Auto Car | 1995 Ford GT90 | Stark and forbidding, the refrigerator-white GT90 sits alone in the center of an enormous skidpad awash with water from earlier rain. The Ford engineers have finally given me the OK to drive their $3-million, one-off supercar concept, and I'm starting to wish they hadn't.
The GT90 is anything but inviting. It disturbs your eyes with its charmless, hunchbacked stance and weird design mix of flat planes and triangular shapes. My nerves are hardly calmed by the knowledge that beneath the carbon-fiber skin lurks a midmounted 6.0-liter quad-turbo DOHC V-12 with 48 valves and a potential for 720 horsepower.
How will the undeveloped chassis cope? What if I send this unique machine hurtling backward into a crash barrier just weeks before it's due to appear at the Frankfurt and Tokyo shows?
Enough worrying. Pushing a small yellow panel on the B-pillar allows the door to swing open. The fixed side window arcs well into the roof area, itself a glass panel, so that cockpit access is surprisingly easy. The door sill is narrow and low, very unlike a Lamborghini Diablo's, for instance. Instead of using a bulky center tunnel, the five-speed gear lever and its exposed linkage is suspended on two slim tubes running between the rear bulkhead and the dash. As a result, the GT90 has a shockingly spacious cabin compared with those of most supercars. I find I can even stretch out my legs in comfort to meet pedals that are only slightly offset to the centerline of the car. So far so good.
Already warmed up, the 5927-cubic-centimeter V-12 starts at the first twist of the key. The motor idles a tad roughly because it hasn't been fully calibrated, but in the cabin it sounds well muffled, with a mechanical tone more like a Porsche 911's than a Ferrari 512TR's.
The pedal for the small-diameter racing clutch needs a hard shove, but the polished metal gear lever slots into first with a firm, well-oiled motion. The GT90 program manager, Fred Goodnow, advises that I apply a fair amount of throttle to avoid stalling. Hands gripping the fat-rimmed wheel, I head off across the sodden asphalt skidpad appropriately nicknamed "the black lake" by the testers at Ford's 4000-acre Romeo, Michigan, proving grounds near Detroit.
The tachometer is malfunctioning, but I estimate I'm changing up through the gearbox at around 3000 rpm. Mild stuff, yes, but I'm still becoming acclimated. The shift quality of the FFD-Ricardo gearbox (as found in the Jaguar XJ220) is relatively light considering the torque load it's designed to handle. Confidence growing, I run the V-12 up to its 5900-rpm cutout point, which is set lower than the actual 6300-rpm redline to protect the recently rebuilt motor. As the revs rise, the V-12 generates a distinctive howl topped by a loud jetlike whistle that Goodnow attributes to the four Garrett T02 turbos. Though these are spinning, their wastegates are locked in the open position, so in fact the V-12 is operating as a naturally aspirated motor. Goodnow explains that given the GT90's status as a concept car, he isn't ready to expose the potentially frail body-particularly the glass panels-to the stresses of the V-12's estimated maximum output of 720 horsepower and 660 pound-feet of torque.
In my hands, then, the GT90 is delivering peak horsepower and torque figures around the 400 mark. That still sounds impressive, but under full throttle the GT90 doesn't accelerate with the vigor I had expected; it feels fast on its way up to about 70 mph, but not in a dramatic fashion. One explanation I'm given is that the unaltered ratios of the XJ220 box are on the tall side for the heavier (3200-pound) GT90.
Specification
Make: Ford
Model: Gt-90 Concept
Year: 1995
Country of Origin: United States of America
Type: Supercar
Group: S
Engine: V-12, Quad Turbocharged, 5,927 CC, Gasoline
Horsepower: 720 BHP, @6,600 RPM
Torque: 660 LB FT @ 4,750 RPM
Redline: 7,000 RPM
Brakes: Vented undrilled Discs all Round with ABS
Wheels: 18 inch on front, 19 on Back, Aluminium Alloy Hubcaps.
Handedness: Left
Dials: All Analouque
Readout: MPH
Transmission: 5 speed H Pattern Manual
Driveline: M/R Mid Engined, Rear Wheel Drive
0-60: 3.1 Seconds
Top Speed: 230 MPH
(motortrend.com)
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