
Mar 9, 2007
1,151
So Cal
While wiping the drool off my chin, is this set up smog legal in California? Thank you.
 

usmcfred

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Oct 26, 2006
546
Massachusetts
How are you protecting the clam shell, louvers, etc. from the additional heat generated by the TT's, pipes, etc.?

usmcfred
 
Mar 15, 2006
767
Beautiful work, Jason. As always.
 

cedarstang

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
That is an outstanding job
 

stuntman

GT Owner
Jan 15, 2015
216
Impressive. But aluminum would be lighter for the intake work.