Ford took to the recent Chicago Auto Show
to unveil the striking 2020 Ford GT Liquid Carbon Special Edition adorned with
a glorious gloss carbon fiber skin that makes it stand out from all of the
other painted GTs to have been delivered over the last couple of years.
Creating a car where the carbon fiber is
exposed is no easy feat. After all, there’s no paint to mask any imperfections
in the material, meaning every single weave has to be absolutely perfect.
Speaking with Ford’s engineering director of North American unibody
applications, Dave Pericak, Motor Trend discovered what it takes to make the
carbon skin and how much customers can expect to pay.
Responsible for building each and every
Ford GT, including the Liquid Carbon Special Edition, is Multimatic in Markham,
Ontario. Typically it takes a week to build a single Ford GT with an average of
five leaving the facility each week. By comparison, it takes three weeks to
build a GT Liquid Carbon Special Edition due to the complexity in making the
exterior finish perfect. Each car is made from a single batch of material to
ensure all the carbon looks the same.
In terms of price, each Ford GT Liquid
Carbon Special Edition will start at around US$ 750,000. That represents a
significant leap over the starting price of a painted 2020 GT model at about US$ 500,000. Ford also went to the trouble of making some other tweaks to the GT
for the 2020 model year. For example, power from the 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6
has been upped from 647 horses to 660 hp thanks to new gallery-cooled pistons
and higher energy ignition coils. The intercoolers have also been expanded and
the once-optional US$ 10,000 Akrapovic titanium exhaust system is now standard on
all cars.
