Ford’s new carbon-fibre weave GT is seriously gorgeous—but don’t let the “plain body” look deceive you. It’s actually way harder to outfit a GT in the Liquid Carbon scheme than it would be to just paint the thing. We’re talking three times harder.
You just have to get in close to the bodywork to see why: the carbon-fibre weave is incredibly intricate, and, according to MotorTrend, made entirely by hand by carbon-fibre specialist Multimatic up in Ontario. Here’s a little more about the logistics from the article:
The plant’s full production capacity is devoted to making the GT, and there is a limited number of people who can do the painstaking work. It takes skill and patience to ensure the weaves consistently line up perfectly.
Looking at the Liquid Carbon GT, the hood shows that intricacy, and the way the fibres continue to meet over the curves and shapes of the sports car is impressive. The direction of the weave and the colour must match. Each car is made from a single batch of material. There’s plenty of trial and error in the engineering and tooling and actual assembly, said Jeff Tanis, Multimatic director of global operations for niche vehicles. The process takes three times longer than working with a carbon-fibre piece that will be painted.
Make sure you catch that last bit there: in the time it takes to produce a single carbon fibre GT, three painted GTs will be completed.
These extra-special models of course come at a heftier price. While the painted GT will run you $US500,000 ($745,307), the Liquid Carbon edition rings in at $US750,000 ($1,117,960). And with a mere twelve estimated to be produced each year, it’s probably worth the extra money to the people who can afford it just to have something so limited.
If you want all the specs on this bad boy, head on over to Ford’s press release to check them out. But with a 3.5-litre EcoBoost twin-turbo V6 producing 660 horsepower, I’ve got a feeling this bad boy is going to be a lot of fun.