Ford’s Forgotten Supercar Was Years Ahead Of Bugatti And McLaren
When enthusiasts debate the greatest American performance cars ever built, the conversation rarely stays on familiar ground for long. Mustangs and V8 muscle dominate the opening rounds, but sooner or later someone brings up the Ford GT — and rightly so. The original Ford supercar program and both generations of the modern Ford GT still rank among the greatest supercars ever built. The first-generation model, released in the mid-2000s, remains especially beloved for its GT40-inspired shape and supercharged V8.
But deep in Ford’s archives sits something even wilder: a machine that never made it past the concept stage yet was fully developed and drivable. Had Ford pulled the trigger, this car could have reshaped the entire supercar landscape.
The Ford GT90 Was America’s Lost Supercar
|
Engine |
 34 autotech Power |
Torque |
0-60 MPH |
|---|---|---|---|
|
5.9-liter quad-turbocharged V12 |
720 hp |
660 lb-ft |
3.1 seconds |
Ford has built some serious performance cars over the years, but one concept still feels like a punch to the gut when you consider what could have been. The GT90 wasn’t a design study or a pretty rolling shell — it was a statement that Ford could go after the fastest cars on earth if it really wanted to. It appeared at the 1995 Detroit Auto Show looking like it had arrived from another planet, and Ford claimed numbers that put it squarely in the ring with the McLaren F1, Ferrari F50, Bugatti EB110 and Jaguar XJ220.
Nothing about the car felt half-baked. The exterior was the first showcase of Ford’s New Edge design language, and it landed like a shockwave. Everything was sharp, low, and dramatic. The body used a blend of carbon fiber and aluminum that made it feel more like an endurance racer than a prototype built for display. Nobody expected an American brand to produce a concept that exotic, and Ford did it nearly thirty years ago.
Built On British Bones
The car had another surprise hidden underneath. Because Ford owned Jaguar at the time, engineers didn’t start from scratch with the chassis. Instead, they used the foundation and transmission from the Jaguar XJ220, which gave the GT90 instant credibility while saving Ford significant development time and cost. The XJ220 was one of the fastest cars in the world when it debuted, so borrowing its underpinnings placed the GT90 in serious company from the outset.
A Design That Still Turns Heads
Even today, the GT90 looks like nothing else Ford has built before or since. There were subtle nods to the GT40 in the roofline and overall stance, but the rest was pure drama: long wedge-shaped bodywork, aggressive vents, razor-sharp lines, and proportions that looked more like a video-game render than a Ford product from the 1990s. Park it next to modern supercars and it still wouldn’t fade into the background.
The Quad-Turbo V12 Was Pure Madness
Ford didn’t grab an existing engine and tune it up — they built one specifically for the project. Starting with the modular 4.6-liter V8 architecture, engineers extended the block and added two cylinders to each bank, turning it into a 5.9-liter V12. Then they mounted four turbochargers to it. The only other car with four turbos at the time was the Bugatti EB110, which tells you just how ambitious the GT90 really was.
Before that V12 ever went into the concept, Ford had to test it somewhere. Their mule of choice was a Lincoln Town Car. It sounds absurd, but that big sedan was how Ford sorted the drivetrain before the GT90 was fully assembled.
Ford claimed the GT90 produced 720 horsepower and could sprint from 0 to 60 mph in just over 3 seconds, with a top speed above 250 miles per hour. In the mid-1990s, those numbers sounded like science fiction — and even now, they command respect.
No one outside Ford ever confirmed what the car could actually do. When journalists were finally allowed to drive it, engineers locked the wastegates open so the car couldn’t build full boost. The official explanation was that they weren’t confident the chassis was ready for all that power. Because of that, we’ll probably never know how fast the GT90 truly was.
Where The GT90 Lives Today
Most concept cars disappear into storage or get scrapped after their moment in the spotlight, but not this one. The GT90 still exists, and it lives in one of the last places anyone would expect. It resides at the Hajek Motorsports Museum in Ames, Oklahoma — a town of fewer than two hundred people that happens to house one of the rarest prototypes Ford ever built. Owner Brent Hajek has kept it in running condition, and several automotive outlets have made the trip to film it up close.
Would It Have Changed The Supercar Game?
The GT90 still sparks debate nearly thirty years on. Had Ford built a limited production run and delivered anything close to the numbers they claimed, it would have been the fastest road car in the world for years. A top speed in the 250-mph range would have been untouchable until cars like the SSC Ultimate Aero and Bugatti Veyron eventually arrived.
America has taken shots at Europe before and after the GT90. The Saleen S7 and others all tried to carry the flag. But the GT90 feels like the one that could have gone toe-to-toe with the icons of its era and won. Ford had the design, the power, and the engineering. They just never pulled the trigger — and that may be why people still talk about it with a mix of awe and frustration. It was a supercar that could have changed everything, and instead it became one of the wildest what-ifs in automotive history.
Ford’s Other Forgotten Supercars
Ford Indigo
The GT90 isn’t the only Ford supercar project people have forgotten about over the years. The ’90s seems to have been a particularly adventurous time for Ford, as the company developed two other supercar concepts that never reached production.
The Ford Indigo appeared not long after the GT90. It was also powered by a V12 engine, but with an entirely different design philosophy. The Indigo’s V12 was based on the Duratec V6 rather than the Modular V8.
The engine isn’t what people remember about the Indigo, though. What they remember is its design. It was intended to look like an IndyCar, resulting in an open-wheel layout with some genuinely quirky features — none quirkier than its massive front spoiler, which incorporated an LED light bar. It was even constructed like an IndyCar, built around a carbon-fiber tub developed with the assistance of Reynard Motorsport.
There was never any realistic path to production for the Ford Indigo. It did earn cult-hero status, however, thanks to its inclusion in Need For Speed 2 as an unlockable car.
Ford Shelby GR-1
The Shelby brand is a cornerstone of Ford’s performance identity. You can buy Shelby-badged Mustangs and F-150s today, and they’re often very good. But Ford had bigger ambitions for the Shelby name during this era — it designed and began developing a Shelby-branded supercar called the GR-1. It drew clear visual inspiration from the Shelby Daytona Coupe and would have been powered by a brand-new V10 derived from the same modular V8 architecture as the GT90’s V12. Unfortunately, it never progressed beyond the concept stage.
Of the three supercar projects Ford pursued during this period, the Shelby GR-1 was probably the most viable candidate for production. A prototype engine had already logged significant testing miles in a Ford Mustang Cobra mule. While Ford won’t be reviving the design, Superformance has been working to bring it to life. The company is already taking deposits, with the car planned to be powered by a “750+ horsepower Ford drivetrain.”
Source: Ford
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