GT at the Track

[YellowGT40]

Anyone ever had their GT on the track? I had the opportunity last month in Virginia. Here are some pics of an 04 Cobra and the GT I took: I made one run in the Cobra and 2 or 3 in the Ford GT.

http://www.showmeyourstang.com/virginiaInternationalRaceway.htm

 

[50 BMG]

Sa-weet. An orange 04 Cobra, my kinda guy! :wink

Which one was faster :rofl

 

[barondw]

There are several of us who have used the car on the track here and in England. Been doing track days since last June.

Dave

 

[Jason Watt]

Dave,

Track days in the UK??
I thought you lived in NY...

 

[LEMANSZ]

how did the GT do on the track?

 

[SLF360]

Trackability

how did the GT do on the track?

I think it is not a track car, actually. Quite heavy, lots of comfort suspension setup which is (extremely) nice on the road, but less precise on the track, and if you break hard, it really goes for a nosedive as a result.
But for perspective, the ENZO is also not really a track car, if you ask me ( I think behaves similar to the GT, in fact). The Stradale is, the Elise is, and the MC12 is (and the FXX is). The GT is a symbolic beautiful celebration car, and a perfect road tourer...
DISCLAIMER: This is merely my humble opinion, now go and kill me, if you wish...1 of 101 :wink and the whole pack of GT buddies here!

PS: Wanna see some FXX trackday pictures from Italy, btw ?

 

[Neilda]

Here's me doing the do...!

 

[biffom]

Here's me doing the do...!

Neil,

I like how you've dealt with the number plate problem. Q: Is it legal or sort of acceptable?

Anyone know if you can swing something like that in the US? - I've seen plenty of motorbikes with miniaturized rear number plates.

As a point of interest all five of the GTs that met up last week had no front plates. I shall just keep paying the fines until I'm ordered to fix it....

 

[Neilda]

Biff, it's not legal, however I'm reliably informed that the offence is non-endorsable and that the Police won't bothered unless you've really annoyed them in some way!

V12 is the wrong number for the GT (it's off my Vanquish) and a good friend of mine has V8 WMD - so we're trying to do a trade!

 

[barondw]

Dave,

Track days in the UK??
I thought you lived in NY...

I do, but meant in my reply that others also tracked their cars, like Neil in UK

Dave

 

[ENZO BTR]

I tracked mine (Laguna Seca) last August, six days after I got it (umm, it was mostly broken in by then :willy ).

I was also driving a Ford press car (a red GT) at that event. This was for my Ford GT vs GT4 (Gran Turismo 4) story, and I thought the GTs (both mine and the press car) were pretty sweet. That was last August, and in November I drove the Tungsten press car at Willow Springs for our American Exotics comparison, and again felt like it was the most capable of the three (though the Z06, in "Competition Driving" mode, is very nice too). The Viper was surprisingly uninspiring. I think they neutered it too much in the most recent version to get away from it's "crash happy" reputation, but I liked the previous version better because at least you could rotate it when you wanted to (also when you didn't want to, but it never "bit" me...).

I agree that the GT's suspension is softer than a "real" track car's, but between the suspension tuning and the overall "friendliness" of the GT it's very easy to push to -- and beyond -- its limits without crashing. I've driven plenty of "track cars" that were a bit of a razor's edge, meaning by the time you realize you're in trouble -- TOO LATE!

So I guess it comes down to what you're after. I like the GT's more relaxed nature because it translates all the way to driving it at 11/10ths and not biting you in the ass. I know the 360 Stradale, for example, is very capable at a track, but just like the regular 360, if you get in over you're head you're probably going to crash. The "on/off" effect in the Stradale isn't as extreme as with the regular 360, but it's still more than the GT.

JMHO

 

[2002_Viper_GTS_ACR]

Enzo btr, you write for one of the car rags? You wrote the piece on how the game hold up to real world? Kinda cool. Thought all you rag writers were always bitching about how you couldnt actually afford the super cars you got to test drive.

Anyways, the real reason for my post is that being an x-viper owner, I used to track my car a good bit, and it was the previous generation as you refer to it (gen 2). My question is, I always did a damn good job of eating up most of the weekend racers like myself at VIR, due to the cars over all abilities in the corners, braking and its strongest ability, straight away power. Nowing in my heart that the Ford GT is going to be my next moniqer, I dont take kindly to hearing some of my Viper buddies tell me that they were whooping up on one at VIR this past summer. My thought is that the GT owner was being a panzy, as I have seen a number of new viper owners be too, when experimenting with thier car on track. Heck even heard of people passing an Enzo at VIR because the owner just wasnt trying to press his luck. The point in my rambling, even with the suspension as it is, can you comfortably say on a HP friendly track (like VIR) the Ford GT in compitent hands against a competent driver in a Viper (gen 2 or gen 3) should more times then not win (get better lap times)? Also what happens to the SC in summer conditions under significant continuous load. No place on the street would you really be able to keep the super charger on as much work load as you would a big race track. Does heat soak become apparent, and therefor subsiquent powerloss, and then the NA cars start showing back up in the rearview??


Thanks...

Track Junkie

 

[Tom B]

I've had my GT at Summit Point several times. The car is great fun, I am comparing it to former cars - GT3, Stradale, Vipers. Every owner should try to get their cars to a track at least once.

 

[Neilda]

Tom, nice pics... Is it just me or does the GT really stick out from every other car there?!

I thought the GT was fun on the track but I didn't think it was stiff enough for serious competition - felt a little wallowy in fast corners. What did you think?

Given I've bought mine for fun driving (rather than competition) it suits me fine so this is not a criticism of the car - it's a superb car for 'normal' driving.

 

[wonkawonka]

Viper, I was at Willow Springs at the test day that EnzoBTR was writing about. The same professional driver drove the Gen 3 viper, Z06 and GT, and the GT consistently beat the other 2. In fact the Viper was far behind the GT and the Z06.
I am pretty confident that a stock GT will whip a stock Viper at similar driver skill level.

However, at these performance levels, it's really the driver who matters. You got skillz, you got cojones, you got a GT, then let the Viper buddies go home crying to mommy.

(And yes I agree with SLF360, that the GT isn't really a track car. But then again a real track car is gutted, with suspensions that break your back, and definitely no McIntosh subwoofer!)

 

[ENZO BTR]

The day we were testing the Ford GT against Gran Turimso 4 was in August at Laguna Seca and it was pretty hot, but I never noticed a performance penalty. We were running it all day (both for numbers and for video shooting) and not only did it seem to retain it's performance, it also never broke (and this was a 30,000 press car that had been beaten on for over a year -- I drove the same exact car 14 months earlier in Napa for 48 hours when it only had 2,300 miles). That made me feel pretty good about the GT's long-term reliability. :thumbsup

I totally agree that the GT isn't as stiffly sprung as traditional "track" cars, and assuming you have the driver skills you could possibly cut its track times with stiffer springs/shocks. But it does make for an excellent real-world driver that can handle occasional track days without embarassing itself (and likely embarassing some other weekend warriors :biggrin ).

 

[Neilda]

Enzo, that's always good to hear that an abused GT doesn't seem to show any signs of wear and tear. I had a Vanquish until recently and many motoring journalists managed to break Vanquishes simply by dropping the throttle in first gear - it didn't inspire confidence!

I'd be honest and say that I don't have either da cojones or the skill - I drive fairly swiftly and have tracked several cars. The funny thing is though, I think I'm driving really fast and then someone overtakes me! True driver skill is a magical thing.....

It reminds me of a round of golf many years ago with a friend of mine who's a touring pro. He got into a fairway bunker on the 16th of Wentworth - he calmly took out a 3 wood and, without any fuss, stroked that ball into the middle of the green from the bunker. With a 3 wood???!

Driving is similar - when the experts do it, it's a different league.

 

[Tom B]

Tom, nice pics... Is it just me or does the GT really stick out from every other car there?!

I thought the GT was fun on the track but I didn't think it was stiff enough for serious competition - felt a little wallowy in fast corners. What did you think?

Given I've bought mine for fun driving (rather than competition) it suits me fine so this is not a criticism of the car - it's a superb car for 'normal' driving.

The GT did stick out at the Ferrari & Porsche track days, the car had people around it all day, and there was some nice race hardware around.

The GT is really a street car that does very well on the track. The car doesn't have a suspension for all out racing, and the street tires aren't the greatest. I feel the biggest drawback was the tires. I had a GT3 that I tracked with stock tires, then with R compounds and it was night and day. I'm looking forward to better tires from someone. The GT still did great against all of the street cars - Stradale's, 360's, GT3's, Z06's, M3's they were all there.

 

[wonkawonka]

The GT is really a street car that does very well on the track. The car doesn't have a suspension for all out racing, and the street tires aren't the greatest. I feel the biggest drawback was the tires. I had a GT3 that I tracked with stock tires, then with R compounds and it was night and day. I'm looking forward to better tires from someone.

Same problem for every car. I have a 99' Mustang Cobra. Drive it with stock tires and you hate life. Put in good stuff such as the Azenis (not even R compound) and it's a totally different car.
Same with the latest M3, the stock tires are garbage.

 

[2002_Viper_GTS_ACR]

Same problem for every car. I have a 99' Mustang Cobra. Drive it with stock tires and you hate life. Put in good stuff such as the Azenis (not even R compound) and it's a totally different car.
Same with the latest M3, the stock tires are garbage.

I wouldnt say for every car. On completely OEM stock tires I was running 2:16 and 2:17's at VIR, which is better then what most weekend warriors run on R compounds.

But as I stated in a different thread, I believe the handling, braking and cornering of the GT is handicaped by its tire selection. Even better street tires could make an appeciable difference.

Jon