The development of the 2005 Ford GT was a rather interesting and unique process cloaked in secrecy and ripe with challenges, though it ultimately took just 15 months to take the car from concept form to a production-ready vehicle. Designers were influenced by a variety of sources during that process – including Saleen – and the sports car nearly wound up being powered by a V10, not a supercharged V8. But while the 2005 Ford GT is a beloved, highly sought-after, valuable collectible today, the car did have a serious problem when it first launched, as The Autotopian recently highlighted.
The first-gen GT suffered from an issue with its suspension – or the control arms, more specifically – which were cracking around the bushings. Things were so bad that the control arms could separate completely from the vehicle and the bushings were able to fall out, which could have led to some serious problems, to say the least. This suspension issue ultimately led to a recall, a stop-build order, a stop-sales order, and a stop-drive order as Ford quickly tried to rectify the problem.
So how did such a thing happen? Well, according to one of the engineers on the Ford GT program – Huibert Mees – the decision was made to use aluminum control arms to save weight, but the automaker wound up forgoing forged units in favor of semi-solid casted ones, which is a bit of a hybrid between casting and forging that promises the strength and durability of the latter along with the ability to create the more complex shapes that are possible with casting.
During testing, this design performed flawlessly, even in durability and torture testing. However, when the GT entered production, producing the same quality part over and over again proved to be impossible, and only around 5 percent of the control arms – made by a supplier – were up to par. Ford wound up securing enough forged billet aluminum arms to fix the 400 or so cars that had been built with the semi-solid casted pieces, and the rest, as they say, is history.
We’ll have more on the Ford GT soon, so be sure to subscribe to Ford Authority for more Ford GT news and around-the-clock Ford news coverage.
Comments
Wow is this old news by Autotopian. There were no known failures of the components in any customer cars. In fact, pursuant to the recall some were retrofitted with Billet arms and the remainder of the 2005 production line got them on the line at Saleen SSV. The arms themselves are a work of art and considered more desirable than the later production arms used on the 2006 model. Just and example of Ford doing it correctly and timely with an amazing car. That fact has been proven by the test of time over the last 17 years since the car hit the market. It has proven to be and amazing supercar that has steadily increased in value. Currently, 2005 and 2006 models routinely sell for three or more times their original MSRP!
It sounds like the old “over promising and underdelivering” scenario. Not that the purchase price of any vehicle should dictate subpar engineering and material science choices, this car was not exactly cheap when new.
Premium and super performance cars are often the lead applications for amazing, new technologies. As the article states, such technology is proven out in the prototype phase. But good manufacturers continue to monitor/learn about their new technology in the manufacturing phase. In this case, Ford learned of a problem in the manufacturing phase and quickly remedied it before any customer experienced a problem.
Mark, please compare Ford’s behavior to Elon’s. Elon has also been on the leading edge of new technology, but lets his customers be the beta testers… then reacts. Not good.
Working for a Ford dealership I performed one of those recalls. I wanted to keep the control arms, they were like artwork. The core charge was thousands. Didn’t happen!
They also had a few other minor recalls. I remember replacing the complete HVAC control module. I almost forgot the big one. Team main engine seals. That was a biggie. I had to remove the rear body clip, exhaust, transaxle and not put a scratch on anything. The fun thing was being the foreman I had to road test each one we sold. All two of them !!!! It would have been more fun but the economy was starting to implode and the owner gave the business to his son. I had a bullseye on my back. I just had my son, my wife was home on maternity leave and my job was evaporating !!! It kinda took the fun out of it. Im so glad I am in the public sector now a fleet foreman for a municipality. I see these GT’s at car shows now and smile!!!!
Ford seems to have constant problems with parts and components build by subcontractors. Why can’t Ford return to Henry Ford’s original model where all the parts for Ford vehicles were designed and built at Ford’s own factories. That might reduce all the quality control problems they’ve had with older vehicles and with today’s Broncos.