M2K Motorsports 280 mph Ford GT

M2K Motorsports 280 mph Ford GT

by Mike Kojima

The Ford GT was in our opinion America's first true exotic supercar. Inspired by Ford's GT40 race cars from the 60's, the Ford GT'S performance as a street car easily eclipsed the race cars of yore.  Produced from 2005 to 2006, only 4038 of the cars were ever built making the Ford GT a desirable collectors car that fetches several hundred thousand dollars on the used car market, up from the original asking price of $139,000.

The Ford GT is powered by a supercharged 5.4 liter version of of Ford's Modular family of twin cam 4 valve per cylinder V-8s. With a stock power output of 550 hp at 6500 rpm, the GT is no slouch, being capable of pushing the GT to 205 mph and high 11 second quarter mile times.

Just being no slouch isn't good enough for some and the folks at M2K Motorsports were not willing to settle for good enough.  Their goal was quite lofty, to build the world's fastest car in the standing mile, the Texas Mile that is, and we caught up with them at this annual event where they were kind enough to let us take a good look at their marvellous creation.  Prepare to have your mind blown!

 

The heart of M2K Motorsports' Ford GT is the amazing motor. To go this fast requires a lot of power as the power requirements go up exponentially with speed. Many people can make a lot of power for 1320 feet but to make ungodly power and have it hold together for 5280 feet is a whole different thing! Many of the engines internal tweaks are secret and known only to the engine builder, Accufab Racing Engines.  

The engine is a monster of unheard of proportions squeezing a confirmed 2035 whp out of 5.4 liters at 36 psi of boost near its 8400 rpm redline. 2035 WHP is the most power that any dyno could contain but the car actually makes more power and is run at 45 psi of boost during 1 mile races!

M2K Motorsports estimates that the car actually makes 2500 hp at this boost level but wheelspin precludes the ability of any dyno to confirm this.

 
The engine is topped of with a fabricated Wilson intake manifold.  Within the huge plenum is a big air to ice water intercooler brick.  The intercooler is fed ice water from a huge reservoir that takes the place of the passenger seat inside the car, much like our Project Bonneville S13. Wilson fuel rails feed two sets of Precision Turbo 220 lb injectors with VP M1 Methanol based fuel.
The 5.4 liter modular motor is force fed by two huge Precision Turbo PT8285 CEA turbochargers. The turbos feature Precision's CEA CFD derived aerodynamics for great efficiency. The compressor wheel is 5 axis CNC machined from a tough low silicon 2618 aluminum forged billet.  This enables Precision to make the best use of the material and thin out the blades without sacrificing strength to further improve internal aerodynamics. 

The center section uses two sets of ceramic ball bearings in a floating cartridge. The ball bearings greatly reduce friction and improve response and reduce lag by up to 20%. The floating cartridge helps damp out potentially harmful high order harmonics controlling shaft motion for longer life. The center section is air cooled so no water plumbing to the turbo is needed, better for racing applications. 

The turbo compressor has an 82 mm inducer and an 85 mm turbine wheel in a 1.28 A/R undivided turbine housing with a V-band discharge. The PT8285 has the capability of flowing enough air to make 1325 hp and therearetwo of them!

To keep compressor surge and lag at bay during shifts, you can see the twin TiAl Q 50mm blow off valves in the charge pipes near the throttle bodies.

 

To control the monstrous levels of boost, a pair of Precision Turbo PW66 external wastegates are used. The PW66 wastegate is fed regulated pressurized carbon dioxide to control the boost as the intake manifold cannot provide enough reference pressure to control the huge 66mm valves. 

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