It’s just over 20 years ago that I jumped on a Jumbo to Detroit with a simple mission: drive the prototype for Ford’s reborn blue collar hero, the new GT supercar.

During the lead up to stretching out in business class with a glass of bubbles and wondering which movie to watch first – The Matrix Reloaded or, er, Finding Nemo – that mission had seemed impossible. After Ford revealed the GT40 Concept in 2002, which was designed by Camilo Pardo, the reaction from public and press alike to the working-class hero was singularly united: the message to Ford was, build it.

Ford duly obliged. (Although, be under no illusion that there was ever any debate about the decision. With its 100^th anniversary in 2003, the GT project was always going to happen…) Needless to say, every motoring journalist under the sun had wanted to bag an exclusive for their magazine. But only yours truly, then working for Top Gear magazine, had pulled it off.

On the ground in Romeo, Michigan, where Ford had its test track, there were three cars awaiting. One, in mocked-up Gulf motorsport colours, was for assessing NVH – noise, vibration and harshness. Next to it sat an altogether more presentable-looking GT, in distinctive Mark IV red with white racing stripes, which was for evaluating ride and handling. And then there was the ratty, tatty-looking black car, which would be used to get a feel for steering and brakes

It was a complex project, much like the original GT40 or later BMW M1 I've written about for Hagerty, as Ford was heavily reliant on external suppliers and partners to bring the GT to fruition. The car began assembly at Mayflower Vehicle Systems (MVS) in Norwalk, Ohio and was painted and continued assembly at Saleen Special Vehicles’ facility in Troy, Michigan. The engine was built at Ford's Romeo Engine Plant, while bolting it and the gearbox into the platform, plus most of the interior finishing, was done at the the SVT building at Ford's Wixom, Michigan operation.

Creating the Ford GT's winning formula

There was some solid engineering underpinning it. The GT featured a light but strong superplastic-formed frame and aluminium bodypanels, but the red-blooded beating heart of the GT was its always its 5.4-litre supercharged V8. Some poked fun about it coming from a pickup truck, but who cared when it made a Ferrari 360 Modena or even later F430 seem anaemic?

With 550bhp (at 6500rpm) and a big fat 500Ib ft at 3750rpm,it was never caught short of breath. In fact, its performance annihilated the competition. The benchmark 0-60 took 3.7 seconds and the top speed was 205mph. But none of that would have mattered if it had handled like a three-legged rhino.

Benchmarks for the Ford GT

Ford’s engineers told me they’d benchmarked a surprisingly wide range of cars. The Honda NSX was in the mix for its handling, gearshift and engine note; the Lotus Elise for its handling and construction; Toyota’s third-generation MR2 was of interest because not only was it tremendous fun to throw around (and it was), it was cleverly engineered to keep weight down; and then there was the obvious sports car benchmark of the time, Ferrari’s 360.

Jeff Walsh, a former Lotus vehicle dynamics engineer who worked on the GT’s development, explained the vision for the new GT. “We want to create a useable car. Something that you could, say, drive from London to Le Mans, without feeling like you won’t try that again in a hurry. Compliancy is the key – in the ride, the handling and the general responses.”

Sure enough, that’s how the prototypes felt to me, on Ford’s home turf test track. It was big but agile, powerful but composed, had high limits but could be playful. And the control weights were easy-going enough that you’d have no regrets taking it into the big city. And that’s largely what others found when they drove the real deal in the UK two years later.

Evo magazine crowned it Performance Car of the Year, in 2005, saying: ‘The addictive power, captivating looks and uniquely uncomplicated nature of its performance make it one of the all-time great supercars’.

It had an even more profound effect on Jeremy Clarkson, after he drove it in late 2003: ‘Even now, weeks later, I simply cannot get the Ford GT out of my head.’ That would come to haunt him.

Just 4500 GTs were produced. And out of those, 100 came to Europe and just 28 to the UK, which was a bit of a kick in the teeth to the marque’s many admirers here. The impression the car had made on Clarkson led him to bag a place in the queue of 28. Unfortunately, he owned it for less than a month, returning it to Ford after growing increasingly infuriated with its over-zealous after-market alarm and the inability of Roush, Ford’s GT servicing partner, to stop it triggering at random. He admitted he was gutted.

For any long-term owners out there, the GT has turned out to be a jolly shrewd investment indeed, making it very much one for the collector who enjoys watching the market as much as they do burning rubber.

At the time, it cost £120,900 (£207,000, adjusted for inflation). According to The Classic Valuer, the most a GT has sold for at auction since 2020 is £480,219, while a browse of the classifieds shows cars range from about £320,000 to £420,000, with mileage influencing that figure greatly. That means it’s appreciated in value by broadly £150,000 more than a Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradale, which was £133,020 when new and hovers between £170,000 to £250,000 today. And that makes it a hit with collectors just as much as enthusiasts.

Once again, Ford showed Ferrari it could outdo it at its own game when it wanted to…

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