Driving a Ford GT40

Was watching Ford v Ferrari (A great movie by the way, if you haven't seen it.) and it made me think of when I got to drive a GT40 myself a few years back.

I also drove a Ferrari 458, Challenger Hellcat, Mclaren 540S and a Supercharged Ariel Atom 3 on this day as well. Each are fantastic in their own way, but none really compared to this.

The car has so little interior space that there's an actual cutout in the door for your head to slot into when it's closed, for those that are a bit too tall for it's tiny build. Standing at a hair over 6ft tall normally, mine was so firmly pushed into that crevice that every push of the brake felt like I was on the verge of degloving my scalp. There's no mistaking it, it's a racecar and it's built like one. The inside is an oven, without opening windows, and under the sun that day, it felt like being cooked inside.

Yet still it was beyond incredible and I would have kept driving it all day if I could. It's such a pure, raw beast. No modern driver aids or even power steering, no paddle shifters, just full driver control. A simple gate shifter and a direct throttle line to the engine, making the car scream at you every time you push it, the tires screeching alongside it in a beautiful orchestra of untamed power.

That's how it was without even getting to really push it. Since it's essentially a rental with an instructor in the car, you never get close to driving it how you know it can be driven, or pushing it like it feels it wants to be pushed. Yet even in those circumstances, it still inspires awe with every single input you make.

God, what an absolutely fucking insane car it is.

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