2005 Ford GT: Still tight after 9,000 miles? I think so...

Vehicles age a lot like humans. In both cases you rarely notice the process because it happens slowly, but get away from a car (or person) for a good chunk of time and when you come back some additional chassis looseness (in both cases) is quickly noticed. I was in the unique position of driving the primary West Coast Ford GT PR car on several occasions. The last time I drove it the odometer read somewhere north of 23,000 miles, all of them accumulated at the hands of automotive journalists and Ford employees...

The car still felt great while lapping Laguna Seca, but right after driving it I hopped in our long-term GT (with around 700 miles on it at the time) and it was like, "Ummm...I think the Ford press car is a tad loose." It was only driving the two vehicles back-to-back, on the exact same driving loop (a race course, in this instance) that the difference was obvious.

Now the long-term GT has 9,000 miles on it, and I think it feels "good as new" - but without a back-to-back drive of a brand new one, over the same exact road, I'll never know. And that's probably never going to happen, so maybe ignorance really is bliss.

Karl Brauer, Editor in Chief, Edmunds.com @ 9,068 miles.

Categories: 2005 Ford GT