The latest carbon-terrific edition of the Ford GT was arguably the star of all the debuts last week for the 2020 Chicago Auto Show. Called Liquid Carbon, the special-edition Blue Oval supercar trades a coat of paint for a clear finish over its bare carbon fiber body. As such, it draws extra attention to the intricate weave of the fibers, but if you think omitting the traditional painting process makes GT assembly easier, think again.
The process for creating the Liquid Carbon edition actually adds three weeks to the GT’s construction, according to a report from MotorTrend. It has nothing to do with the clear topcoat, and there isn’t some special resin or weird material involved in the process. Rather, it’s all about consistency and perfection in the GT’s carbon fiber weave for the body, because it’s on full display instead of being hidden beneath a coat of paint.
That’s not to say standard GTs have defective bodies – the construction is just a sturdy as what you get with the Liquid Carbon model. Keeping all those weaves nice and uniform adds to the aesthetic, and the only way to get that kind of detail work is to do it all very carefully by hand. To that end, Ford has a team at the GT’s Multimatic facility in Ontario specializing in just that. Such attention means approximately one Liquid Carbon model will be built each month through the GT’s end of production in 2022. The facility is able to build a standard GT in one day, though typical production usually sees four cars completed each week.
The Liquid Carbon Ford GT is more than just a carbon fiber body on display. New GTs going forward have revised suspension, reworked aerodynamics for improved cooling, and a 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6 with a broader torque curve and 13 extra horsepower, bringing total output to 660 hp.
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