Ford GT

FORD’S ALL-NEW GT BRINGS SOME OF RACING’S BEST PRACTICES TO THE STREET

- Mac Morrison

THE TEAM BEHIND the 2017 Ford GT has faced one particular question, even internally, since the program began secretly in late 2013, which explains the half smirk on Dave Pericak’s face. It also accounts for why Ford Performance’s global director has polished his go-to response, as many successful Fortune 500-level executives do, into an adagio of Teflon diplomacy.

“It’s hard to answer: Did we do a race car first, or did we do a road car first?” he says. “We didn’t do any one first. We did them at the same time. We had to because the clock was ticking. I know a lot of people want to know, did you design a race car and make it a road car? I always say, at the end of the day, does it really matter? We have a road car, and we have a race car, and it’s all legit. I’m not trying to be coy. It was a matter of circumstance. It was, if you want to race and you want to make a road car ... it’s all gotta happen now.”