Back in 2018, Doug DeMuro bought his dream car, the 2005 Ford GT, and found himself in a world of pain when it came to caring for his new $225,000 supercar. While a Ford and reliable to the last, DeMuro’s supercharged V8 supercar can’t go to a regular dealership like a new Ford Mustang. Even though it has quite simple engineering, a retro throwback to the Ford GT40, the car doesn’t have the features of a modern mid-level supercar. That means no infotainment and no hybrid drivetrain. Simple cars they find themselves in homespun situations to get the attention they need.
Doug DeMuro spoke on The Smoking Tire Podcast with Matt Farah regarding the maintenance of his dream car. The first generation Ford GTs see maintenance from a traveling group of engineers and mechanics called the GT Guys. However, owners of second-generation cars from the 2018 model year and on already find themselves without a main dealer. With cutting-edge technology, these limited-run supercars are too much for your local Ford dealer to care for and need specialized attention.
Doug DeMuro’s dream car quickly became a nightmare with dealers not able to service his Ford GT.
Doug DeMuro’s Ageing Ford GT Needs Plenty Of Care
Classic cars follow what’s called a 20-year rule. This means that at around about the turn of a car’s 20th birthday, all of a sudden values rise. Just take a look at the Hagerty bull market list each year, additions often tend to include cars entering their second decade. This is because those who once thought these cars were cool as a child or a teenager, all of a sudden are fully fledged grown-ups with disposable income and poor decisions to make. In their middle age, they turn to their youth for a little more fun. But with this as anyone who fell into this trap will tell you comes a plethora of new issues. Be that lack of parts, needing to visit specialist mechanics as well as an older car just needing more maintenance.
The previous owner of Doug DeMuro’s car put just over 30,000 miles on the clock of this car. An incredibly wise individual, they also stockpiled Ford GT parts. Safe in the knowledge that Ford would quickly cut support for this model that celebrated the company’s centenary.
Karl Brauer, the previous owner sold these parts off to other Ford GT owners. This leaves DeMuro and many other Ford GT owners in a bit of a predicament. With Ford no longer supporting the model and spare parts dwindling the future of the Ford GT looks bleak, to say the least.
The 2005 Ford GT Needs Specialist Care That Ford Don’t Provide
The Ford GT is quite a simple car to maintain, with an engine, suspension, and a radio basically. Even then some cars allegedly came without radios as per their owner’s request, getting the full Le Mans race car experience.
So simple, the car has a cult-like group of mechanics who go by the name the GT Guys. A group of touring mechanics who set up camp near Ford GT owners and service this special model. With a truck full of spares and a portable car lift, these mechanics were at Ford in Detroit when the GT left the factory gates. According to the GT Guys, their abilities endless including, “Service, Modifications, Installations, Body Repair, Insurance repairs, Inspections, Fabrication, Can do it ALL!”. There are two of them, called Dennis and Rich.
When Ford cut support for this, they started their business and used their expertise to support the Ford GT. The GT Guys made their start with accessories for the car that made the model a little more liveable. A rather wholesome experience.
DeMuro proclaims, “One of them retired, so we’re screwed!”. This is the way with classic cars, the expertise gets forgotten so these machines are not kept for future generations.
According to DeMuro, he doesn’t use the GT Guys to service his blue Ford GT. Instead, he visits a local race car shop that deals with things like GT3 racers and heavily built Nissan GT-Rs. DeMuro speaks to the 1st Generation of Ford GT’s simple engineering. So simple that those that are mechanically minded can do a good enough job.
Ford Dealerships Can’t Service The New Ford GT
DeMuro expresses an interest in the ownership experience of the new Ford GT. Technologically the 2018 model came on leaps and bounds over the previous car. Again representing a different generation of engineering at Ford. According to Ford, “Innovation. That’s what the Ford GT is all about. From its aerodynamically optimized shape to its multifunctional buttresses to its extraordinarily powerful 3.5L EcoBoost V6”. All this along with a Getrag dual-clutch gearbox and push-rod suspension, just like a Formula 1 car. The second generation of GT is a little over the head of your average Ford technician. After all your modern Ford dealership will deal with modern Explorers and Edges than old-style V8s.
Matt Farah and Doug DeMuro find that Ford dealers don’t want to service this special Ford with really only Galpin Ford committing to maintaining these models. Galpin Auto is a major dealership in Los Angeles, the same guys from Pimp My Ride, but this leaves vast swathes of the United States uncovered. This raises an important question for what DeMuro calls “orphan supercars”, cars that brands built and then abandoned. Think of cars like the Honda NSX, BMW M1, and Lexus LFA.
As long as Ferrari still exists you’ll be able to service any prancing horse. But these interesting, often forgotten models find it considerably harder to get the care they need. Only as time progresses will we find out what this means for the newest Ford GT, it may rapidly become a part of our memories.
