by "Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
Published 01/26/2017 at 11:33
by "Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
Published 01/26/2017 at 11:33
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STARS: 3
Calaboogie is a very tight and windy track. Lots of corners on top of one another. Plays to cars that have very good transient performance. (Which I built into the car design.)
Ford and MTC have used that track now for years. We had 10-12 cars of varying types (including a 458 Speciale, Corvette, GTR, Macca, etc, etc.). We had pro drivers run each around the track and get objective and subjective numbers on all the cars for comparo. We had Ford and MTC people drive all the cars on the back roads doing same thing. A huge database of competitor info was creted from all this and was used in making sure teh car would be better than it’s rivals. The consensus-on track and off track was the 458 Speciale was the best car there and the best sports car in the world. So we set our sights and making a better car than that. Which I believe we did.
The weight of the car was driven up from what I would have wanted by the addition of the active aero and active suspension bits. It just all adds up, bit by bit. By as mentioned all the simulation work showed the car was faster with the added bits than without. So why they are there.
Besides, when has anybody taken a Ferrari published weight number (or any number) seriously? Ferrari is famous for creative numbers! Like giving out an L/D for the street 458 that was nowhere near reality. Like so far from reality that it was laughable. (What they did was take the lowest Cd number the car had-based on it’s active aero bits set for low drag and then take the highest Cl number tha car had-based on it’s active aero set for max downforce-and combined those two numbers for their L/D. Of course the fact that it was impossible to get both at same time was a minor detail.)
We weighed the 458 Speciale-and its weight “as delivered” as a street car is no where near the Ferrari published numbers. Go weigh one yourself...
As I have stated before -the big thing about the Ford GT is just how much effort was put into making the car’s feedback as pure and linear and race like as possible. More so that any car out there. Add in the pure race car components the thing has and you have the purest race car to road car connection of any current production car.
That was a big, big goal for us. Make a car that could win LeMans, be superior to a 458 Speciale (It is) and have the best feedback possible for a street car. I think we hit that too.
For those people how have bought the car-congrats-it is not perfect-the NVH is not “Mercedes like”, etc but it is a very special car. A huge amount of effort went into making sure of that ( every person at Ford and MTC who worked on the car-everyone’s work was a bit brilliant) .
I wish I could afford one. But being the chief engineer on the program didn’t pay well enough to let that happen....
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The engine, I know, is not everyone’s top choice. Hard to sell a “supercar” with a V6-even a twin turbo V6 at ~650 Hp.
The reasons for the TT V6 are simple:
1.) Ford wants to market/show off the EcoBoost engine family. It is their engine future.
2.) The TT V6 was the only engine Ford had that met the power requirements while still meeting Ford’s internal reliability standards. 700 HP was too much. And Ford has no 700 hp engine that meets internal reliability standards. They could make one from scratch-but not for a 1000 car build run...And not at $400K for the car... Ford is not getting rich off of this car. Barely much profit at all.
3.) The FIA/ACO GT rules are moving towards benefiting a turbo more than an NA engine.
And it is a good engine. Aftermarket guys are going to have 1000hp kits for it a “month” after they hit the streets. Will void warranty but those buyers will not care.
Have not seen too many bolt in 1000 hp aftermarket kits for the 458...
Copypasta’d from Reddit which was copypasta’d from somewhere else
"EL_ULY" (uly)
01/26/2017 at 11:38, STARS: 0
I sort of figured this car to compete with 488 GTB
What is the better overall car doe, the 458 Speciale or 488 GTB?
"Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
01/26/2017 at 11:41, STARS: 0
1996 Buick Roadmaster.
"For Sweden" (rallybeetle)
01/26/2017 at 11:45, STARS: 0
You could say the car was built to Cala-boogie
"themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles" (themanwithsauce)
01/26/2017 at 11:48, STARS: 3
THE CAMMASTER! The scourge of north philadelphia!
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"CTSenVy" (CTSenVy)
01/26/2017 at 11:49, STARS: 0
Calaboogie looks like cool track. Bonus points for the name.
!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!
"Wobbles the Mind" (wobblesthemind)
01/26/2017 at 11:50, STARS: 0
Did he just confirm that the next GT500 won’t break 700 hp?!
"Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
01/26/2017 at 11:56, STARS: 0
The GT might have had more stringent reliability requirements than the GT500. A 5.0 with a blower could break 700hp easily but it would suck ass in a car like the Ford GT if it even fit in the engine bay
"whoarder is tellurium" (whoarder)
01/26/2017 at 12:15, STARS: 0
I thought I heard that Ferrari took the 458 Speciale setup and developed that into the 488 GTB with a new engine/bodywork/interior.
I could be wrong.
"EL_ULY" (uly)
01/26/2017 at 12:28, STARS: 0
tru fax!!!
"EL_ULY" (uly)
01/26/2017 at 12:30, STARS: 0
It’s possible. Not too sure on HP and weight figures on both but per predecessor history, all the other bits should be equally epic until the beast version of the 488 comes out
"kanadanmajava1" (kanadanmajava1)
01/26/2017 at 12:39, STARS: 0
“I wish I could afford one. But being the chief engineer on the program didn’t pay well enough to let that happen....”
I hope that guy remembers that he would need to apply to purchase it first. You cannot just buy these. And it seems that Ford has been giving top priority to owners of the earlier Ford GTs. Maybe a chief engineer could be given an exception in the queue.
If Ferrari tells silly “creative numbers” yours should be very realistic? Mind sharing them with us?
"chaozbandit" (chaozbandit)
01/26/2017 at 13:04, STARS: 1
Calabogie only has 1 o tho.