Someone, tell me something. How does the new GT get a worse fuel economy rating than the old GT?
Apparently, the 2017 Ford GT gets 11mpg city, 17mpg highway, according to the EPA. The 2005 Ford GT gets 12mpg city, 19mpg highway. Here’s my problem with this. The new GT is powered by a twin-turbo Ecoboost V6 and the older model was powered by a supercharged 5.4L V8. The new model has at least 600HP, the old model, 550HP. The new model has a seven speed transmission, and the old? A Six speed manual. So, here’s the main thing. How does the new GT with all of these features that are supposed to improve fuel economy, still fall short of the of the old model, with considerably (at least to today’s standards) Stone Age level technology. With those stats, they would have been better off dropping an aspirated version of the 5.2L Voodoo V8. It might not have been the most economical option, but it would probably get similar fuel economy and keep the GT purists happy.
Ironically enough, the GT’s fuel economy is not too far off from the rest of the pack. Compared with other cars in the GT’s category like the Aventador, which gets worse gas mileage and the NSX which gets better gas mileage by far, the GT isn’t too far off. However, the Aventador and F12 have a V12 engine, which poorer fuel economy is expected, without a doubt. The Corvette, Ferrari 488GTB, McLaren 650S and Audi R8 have larger V8/V10 engines and at least muster up 14mpg in the city and 20 on the highway. The similar engine sized Nissan GTR and Acura NSX, get 16/22 (GTR) or 21/22 (NSX).
Granted, fuel economy numbers are the least concern of prospective owners, the GT’s fuel economy is tragic when compared to the majority of the competition. While the GT is going to be an impressive beast, with fuel economy numbers like this, they were better off with a V8. Ecoboost is definitely a cool setup, but in regards to supercars and the heritage that the GT carries, the Ecoboost V6 isn’t the best fit.
I guess 250 prospective owners don’t really care. They are just buying the GT for the name, just like the future owners of the 2018 model. The GT’s engine fittment isn’t the most popular among pure enthusiasts, but it doesn’t mean the GT isn’t featured somehow, somewhere on a blog post or a poster in someone’s bedroom. I just think that Ford could have done a little bit better with the gas mileage. A tad bit better.
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