The biggest benefit gained in the Mk II from not having to comply to regulations is the unleashing of the 3.5-liter twin-turbocharged V6. Ford dialed it up to 700 horsepower, which is a 50-hp gain over a normal GT, but about 200 hp more than the racecar depending on the Balance of Performance on any particular day. Ford is always required to de-tune the race engine to comply with the rules. Instead of the racecar transmission, Ford decided to re-tune the seven-speed Getrag dual-clutch used in the street car. There’s no muffler either, so the Mk II is a true racecar in that sense. The straight pipe exhaust is routed close enough to the diffuser that Ford felt the need to put gold foil on the top to deflect the heat it produces.
Ford has said it’s had to do a fair amount of heat control on this car in general. The “trunk” has been eliminated to house a new auxiliary cooler for the engine, clutch and transmission coolers. This gets air from the roof-mounted intake, which is always cool. New outboard-mounted charge air coolers with water spray technology are utilized. The water spray automatically activates when the car senses high temperatures. Ford says all of this extra cooling means you should be able to run your GT Mk II around the track till you physically can’t do it anymore. The brakes are better than those found in the racecar, as those aren’t allowed to be carbon ceramics. These are the optional brakes for the road car with a race-specific pad, as well. Mk II-specific 19-inch forged wheels are the only option.
The interior has been stripped of its innards and redesigned to a certain degree to accommodate the custom Sparco racing seats Ford commissioned for this model. It comes with a MoTeC data acquisition system that also functions as a display for a backup camera. A passenger seat is optional as is a racing-duty air-conditioning system. We’re sure a few of these will end up running laps in some extremely high temperatures, so why not be a little cooler when you’re out racing with your other millionaire buddies?
Ford says some of these are still available for purchase, even though it’s had many inquiries to buy such a version before the reveal even happened. An interesting bit to note is that the 45 MK IIs will be coming out of the current allotment of 1,350 GTs planned, not adding to it. Multimatic says it can build about 15 of these per year, so get in touch quickly if you want one anytime soon. The application process won’t be the same as the road car, but Ford says it’s still going to hand-pick every buyer to make sure they’re going to use the car as it’s intended.