EXACTLY my thoughts.
If the layoffs happened in 2015-2017 I could see them delaying the GT500 from a 2018 release, but upcoming layoffs wouldn't impact it.
Not sure I would buy the exec shuffle being the cause unless an executive decided to reallocate resources away from Mustang.
Unless cuts (not just layoffs) were in the cards much longer than anyone outside the company knew.....
It is my understanding that Ford started producing the first GT500's in the Fall of 1966 and of course as a 1967 model therefore the 50th anniversary would for the GT500 would have been in 2016 as a 2017 model.
Well I was thinking that there were a lot of gifted Ford employees working on getting the Ford GT design (both street and race car) ready for Multimatic to produce. What would those people have been working on if they weren't working on the Ford GT?
Agreed that there were some very gifted Ford personnel working on the Ford GT program but all of that group would have been formed and hand picked a couple of years ahead of regular production at Multimatic in Markham, Ontario and don't see any overlap between the two programs.
Being the old fart that I am I just wanted to point out that I thought there were a few, and I mean less than a handful of 1967 GT500s that were initially equipped with Fords 427 sideoiler FE prior to switching over to the 428PI and then the 428CJ, if I'm not mistaken. Anybody else remember that?Agreed that there were some very gifted Ford personnel working on the Ford GT program but all of that group would have been formed and hand picked a couple of years ahead of regular production at Multimatic in Markham, Ontario and don't see any overlap between the two programs.
Once all of the R&D was completed the rest was up to Multimatic from an assembly standpoint and of course that has been a very slow process with only 1 car per day being assembled/completed and understand that is certainly not what Ford was expecting.
The first big block GT500 cars were assembled during the Fall of 1966 as 1967MY cars and came with 428 Police Interceptor engines with 2 four barrel carbs. When the '68 GT500's came out Ford went with only 1 four barrel carb on the 428 Police Interceptor engines and then half way through the year Ford launched their famous 428 Cobra Jet engines in the GT500KR's.
Like you I am very happy that Ford developed and built the Ford GT and sure wished that I was in a position to apply for an allocation in November for one of the last group of cars to be built.
Do you mean no overlap in timing or no overlap in personnel? Since the GT was announced in 2015 to be ready to race in 2016 and you are saying Ford would have wanted to sell an anniversary GT500 in 2016 as a 2017 model I would think at least the time frame would have to overlap to some degree - unless one program or the other was kept very short.
As you mentioned there would have been some overlap of personnel and timing between both programs had Ford launched a 50th Anniversary GT500 in 2016 as a 2017 model just as they did with the 137 GT350 cars that were launched in July 2015 as the 50th Anniversary for the small block GT350 cars.