RED THEN DEAD: THE FASTEST FORD THE WORLD NEVER SAW

IN THE ’80s, FORD’S SPECIAL VEHICLE OPERATIONS TOOK ON AN AUDACIOUS PROJECT – TO BUILD THE WORLD’S BEST SUPERCAR, STYLED IN ITALY, ASSEMBLED IN FRANCE, POWERED BY A QUAD-CAM V6. THE TARGET: BEAT PORSCHE AND FERRARI

- MEL NICHOLS

IT’S DECEMBER 1988. You’re about to buy a Ferrari 328. But what about this new mid-engined Ford, claimed to best every other sports car, at any price? It’s grippier than even a Testarossa and Countach and outhandles a 911 through a slalom – no surprises there: F1 champion Jackie Stewart helped develop it. And its Yamaha-Ford V6 sounds like a ripper. Not to mention everyday usability thanks to good vision, convenient access, a proper boot and Ford-size bills. The Ghia-designed targa body looks the business, too; right up there with the Testarossa for a third of the price.

Too good to be true? Well, it came close to reality. Through the ’80s, a skunkworks team at Ford Special Vehicle Operations conceived and developed a supercar called GN34. It would utilise the best resources from around the world – Italian styling, British chassis design, US SVO engineering, quad-cam Japanese V6 power and state-of-the-art European assembly while boasting inbuilt Ford durability, all with the exalted aim of shaming the Corvette and beating Porsche and Ferrari.

Down the years snippets about the car have sprinkled the internet but the facts have been confidential until now. Freshly uncovered details, specifications and photos show how serious Ford was the impact GN34 could have had.

The full details about the hush-hush project and pictures of the car as it would have gone into production were unearthed by author Steve Saxty while he was researching his new book Secret Fords Volume Two. Former Ford designer Saxty was given unprecedented access to Ford’s archives in the US and Europe for this book and its predecessor,