Design Review: Ford Shelby GR - 1

What makes a good car design? One that sells well? One that car designers rate highly? One that you just happen to think looks pretty cool? Or one that solicits a “wow” from pretty much every passer by?

Overall the impression is of a place to focus on driving without the clich?s of motor sport, the ‘classic’ sports car interior or the brashness that typically adorns concept sports car interiors, and in this respect it is totally congruent with the exterior.

Will the GR-1 do as its predecessor failed to and make it to production? If it does with its petite package unscathed and selling for Viper - let alone Corvette - money then this latter day Daytona would sell like hot cakes. Then with so many car designers’ high ratings and its all-round ‘wowness’ surely the GR-1 would be unequivocally A Good Design. At the front the lamps are stopped short by the nose cone which houses an air intake and circular driving lamps similar to the original Daytona, except the lamps are adjoined with slots that visually pull them around the corner of the car.

Finished in polished aluminium for dramatic effect the car is harder to read than it otherwise would be, but does appear balanced from every angle with faultless surface resolution and that elusive quality of being fresh yet almost universally comfortable with people. Open the petite butterfly doors (the whole car is quite petite - within an inch of the new Aston Martin V8 in every dimension except being 87mm lower) and climb in to a contrastingly understated, smokey blue Grecian grey interior which is arguably every bit as impressive as the exterior.

Designed by Matthew Hill, who like George graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1997, the interior has few if any retrospective ingredients. The theme is slightly non-automotive with parachute release style door handles, exceptionally compact instrumentation (featuring an innovative speedometer integrated with tachometer) and a lean, almost technical feel. Subtly integrated air vents in the doors, binnacle, headlining and rear shelf ingeniously leave the IP orifice-free and the angles in the door furniture and centre stack refer to those of the exterior air vents, lights and door. Like the Shelby, the GR-1 has a front engine and much borrowed mechanics from the GT - although its V10 engine isn’t - but this time the design relates not to the classic and much replica’d Cobra, but the very rare ‘Daytona’ Cobra of 1964. The Daytona was essentially a race homologation coupe version of the Cobra designed by Peter Brock to be more aerodynamic than the roadster (hence the then innovative “kamm” tail) in order to go faster on the higher speed circuits and win more races.

Unlike the T-Bird, Mustang and GT, the GR-1 does not literally interpret the aesthetic design themes of its forbearer into a modern design, but progresses the Daytona’s central conceptual design theme and makes reference to a few of the original’s aesthetic solutions - most noticeably the concave surface at the back of the short kamm tail. Recessed into this are slim, slightly inboard lamps that run vertically the full height of the surface and large air outlet vents that fill out to its sides and describe the section of the broad shoulder where the rear wing blends into the gently shelving fastback. Mays is on record as citing the rear as being the best aspect of the design.

Moving forwards; the DLO bleeds into the pillar mounted door handle and has an unusual kink to its lower edge - a critical ingredient that gives the whole design an edge and greater distinction. It also relates to the angle within the side and rear air outlet vents, the door shut and those within the headlamps to give the car an exceptional integrated feel. Speaking with George, it becomes evident that he never specifically thought about this; it was subconscious designing on his part, the essential tacit skill of a good designer. The GR-1 had an unusual gestation being essentially a ‘replacement’ for the Ford Shelby Concept shown in Detroit 2004 that paid homage to the 1962 Cobra. Despite having a front engine, the Shelby Concept borrowed heavily on the production Ford GT under the skin, in part because it was conceived to follow the GT’s route from concept to production car via a positive media and public reaction. But with the exception of Auto Weeks ‘Best in Show’ award, the Shelby received a very lukewarm reception, hence the GR-1 ‘replacing’ it so soon after.

Fortunately on one very wet weekend in November 2003, designer George Saridakis had been working late into the night on idea he’d had to design a coupe over the (still not shown) Shelby package. George told CDN that he was working off his pent up need to design a sports car after having just finished work on the crossover Lincoln Aviator show car and the result was three sketches - the side view of which (shown left) Jay Mays said: “George produced this completely resolved sketch - the best I’ve seen in ten years, when I saw it, it wasn’t a matter of ‘Let’s do more sketches’. It was really more of a ‘Let’s get this into clay’.” So it would seem that the Shelby’s replacement got underway even before the Shelby was finished…

The Ford GR-1 might not be on sale, but every designer CDN spoke to rates it, we think it’s pretty cool and at Detroit earlier this year, where it was shown with a polished aluminium finish and a full interior for the first time, it seemed to be constantly surrounded by people saying “wow”.