Flat out in the wild Ford GT Mk IV: "too much car for a normal human"

For plenty of people the little town of Calabogie might seem pretty celestial all on its own. We’re here to shatter the peace but even before we’ve spotted the towering rear wing of the GT there’s an air of wellbeing about this place. Around four hours northeast of Toronto, Calabogie is set among rolling green hills and serene lakes. It’s wonderfully laid back and the strong smell of cannabis wafting from groups of friends escaping big cities for self reflection and a bit of (totally legal) off-their-faceness only adds to the sense life in Calabogie passes as serenely as the gentle breeze.

Photography: Dave Burnett

Well, unless the guys from Multimatic happen to be in town. They’ve pretty much taken up residence at Calabogie Motorsports Park for testing purposes and have their own facility in the paddock area. The track itself is really rather gorgeous. It heaves and falls with the landscape and dissects lush grass and dense woodland. Measuring 3.14 miles and with 20 turns, it’s the largest track in Canada and with blind brows and a couple of really high speed sections it’s a challenge, too.

My first sight of it is in a Ford Edge rental SUV and once I’ve stopped cooing about how pretty all that greenness is, I start to notice the proximity of the barriers. They are close. And the Ford GT Mk IV is both precious and extremely potent. Driving it suddenly seems like a responsibility rather than a privilege. Luckily, I’m absolutely loaded. So who cares? (Editor Rix has instructed me to really inhabit the role and so I’ve decided method acting is the only option.)

Ah yes. Option one on my shopping trip. The Ford GT Mk IV. In very simple terms this beautifully distended creation is a highly modified Ford GT developed purely for track use. It goes beyond the Le Mans winning GTE racecar to such an extent that the people at Ford Performance say its outright lap time performance is more akin to an LMP2-style prototype racecar. The brief? “Go crazy.” The only limiting factors being the vertical load that the customer Michelin tyres can take and, um, nothing else.

That means a bespoke new 3.8-litre version of the Ecoboost V6 with around 820bhp in high boost, carbon-carbon brakes, a 6spd X-Trac sequential gearbox, Bosch motorsport traction control and ABS, Multimatic’s adaptive spool valve (ASV) race suspension, a longer wheelbase and a heap of aero addenda producing 1,088kg of downforce at 150mph and 2,045kg at 200mph. The Mk IV weighs around 1,265kg and looks absolutely stunning. I love the Ford GT and to drive the ultimate development of the current car – and hence the most extreme and intense GT of all time – is an overwhelming prospect. Not that I’m letting on...

The GT is a joint project between Ford Performance and Multimatic and their relationship runs deep. Just yesterday in Toronto we saw new Ford Mustang GT4 cars being built up from bare chassis, had a sneak peak of the production ready Mustang GTD that’s also been developed in partnership with Multimatic and pored over the final Bronco DRs waiting for customer collection. The DR is a turnkey desert racer ready to tackle the Baja 1000 and seeing this off-road leviathan sharing floorspace with the knee height Mk IV goes some way towards explaining the depth of expertise at Multimatic. The fact that it also builds the Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR Pro and Mercedes-AMG One, plus supplies chassis to Porsche for the 963 Hypercar programme, is another pretty decent clue. In short, the Mk IV has peerless pedigree.

Unbelievably, there will be no pace car. No instructor in the passenger seat. In fact, in heavenly Calabogie, I’m being treated to a very different experience. “OK,” says Multimatic’s test driver of three decades and Le Mans class winner Scott Maxwell, “we’ll send you out on used tyres to get a feel for the car and the track.” I nod, wondering if I’ll ever get a feel for a car with this much potential on a track with little in the way of run-off. “Then, when you feel comfortable, come in, we’ll put some stickier tyres on and you can push properly.”

The trust is slightly startling, but the warm feeling of pride and excitement is life affirming. Is this what it feels like to be so rich that anything is possible? If so – and very annoyingly – then it seems gazillionaire living is even better than I’d realised. “It’ll take a lap to get them in the window,” continues Scott. “Then you’ll have two or three laps where it’ll be, well, great.” The traction control and ABS levels have already been set, the power is in the middle map so the bigger capacity V6 is producing around 700bhp (plenty around here and Scott says it’s often quicker than the spikier 800+bhp fire breathing mode) and there’s not even a clutch pedal to worry about. Simply pull the paddle for first, press the yellow button that’s located perfectly for my right thumb on the steering wheel and drive away...

There’s a lot to take in. The steering has adjustable assistance but even in its lowest setting the effort is minimal and the car responds with beautiful linearity. Purity is the word that springs to mind, but it’s drowned out by the wheezing, whistling, howling and plain demonic V6 engine. How did the fairly anonymous Ecoboost in the GT road car morph into this wild motor? It’s insane. The gearbox is so fast, the brakes might be carbon-carbon, but they seem to work almost immediately and provide the sort of blackout stopping power that a road car could never emulate. Wherever you think you should brake is too early. Hold on for another second (that’s a long time when you’re accelerating in a Mk IV), then jump on the middle pedal. Then, embarrassingly, realise you can accelerate again to get to the turn-in point. This car stops.

The massive retardation and almost equally mind scrambling acceleration might lead you to expect that the GT is a brutal experience, but that isn’t the case at all. Instead it flows, carrying unbelievable speed, allowing commitment to the throttle and just hooking up no matter what you ask of it. It’s a long, wide and angry looking car from the outside, but once you’ve curled your fingers through the grips of its steering wheel, the GT seems to get smaller, lighter and more agile. Far from intimidating, it begs to be pushed and your brain has to rapidly recalibrate what’s possible as the Mk IV reveals a new truth corner by corner and lap by lap.

There’s one downhill triple apex right hander in particular where the aero shows. It’s after a long fast section with a couple of kinks taken at full speed accelerating up to fifth gear. Pop over a brow, spot the corner and resist braking heavily with whatever bravery you can muster, dab the pedal (beautifully weighted, absolutely consistent), flick down to fourth and turn... Every time it feels implausible the car will stick and every time the Mk IV is so within itself that your ‘courage’ seems laughable. The sensation of the car being squeezed to the surface is truly astonishing. And this is on knackered old tyres...

With the ‘stickers’ fitted it’s possible to reach another dimension entirely. Calabogie’s only real fault as a test venue is that the circuit is incredibly abrasive and somebody with the talent and commitment of Scott can chew up a set of new slicks in two push laps. So, strapping on new boots is transformative. My lap times are cut by maybe three or four seconds and the GT takes me to places I haven’t been before. In terms of braking, cornering speed and the way over 800bhp can be unleashed without fear of reprisal. Yep, I go for Mode 3 on the engine map and also click up to Level 4 (of five) on the ASV suspension, putting the car more ‘on the nose’ as a real racing driver would say.

Far from intimidating, the GT begs to be pushed

The stability remains but there’s added sharpness and if the Mk IV slips it errs more towards oversteer. Incredibly, the traction control ensures any microslides are easily corrected. The whole stint is just incredible. Feeling the car at its optimum is a window into another world. The Mk IV isn’t a physical car to drive in terms of effort but the forces it exposes you to are extreme and the mental challenge is draining. You just arrive places so quickly and through the faster turns my brain lags behind the action. I’m pleased that my instincts are keeping me on top of the car but need my thought processes to catch up in order to tackle the next braking zone or corner. Often I’m congratulating myself for carrying a bit more speed than the last lap and the next corner is already looming large...

The coolest thing? I can feel the tyres going away and even as I start unravelling the secrets of track and car, the lap time ebbs away. I can genuinely say things like “the tyres are gone”. You can’t put a price on that level of imposter syndrome. The Ford GT Mk IV is, honestly, too much car for a normal human. Too much car for the average billionaire. But it pushes your limits and encourages you to realise that those limits are just the start of a new journey. I suspect it would challenge, entertain, amaze and enlighten for years to come. It is, in short, absolutely brilliant. A feast of noise, heat and terror but also strangely exploitable and intuitive. My imaginary chequebook is twitching... but before I commit it’s time to head to Austin, Texas. The McLaren Solus GT awaits.