Ford GT Burns To The Ground, After 43 Miles!

We’ve lost the first new Ford GT to a fire in Germany. Details are still pretty sparse at the time, and Superspeeders Rob has some questions that need to be answered about both the cause of the fire and how Ford plans to deal with the situation.

The car had only 43 miles on it when the fire erupted and destroyed the gorgeous silver GT, nearly melting the entire back half of the car and leaving a pile of charred remains. As with any fire, there is always the possibility it was intentionally started to scam the insurance company, so we have to assume there will be a full investigation into the cause of the fire before any claim is paid.

Barring arson, there could be any number of reasons the fire started, although there are none that would make the owners of the other GT’s sleep easier. As Rob points out, one car catching on fire doesn’t seem like too big a deal, but looking at it from a percentage standpoint, 1 of 150 or so cars randomly catching on fire would be a big deal if we were talking about F150’s or Honda Accords.

We’ll have to wait and see how Ford handles dealing with the owner losing his car as well. It’s not like he can just go down to the local dealer and pick up another GT, they were allotted to a select few potential owners who applied to purchase one a year before the first one rolled off the assembly line.

And finally, if you’re Ford, how do you handle the other GT’s in the wild? Is there an inherent fire risk with all of them, or is this an isolated incident? How do you know for sure that this won’t happen again? If even two or three of 150 cars in existence burst into flames, that’s a legitimate concern for Ford, so how does the company make sure there isn’t an issue that will cause other fires? These aren’t easy questions, and we’ll be waiting to see how this situation plays out.