Ford GT-Junior?

[aeronca65t]

For some reason I was noodling about on the internet today and I was thinking:
"Didn't Ford make a small GT?"

Sure enough, my memory was correct. They made a Ford GT70. The car was mid-engined with a 2.6L V6. It was intended to run European rallys against Renault Alpines and Lancia Stratos. But the GT70 was short-lived.....Ford developed the Euro-Escort for rallys instead.

I had forgotten about this car for years.

GT70

 

[JPSmit]

Never seen or heard of it - cool! Though you sir have too much free time.

 

[aeronca65t]

Haha. I just realized I should have put this in "Other British" (it was built in the UK).
But it has a German engine and trans and was funded by Ford-US, so I've leave it here.

 

[Roger]

I'd have to look it up to be certin, but wasn't the GT70 program dropped because of an FIA change of regulations for the international rallies? I think the Lancia Stratos was also a victim of the same rule change.

 

[aeronca65t]

I think you're correct about the rules change. I just read this on supercars.net

<span style="font-style: italic">"A rarely known Ford was created in 1970 for the competition director, Stuart Turner and rally driver Roger Clark. GT70 was Ford's answer to the competative Lancia Stratos. Much of the mechanicals were borrowed from previous Ford models
with hopes of keeping production costs low. Only 6 chassis were made. During production, WRC <span style="text-decoration: underline">rules changed</span> and made the GT70 redundant." </span>

 

[Roger]

So the old memory cells do work!
Can't remember for the life of me what happened yesterday, though.