This is an original, unused Ford GT engine that has never been started or installed in a vehicle. The Ford GT is a supercar that was developed by Ford to celebrate the automaker’s 100th anniversary, with styling closely matching the Ford GT40 of the 1960s that won the 24 Hours of Le Mans four times on the trot.
The Ford GT was powered by a 5.4 liter all-aluminum alloy V8 engine fitted with an Eaton 2300 Lysholm screw-type supercharger. This engine has a dry sump, a forged rotating assembly, double overhead cams per bank, four valves per cylinder, and it was good for 550 bhp at 6,500 rpm and 500 lb ft of torque at 4,500 rpm.
The Ford GT debuted for the 2005 model year, it was the American automakers new halo car and the styling closely matched the four-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winning Ford GT40 from the 1960s.
Although the Ford GT did share a close resemblance to the original Ford GT40 from the 1960s the two cars had no parts or panels in common. The GT was wider, longer, higher, and vastly more modern throughout. The original name for the car was almost “Ford GT44” thanks to the 44 inch height, which would have followed the naming convention of the earlier GT40 which had been named for its 40 inch height.
One of the reasons this name wasn’t used was due to the fact that Ford didn’t actually own the GT40 trademark, it had been owned for years by a British company named Safir Engineering that had been building GT40 continuation cars since the 1980s. The rights to the name had later been acquired by the American company Safir GT40 Spares.
Ford and Safir GT40 Spares had been unable to come to an agreement to use the GT40 name or any derivative of it, like GT44, mostly due to the fact that they wanted $40 million USD in licensing fees. Ford decided to go with the name Ford GT for the car, and Safir ended up with nothing.
The advanced 5.4 liter all-aluminum alloy V8 engine in the Ford GT was fitted with an Eaton 2300 Lysholm screw-type supercharger. It was good for 550 bhp at 6,500 rpm and 500 lb ft of torque at 4,500 rpm.
As noted further up, the Ford GT engine you see here is in zero-hour condition having never been run or installed in a vehicle. It retains its supercharger, oil tank, alternator, flywheel, and its accessory belt. The engine’s servicing under its current ownership has included removing the spark plugs, spraying fogging oil into each cylinder, and manually turning the engine over to facilitate lubrication.
The engine comes on a rolling display stand fitted with a protective plexiglass top and side panels, it also has a plaque displaying engine specifications is affixed to the bottom of the stand.
It’s now being offered for sale out of Edmond, Oklahoma on Bring a Trailer. If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can visit the listing here.
Images courtesy of Bring a Trailer
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
