Our small shop has specialized almost exclusively on Ford GT's since early 2006. We have done 30+ pulley/tune upgrades, more than a dozen big Whipple upgrades and more recently we have done 8 twin-turbo upgrades working with Jason Heffner. There are more than 60 Ford GT's running around with TT's from various sources.

We have a couple hundred hours of dyno time with Ford GT's and I think we have a pretty good idea of what works and what doesn't. Almost all the stock Ford GT's we have dyno's will put down right about 500HP at the rear wheels. 1 out of 50 may give us something as high as 550 or so but honestly we haven't seen a lot of variance. Ford Racing sells a pulley/tune kit for ~$1k that is the best bang for the buck. It adds a genuine 100HP at the wheels. The next step would be a Whipple - and you can choose to run at 19 or 21 psi (the most common pulley sizes). RWHP is typically in the 700-750 range and the cost is about $10K (before labor).

Our favorite mod is the TT's that we have been doing. The GT engine config just lends itself to this mod. With the TT's, we install a trick in-car boost controller/gauge that fits nicely into the dask in place of the OEM boost gauge. For the street on 91 octane, we run about 18psi of boost which is good for a little more than 800RWHP. We've built a few of these car that have participated in the Mojave Mile and we currently have the record out there for the fastest 4-wheel's vehicle to make a pass at one of their events - including full blown race cars. Our GT's can be driven to the track, and back home in the comfort of AC and a nice stereo. At the mile, we tilt the boost up to 24psi which yields about 1100 RWHP.

Following is a comprehensive list of the internal engine mods to achieve this:

1. We change the sparkplugs to 2-steps colder;
2. Uh... I guess that's it.

Seriously, that is the ONLY change internal (besides loading custom tunes into the factory ECU). With 1,000-1,100 HP, we are running a VERY high duty cycle on the injectors and the OEM fuel system is at its absolute limit.

Terry Carlson's Mojave Mile record run was 226.4 in one of our TTs.
Tom Fries ran 25 200+ MPH passes in one weekend in one of our cars.

The GT is a very, very special car... as is about 99.9% of the owner population.

 

Dang i can see it already between american muscle!
SHOWDOWN!!
V6 mustang, camaro, challenger
V8 mustang, camaro, srt8
Gt500, ZL1, srt8 392
Ford gt, corvette zr1 or z06, dodge viper srt-10

 

That is just awesome

 

If Ford is going to build an all new sports car to replace the Ford GT, I would like to see them make an aluminum Block version of the Raptor 6.2 liter engine in a 7.0 liter configuration. I would just like to see the full potential of such an engine.

 

mmmm twin turbo Ford GT

 

So were gonna match the Z06 with displacement? Idk big honkin engines seems to be a chevy thing, no matter how much they wanna say "the age of big displacement engines is over"

 

Meh, I'd love to see an all aluminum Ford engine. Especially if it was resurrected in a shelby cobra!

 

That would insane. LOL like strapping 650 horses to your but.

 

TWSS!

 

Pffttt... I'd like to see an affordable mid-engine sports car from Ford reminiscent of the GT with a tall deck Road Runner punching in at 5.8 liters and making an honest 500 NA horsepower. Something that would send the regular Corvette packing for about 60k.

Sadly its a very tough market to compete in with the vette, especially right now.

 

Chevy got it right with the vette...with everthing except interior design at least

 

This: 1. Put an all aluminum, higher tech version of the Jon Kaase Boss 9 engine (the 9.1 liter version) in the Ford GT.
2. Make the body aluminum and carbon fiber.
3. Make it AWD.
4. Put launch control on it.
5. Leave the exotics and the Corvette in the dust.

Hell yeah!

 

"Chevy got it right with the vette...with everthing except interior design at least" Wrong. The exterior design is terrible. For whatever reason (too little money to invest in design, emphasis on performance and not looks or, we got to keep it looking like a Vette - whatever). It's the automotive equivalent of an super-sized girl with bad teeth, too much make-up, reeking of cheap perfume, and wearing an outfit she outgrew years ago. The only good thing about its design is that because of it, I've got no itch to own one.

 

that was awesome

 

Opinions sir. I for one think that the current corvette looks awesome. Does its job aerodynamically, looks how a sports car of its caliber should, an just overall is a nice sleek design. Yea they could use better materials but overall i think its very nice

 

I understand: some guys like plus sized women too.

 

Say what you will sir and i will believe what i believe. One thing that im pretty sure ee all have in common here is FORD ROCKS!!!!!!

 

I believe FORD ROLLS!!!!!!

 

I know the Corvette handles well and does well in road coarse racing, but I just do not think it looks like a sportscar anymore. To me they look large and combersome. Now, the 1958 to 1963 Covettes looked like sporty cars. The Ford GT looks like a race car and I think of it as a racecar, but I dont think of it as a real sportscar even though it won what are called races for sportcars. The Shelby Cobra was one of the last true sportscars.

 

+1 on the shelby cobra