Road Test: 2004 Dodge Viper vs. 2005 Ford GT
Underneath Ford and Dodge's Supercars
The GT and SRT-10's space-frame construction is somewhat similar. Both rely on a super-stiff endoskeleton of stressed, welded beams. But what dem bones are made of differs from a materials and layout standpoint.
Ford employs an aluminum frame composed of various extrusions, castings, and stampings wrapped by unstressed aluminum bodywork. The Viper's rigid chassis is a complex, welded-steel space frame, carrying a (mostly) non-loaded skin of sheet-molded and reaction-injection molded composite plastic.
As different as fire and ice: The SRT-10 and GT are American, fast, beautiful, and aluminum-intensive --but so unique, as evidenced by their approaches to powerplant philosophy.
Both cars are functionally, though not technically, mid-engined; just look at their weight distributions in the spec chart. But the Ford is more obviously so. Neil Hannemann, Ford GT's chief program engineer, helped develop them. He describes being part of the Viper and GT programs as "once-in-a-lifetime experiences that happened to him twice." He says both required a small, highly dedicated team of empowered enthusiasts to bring the cars to market. The major difference on the GT was the amount of Ford computing power available to do things like stress and thermal analysis.
"In 1989, when we did the Viper, it was just a big room with a bunch of people and drawingboards. With the GT, there wasn't a drawingboard in sight. In fact, we didn't even have a table to lay a drawing on." Neil adds that road manners were higher priority on the Ford program than they were with that raw, unadulterated Viper of the early 1990s. "In the end, we got a better track car with very few compromises for the road."--J.K. & T.L.
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