Nerd’s Eye View: LA Auto Show 2023

I have not really kept up too much with all the latest go-fast cars, but Ford brough this GTD. Ford has a Mustang GT3 race car now and this GTD looks to borrow many of the same elements. A defining feature for me are the rear wing mounts which I think are quite unique. The rear fender side intake scoops ala Porsche 911 Turbo is not something I would have ever imagined seeing on a Mustang.

Massive fender vents as is common on serious track cars.

I was curious why the wing mounts for the dual element rear wing attached so far forward on the vehicle…. My guess is they didn’t have a better place to attach more rearward as it looks like the rear trunk lid is just essentially a body panel now used to grab air off the rear windshield (kinda like a 911 GT2RS) to feed some rear heat exchangers. The hot air coming off the hidden heat exchangers dump out the rear vents. The GTD uses a rear transaxle, so I guess the trans coolers are tucked up in what used to be a trunk.

I don’t understand the exhaust tips. This GTD is a serious track machine so why have these rectangular tips that are purely for aesthetics? Seems like a waste of money and weight to me.

Suspension is billet and spherical bearing everywhere with dampers from Multimatic.

10 comments

    1. I’m curious to see if/when more e-turbo makes it onto cars. Mercedes has a Garrett e-turbo on one of their AMG cars. Genesis has a 48V electric supercharger and e-turbo uses the same 48V. With more cars coming hybrid like all the new super cars from Ferrari and McLaren, one logical step is e-turbo. Conversely, they could just say the electric motor does the torque filling.

      1. Yeah, we have probably hit ‘Peak Turbo’ in our civilization, but I was kind of hoping to see the development of these turbos stretched out a bit more.

        “The amount of turbocharger lag plays a key role in the driver’s perceived quality of a passenger vehicle’s engine response. This paper investigates an alternative method to the conventional design of a turbocharger turbine to improve the transient response of a passenger vehicle. The investigation utilises the Ford Eco-Boost 1.6 L petrol engine, an established production engine, equipped with a turbocharger of similar performance to the GT1548 produced by Honeywell. The commercially available Ricardo WAVE was used to model the engine. Comparing the steady-state performance showed that the axial turbine provides higher efficiencies at all operating conditions of an engine. The transient case demonstrated an improved transient response at all operating conditions of the engine. The study concluded that, by designing a similar sized axial turbine, the mass moment of inertia can be reduced by 12.64% and transient response can be improved on average by 11.76%, with a maximum of 21.05% improvement. This study provides encouragement for the wider application of this turbine type to vehicles operating on dynamic driving cycles such as passenger vehicles, light commercial vehicles, and certain off-road applications.”

        https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/10/21/7452

          1. Yeah, that’s the turbo!

            “The amount of turbocharger lag plays a key role in the driver’s perceived quality of a passenger vehicle’s engine response. This paper investigates an alternative method to the conventional design of a turbocharger turbine to improve the transient response of a passenger vehicle. The investigation utilises the Ford Eco-Boost 1.6 L petrol engine, an established production engine, equipped with a turbocharger of similar performance to the GT1548 produced by Honeywell. The commercially available Ricardo WAVE was used to model the engine. Comparing the steady-state performance showed that the axial turbine provides higher efficiencies at all operating conditions of an engine. The transient case demonstrated an improved transient response at all operating conditions of the engine. The study concluded that, by designing a similar sized axial turbine, the mass moment of inertia can be reduced by 12.64% and transient response can be improved on average by 11.76%, with a maximum of 21.05% improvement. This study provides encouragement for the wider application of this turbine type to vehicles operating on dynamic driving cycles such as passenger vehicles, light commercial vehicles, and certain off-road applications.”

            https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/10/21/7452

          2. So true…there’s a snail shell design for maximum vortex compound combustion…but, that’s kinda secret, for now.

  1. 1. The GTD rear suspension looks to be based on the GT500 rear. Probably tweaked a bit and converted to inbound dampers. Lower arm looks very chunky, probably just a prototype still.
    The front is very interesting. Based on other photos i have found online, the vertical height difference between the multilink lower “arm” pivot points looks to be over 2 inches.
    The exhaust tips are probably very thin wall titanium, as they are made by Akrapovic.
    2. The LT6 is impressive, the bore/stroke ratio is even greater than that of the 458.
    And the design of the Z06 is what the C8 should have been from the start.
    3. That WRX thing is hideous, oh my god.

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