You're absolutely correct IMO. As far as over-paying for something goes ... That happened with the last T-bird, The GT 500 AND the Ford GT. That Ford GT was a VETTE-EATER at the least ... I can't believe that they built that thing only intending to offer it for a few years. Since GM seems to have succeeded in placing the Vette in a "quasi-Exotic" class, Ford could've easily kept the GT around for that same purpose, offered each year at a price comparable to the Vette, and kicked GM's butt coming and going.

 

It would have taken away from the excusivity of the 3 year model run,
and as well...and if I remember correctly they would have had to redesign it after 2007. (bumper standards)

 

Boomer's right. The bumper standards meant the Ford GT woulda hadta have a front-end height increase of considerable measure.

A Ford GT with a Chrysler 300 grille is NOT a Ford GT. Better to terminate it than to desecrate it...

Greg "Eights" Ates


BTW: Ford is building Ford GT chasses again, as the Ford GT is tearing up the FIA's GT3 class so badly that now you can only race them with over 300 pounds of penalty weight (140 kilograms, to be specific) carried in the vehicle at all races. The Ford GT is now slowed down sufficiently that racing Lambos, Vipers, Z06Rs, Ferraris, et al have a chance at a win. In Brazil, Ford GTs won 5 of the first 6 GT3 races (no Ford GTs were entered in that 6th race), all but one of the British GT3 races, and all the German ADAC GT3 races until the 300+ pounds of penalty weight was mandated by the FIA. The FIA does not want a repeat of 1966, 1967, 1968, and 1969!

Since "pre-owned" Ford GTs are so expensive (usually advertised for sale at huge mark-ups), Matech Engineering of Switzerland--the source for these uber-dominant Ford GTs--has persuaded Ford to re-open the Ford GT chassis production line to provide affordable Ford GT chasses for these conversions to competition Ford GTs. There are no intentions to build street Ford GTs again--just the chasses as may be needed for these conversions.

Reading foreign-language technical specifications is not exactly my forte, but it appears that these killer Ford GTs are using naturally-aspirated 5.0 'Cammer engines built by the Yates/Roush organization (too much power-to-weight for the GT3 class using the supercharged 5.4 used in FIA competition last year??), which are the engines used in the very expensive Mustang FR500GT--but further modified to gain another 30 HP and another 20-25 feet pounds of torque in the Ford GT application. That would be about 580 HP, more or less, on a naturally-aspirated 5.0 'Cammer--pretty darned (the eyes of Boomer are upon me) good, all things considered...Incidentally, as far as I know these 5.0 'Cammers have no parts or castings from the rumored Hurricane/Boss/EcoBoost/Whateverthehelltheyplantocallit mystical engine of Mustang legend, lore, and rampant speculation--just so you know...

 

Personally, I think the Mustang sales downturn has been affected by issues which aren't directly affected by D2C's rwd nature, but that is just my opinion. That said, what is happening with G8 is very different than what is happening with Mustang. To wit, Mustang's D2C platform wasn't intended to underpin anything but the Mustang, at least not by the time it actually hit production, so the numbers were never intended to be balanced across a wider range of product. Further, the Mustang almost certainly paid for all of it's sunk costs long ago and volume, while lower than it once was, isn't much worse than Ford's low end estimate when they originally introduced the car. Mustang is hurting, but I would be surprised if it is losing money.....and a new Mustang is around the corner waiting to help improve the situation.

Total projected production volume for Zeta is already far below what GM initially intended, particularly in North American, and it could easily get worse. (right now that is honestly difficult to imagine) Worse, the only existing Zeta based model currently on sale in the US market, G8, is experiencing initial sales numbers that make Mustang's worst sales month look like a Fall blow out sale. Camaro will arguably help, but that car doesn't have shoulders nearly wide enough to carry this kind of burden. The only other two Zeta products we are likely to get are the next gen CTS, which is some ways off, and the upcoming STS/DTS replacement, which is a fair bit off in it's own right. And to be blunt, at this point, these two cars look like they are going to be intended more to minimize the problems with the Zeta program rather than add any actual, meaningful profit. In situations like this one, without major reconstruction of the entire project plan which may not be possible here given the relative inflexibility of Zeta, you run into snags like the possibility of never hitting the break even point (it does happen, and with programs not nearly so devastated as this one) In the business world issues like that are disastrous, and right now GM can't afford many more disasters.

 

I couldn't agree more Pete, as the CS is really nothing more than just a cosmetic package, and not a true SE like the Shelby GT, and 08 Bullitt. I suppose that during my response to Phil's post, I should've clarified better and had been more specific. My bad

 

OK, so will they offer them for the street again or not?

 

So Gtjohn you think $42,000 is too much for a 500 hp car? wow.

and dont even bring the crap up about markups because i went to a few dealers yesterday with my friends just browsing and all of them have GT%00's for 41-49k. maybe its not like that in your area.

 

Nope.

 

TXBLUOVAL: I guess you musta missed this sentence in my earlier posting:
"There are no intentions to build street Ford GTs again--just the chasses as may be needed for these conversions."

Greg "Eights" Ates

 

Probably to the first statement, definitely to the second...

Greg "Eights" Ates

 

The lowest I have ever seen a new GT500 was around $45,000, and yes I agree with gtjohn that the car is overpriced considering that the base Vette for the same price can stomp the GT500 in every performance category. I understand that these cars are in different classes but the fact is they are the same price. I have to admit that I would probably take the Vette over the GT500 if I was gonna burn $45,000. Now if the GT500 undercut the Corvette by 5-8k then it would be a different story....