Ford Frankenstein

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caranddriver.com
BY LARRY WEBSTER, PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEFFREY G. RUSSELL AND NICK SAY
September 2006

The Frankenstein Ford Five Hundred sedan you see here has a monster 590-hp supercharged powerplant from the exotic Ford GT sitting back where the rear seat used to be. Here’s a startling tidbit: It was built by community-college students.

Well, okay, they got some engineering help from Ford. The story begins about a mile from our Hogback Road headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan, at Washtenaw Community College (WCC). The two-year school has an auto-body repair department with an interesting four-class, 12-credit curriculum called “Custom Cars and Concepts” that teaches students how to build one-of-a-kind cars like this four-door Ford.

The program was started by the head of the auto-body department, Gary Sobbry, in 2004. Sobbry is just 30, a fourth-generation auto-body repairman and car customizer who says his great-grandfather built custom cars for Al Capone. Sobbry joined WCC as an instructor in 2002, and he soon created a four-credit class in car customizing. After Sobbry purchased a new 2004 Dodge Magnum, students in his class — back then they met once a week for a full day — gave it a striking paint job and fabricated an air-suspension system for it.



That year, Dodge put Sobbry’s tricked-out Magnum on its stand at the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) show in Las Vegas. And thus Sobbry was able to convince WCC administrators to fund the custom-cars program and renovate an old shop into an auto-body facility.

In early 2005, General Motors enlisted WCC to promote its new 572-cubic-inch, 620-hp crate motor it sells to hobbyists and racers for a cool $17,063. The project called for the big engine to be plugged into a 1970 Chevy Chevelle, and the build was featured on the TV show Rides.

Ford called last summer as the Chevelle was being finished. The idea for the wild GT-engined Five Hundred sedan, which in standard form bears a 203-hp V-6, was hatched over beers by two Ford engineers and a WCC auto-mechanic instructor. Perhaps not surprisingly, a Ford Five Hundred with more than 500 horsepower and 500 pound-feet of torque sounded like something that should be done.

won’t produce such a car and has little incentive to build one, but the trio reasoned that if Ford donated the hardware and WCC built it, the cash outlay would be minor. Ford said okay and shipped over two prototypes, a Five Hundred and a Ford GT that were bound for the crusher.

The original plan was to replace the front-mounted V-6 with the GT’s supercharged V-8, mount the six-speed transmission at the rear axle, and join the two with a stiff, light torque tube. Ford would engineer the project and supply the parts, and Sobbry’s students would build it. The goal was to finish the car in 10 weeks, in time for the SEMA show in November 2005.

August 18, the GT had been disassembled and work schedules were posted. It was then that all the parties agreed on a big decision. Changing the front-driver to become a rear-drive car and grafting in the GT parts were simply too complex for the time allotted, so they went to plan B, which involved mounting the entire mid-engined Ford GT powertrain — axles to supercharger — in the rear half of the Five Hundred. Theoretically, that’s not a tough job because the GT’s aluminum frame is narrower than the Five Hundred’s outer shell. Just gut the rear half of the Five Hundred, cut the GT in half behind the seats, and marry the rear half of the GT to the gaping hole in the Five Hundred.

I highly doubt that it will ever see any kind of production, I would put it into the M5, S class range and maybe ever higher.

Some numbers:

Sprinting from rest to 60 mph required 4.1 seconds (a GT can do it in 3.3 seconds), and it did the quarter-mile in 12.8 seconds at 113 mph (the GT takes 11.6 at 128 mph).

Oh, and an SRT-4 can do the 1/4 in 13.8@ 103, kind of puts things into perspective doesn't it?


I want one!!:drool::drool:
080120062002373198.jpg
 
That is cool as hell...I want one. I bet that thing is so blazingly fast...
 
Oh that is awsome.

"will it see prodution" haha, it's a full size sedan with no rear seats! come on people.

[EDIT]
give me that in a focus please. weeeeeeeee! haha.
 
Oh yeah, the Ford Fivehundred GT-R. My brother is more than likely going to Washtenaw next year for their automotive program, so there is no telling what he would be working on once he gets there.
 
Shudders...Give me one in black without a spoiler and stock bodypanels, that'll be one hell of a sleeper.
 
It won't compete with the S-Class or M5 at all. There's a motor in the backseat. That is pretty useless.

Exactly what I was thinking. The body panels are ugly as hell and "Five Hundred GT" happens to be the name of a much better car.
 
That's one hell of a college project. Who cares how practical it is?

Now slap some stock panels on it, and take it on the street! How many people can say that they have a crappy vanilla sedan that goes that fast? :lol:
 
inferno
"will it see prodution" haha, it's a full size sedan with no rear seats! come on people.

I can think of a shopping hatchback with no room for shopping, and no rear seats, which saw production...
 
I can think of a shopping hatchback with no room for shopping, and no rear seats, which saw production...

Yes of course, but keep in mind we are talking about a North American Ford based on a Volvo product... Maybe if the car would have been built in Europe it could have seen the light of day in terms of production, but it would never, ever, fly here in the US.

...And its too bad, as it is a great one-off project for Ford...
 
Looks like a Photoedit. Nice idea, but still Photoedit.

EDIT: no, the more I look at it, I think it's real.

well, it's an interesting concept. Like the old Supervans they used to have.
 
I can think of a shopping hatchback with no room for shopping, and no rear seats, which saw production...

But the Clio sport was a three door hatch, a body style to which, this is a verry popular modification. it's a small, light chassis ideal for a mid engine setup (2 doors, generous front overhang /minimal rear, plenty of room in the back for an engine) something like that might even fly in the states. but not a full size sedan that still has it's (non functional) rear doors. but yeah, like i said, put that in a focus hatch and would be a hit.
 
Eh! A short wheelbase hatchback is far, far from the ideal car to place an enigne in the back of. If this was built, thoguh say eralistically it'd be toned down a bit, it would be in the same nich market the Clio V6 was.
 
I'd imagine this thing being a little floaty. That seems like a long wheelbase to make a car midengined with. And it is still a 500.
 
Eh! A short wheelbase hatchback is far, far from the ideal car to place an enigne in the back of. If this was built, thoguh say eralistically it'd be toned down a bit, it would be in the same nich market the Clio V6 was.

*cough* lotus elise *cough* actualy, if done right, something like this would probably have better weight distrobution than an elise. aside from the poor aerodynamics it's perfect. hatchbacks were meant to be mid engine. haha
 
Yes the Elise is short, what's your point, I specifically said a short wheelbase hatchback. But anyway an Elise doesn't have 500bhp on tap. A car with a shorter wheelbase is less stable at high speed than a car with a longer wheelbase, the Elise and similar sportscars get away with it more than a lot of cars because they have a very low CoG. A car like this doesn't, neither does the Clio V6, nor did the 5 GT Turbo nor would any car based on any production hatchback I can think or right now.

The more powerful and faster your going to make a car, the more of a benefit a longer wheelbase will be. Remember though, I didn't say it can't be done, I said it's far from ideal. A saloon car is much more ideally suited to take a mid mounted 500bhp V8 than a Clio sized hatchback, that's for certain.
 
Yes the Elise is short, what's your point, I specifically said a short wheelbase hatchback. But anyway an Elise doesn't have 500bhp on tap. A car with a shorter wheelbase is less stable at high speed than a car with a longer wheelbase, the Elise and similar sportscars get away with it more than a lot of cars because they have a very low CoG. A car like this doesn't, neither does the Clio V6, nor did the 5 GT Turbo nor would any car based on any production hatchback I can think or right now.

The more powerful and faster your going to make a car, the more of a benefit a longer wheelbase will be. Remember though, I didn't say it can't be done, I said it's far from ideal. A saloon car is much more ideally suited to take a mid mounted 500bhp V8 than a Clio sized hatchback, that's for certain.

But can you imagine how tail heavy that thing probably is? it probably oversteers like a female dog. you have to admit that if you put this thing in a focus hatch it would be faster, not only in a strait line but in the corners too. and it would still be somewhat tail heavy so, with proper aero work i doubt stability would be a problem.

[edit]
if you doubt my weight distribution estimations, take a look at the pic again. remember that the GT uses a transaxle so the engine in that car is RIGHT infront of the rear wheels, far from in the middle of the wheelbase. notice that the weight distribution of that body (without an engine) would probably be pretty much nutral. now looking at the focus, the engine would be pretty much right in the middle of the wheelbase. not to mention the weight distribution of the focus body (without engine) would still be somewhat nose heavy. (assuming the interiors of both cars are gutted, as they would be in this application)
 
This car will be a hell of a lot more stable than a Clio V6, as for a Focus hatchback, a 5 door hatch would be a lot more stable than a 3 door hatch. You don't seem to be grasping quite how much of a bad idea it would be to mount this engine into a car with a short wheelbase.

As for weight distribution I never commented on that, kerb weight distribution is irrelevent as is the weight of the body alone, there is so much more in a car than the engine and the body. What you need to know is what the weight distribution is with fliuds in the car including fuel and with the driver. Unless you have any figures specifically regarding this cars weight distribution I'd suggest you don't speculate, because you can be very suprised by some cars, and other that look like they would be great, can be quite a bit off when people and fluids are introduced.
 
This car will be a hell of a lot more stable than a Clio V6, as for a Focus hatchback, a 5 door hatch would be a lot more stable than a 3 door hatch. You don't seem to be grasping quite how much of a bad idea it would be to mount this engine into a car with a short wheelbase.

As for weight distribution I never commented on that, kerb weight distribution is irrelevent as is the weight of the body alone, there is so much more in a car than the engine and the body. What you need to know is what the weight distribution is with fliuds in the car including fuel and with the driver. Unless you have any figures specifically regarding this cars weight distribution I'd suggest you don't speculate, because you can be very suprised by some cars, and other that look like they would be great, can be quite a bit off when people and fluids are introduced.

the focus 5 door (5 door hatch or wagon) has the same wheelbase as the focus three door. the only difference between the three door and the wagon is the length of the rear overhang, and the three door and five door are identical in both wheelbase and overall length.

(goes off to find weight distribution figures on the five hundred GT-R)
 
well if that's the case then I was mistaken about it being a longer wheelbase, it stil doesn't dispute what I've been saying. A longer wheelbase car is more stable a speed, as is a lower center of gravity.
 
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