A Twist of Le Mans: Testing the Ferrari Enzo Against the Porsche Carrera GT and Ford GT

[Editor's Note: This article first appeared in the October 2004 issue of MotorTrend] In this exclusive first instrumented test, we launch all three toward the magic 200-mph barrier--and reveal which is the fastest of them all.

If you wanted to visit an American city reminiscent of Le Mans, France, your first choice probably would not be Yucca, Arizona. There are no quaint outdoor cafes crowded with fashionable Europeans amid the cactus plants and tumbleweeds in this dusty, mountain-ringed barbecue pit 130 miles southeast of Las Vegas. Also, in Yucca it's very hard to find croissants -- though in the height of summer you could bake some without an oven.

Yet soon after our entourage of test drivers, editors, photographers, mechanics, and support staff arrives at 5 a.m. at Ford's Arizona Proving Grounds (APG), the connection to Le Mans becomes palpable. Arrayed outside a cluster of metal garages, red bodywork beginning to gleam in the dusky pre-dawn light, engines rumbling and burbling as their fluids climb up to temperature, await three fantastic cars that seem to have been plucked straight off the starting grid at the Circuit de la Sarthe.

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By looks alone, the machines scream "race car": wide, mid-engined, so low they seem to have melted down to the ground, festooned with gaping air scoops and arrogant flares. The spec sheets in our hands imply the same: racebred twin-cam engines (a V-8, a V-10, and a V-12), towering horsepower ratings (from 550 to 651), lightweight bodies (one of aluminum and two of carbon fiber), brakes the size of trash-can lids, and massive performance tires to match. Each car bears a nameplate renowned on the Le Mans winner's podium, too.

But no, these are road machines--three street-legal production supercars from Ferrari, Ford, and Porsche, each claiming a top speed north of 200 mph. MotorTrend is the first magazine to gather all three together for a fully instrumented, flat-out test. No more manufacturer claims, no estimated numbers, no more loud conjecture at the bar. It's time to steer onto the 32-degree banking of APG's five-mile oval, hold right foot to the floor, and find out for certain if the Le Mans swagger on display is for real--whether these road monsters really possess the clout to reach the elusive double-century barrier, and perhaps even beyond.

Field of Dreams

Ferrari's awesome Enzo, unleashed in 2003, is for all intents and purposes a race car hiding beneath a trenchcoat of barely street-legal civility. It's always flashing glimpses of its true racy self: featherweight carbon-fiber structure; 651-horsepower, 48-valve, naturally aspirated 6.0-liter V-12 engine; six-speed paddle-shift transmission; 15-inch carbo-ceramic brakes front and rear. No radio. No power windows. Nothing but extreme go-fast hardware (okay, there's an air-conditioner to cool your sweaty palms). In fact, Ferrari used the Enzo as the basis for the new Maserati MC12 race car, scheduled to compete at the 2005 24 Hours of Le Mans. The price for such purebred performance? A mere $1,002.81. Per horsepower. The bottom line on the sticker says $652,830, but the current street value for one of the limited run of just 399 Enzos (all have been sold) is twice that. Our insurance agent visibly shivered at the news.

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Porsche's brand-new 2004 Carrera GT actually was a Le Mans race car, at least at first. Porsche originally planned to build a new V-10-powered, carbon-fiber entry for the 2000 24-hour event. Sensing the Enzo's looming shadow, increasing costs, and pending rules changes, the German maker suddenly canceled its race program and instead focused its resources on creating a no-compromises velocity titan for the road. The race team's loss is the sports-car world's gain: a 605-horsepower, 40-valve, 5.7-liter V-10; six-speed manual transmission; 15-inch composite-ceramic brakes front and back; carbon fiber inside and out. Sticker price: a tidy $448,300 for each of the 1500 or so examples the company expects to build this year.

Probably no other car in the world says "Le Mans" like Ford's gorgeous 2005 GT. If the body looks like it belongs on the starting grid, that's because the seemingly identical Ford GT40s were there, winning the event four years in a row beginning in 1966. The aluminum-bodied 2005 GT is no mere skin job: Under its rear clamshell lurks a supercharged, 32-valve, 5.4-liter V-8 good for 550 horsepower (well up from the 500-horsepower figure Ford released during our drive of a GT prototype last year), and a group-high 500 pound-feet of torque. Brawn like that unquestionably puts the GT in the same performance league as the European entries, yet at $150,525 it's barely a third as expensive as the Porsche and less than a quarter the sticker price of the Enzo. Dearborn deserves to be proud. Why no Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren? The new carbon-fiber-bodied, 617-horsepower uebercar certainly has the qualifications--and Mercedes' Le Mans heritage--to deserve a spot in this test, but the German maker declined to provide a test car, citing ongoing high-speed-stability development.

Two Hundred Proof

Before we move on to the power and the glory, it's worth reflecting on just how fast 200 mph really is--and how difficult it is to achieve such speed even today.

No human ever drove a land vehicle to the Big 2 until 1927, when Major Henry Seagrave pushed his streamlined Golden Arrow speed-record car past 200 mph at Daytona Beach. It was four decades later, in 1966, when Ford's GT40 became the first car to break 200 mph on the Mulsanne Straight at Le Mans. And it wasn't until 1972 that driver Jerry Grant (at the wheel of the Mystery Eagle Indy car at Ontario Motor Speedway) posted the first-ever 200-mph lap at a racetrack. By then, it had already been three years since Neil and Buzz had walked on the moon.

Today, motoring enthusiasts (and Hollywood movies) love to relay wide-eyed tales about how this-or-that wondercar has the potential to blow past 200, but in reality only a handful of street-legal vehicles actually measure up. In last year's "Speeding!" comparo (June 2003), even the vaunted Lamborghini Murcielago could reach "only" 193 mph on the APG oval (in fairness, guest driver Justin Bell felt the Lambo was still accelerating slightly when he had to brake for the upcoming corner). In fact, going into this year's test our record at APG was the Ferrari 550 Maranello (July 1999), which maxed out at 194.5 mph.

That such fabled supercars should struggle to reach the magic 200-mph mark--even on a huge, high-banked closed course--should give some indication of the challenges involved. Not to mention the risks: At 200 mph, at which speed a car is traveling the length of a football field every second, seemingly little things (an engine glitch, a gust of wind, a rabbit crossing the track) can have potentially disastrous consequences. There's an exponential difference in perils between 100 mph and twice that speed. Translation: The surgeon general has determined that gunning for 200 mph anywhere outside a controlled test track is only for idiots.

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Although we push sports cars to their limits on test tracks week in and week out, even we don't have much seat time near 200. So, for our max-speed laps, we turned the keys over to a pro who makes a living at such velocities: Indy Racing League ace Bryan Herta. One of four stars currently driving in the IRL for Andretti Green Racing, Herta, 34, is a seasoned veteran with a stellar racing resume that includes two CART victories and one IRL win (at Kansas last year) plus a lot of clock time in big-bore sports racers. Driving his XM Satellite Radio Dallara-Honda, Herta also posted a fourth-place finish in this year's Indy 500. Ironically, it was Herta who, in 1994, recorded the 2000th 200-mph qualifying lap at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. A good omen.

With the sun fully exposed over the horizon, safety personnel stationed around the circuit, two sets of advanced GPS test gear strapped into the car, and Herta primed to go in Nomex and helmet, we were ready to begin our first speed runs. We didn't know it then, but in just four hours the MotorTrend record books would be rewritten completely.

Ford GT Top Speed: 200.1 MPH

For anyone lucky enough to have witnessed an original GT40 race car in action, it was a sight to put a lump in the throat: Flashing onto the straightaway off the distant high banking, a hazy shimmer of red blooming quickly into that unforgettable shark prow, the Ford streaked toward us like a ghost from the past coming back to life before our eyes. At first, our ears detected only the faint whoosh of a pressure wave, the red wedge pressed into the asphalt, the incredible speed both breathtaking and disconcerting. Suddenly, almost with a leap, the Ford screamed past us, its exposed exhausts scorching the air with a razor-edged rip of redlined V-8.

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“A little bit of movement over the bumps, said Herta after his run, “but still really smooth, and even at top end | didn’t have any issues with the steering getting light or the car wandering around.’ Herta also confirmed that the GT, like all members of the 200-mph dub, was probably too fast even for APG’s five-mile banked oval. “On my first lap I had it in sixth, but on my next lap I found that it ran faster in fifth. I was definitely over 190 mph coming off the banking, and by the end of the straight each one is 0.84 mile long at APG], it still felt like it had a little left. On the other hand, it’s probably not a good idea to try to find that last tiny bit on this track. There’s a lot of desert out there, and if you made a mistake, youd find most of it.”

On a few exploratory laps of our own, reaching 175 mph on the straights with ease, the GT (a preproduction pilot car) felt as buttoned-down and confidence-inspiring as we remembered from our drives of a few prototypes at Laguna Seca last year (November 2003). Our hands immediately sensed that Ford has increased the steering effort a bit since our last drives—a welcome change that Ford later confirmed. Herta remarked that he likes the look of the small “retro” steering wheel, but added that if it were his car he'd prefer a slightly larger wheel for improved steering precision.

The clutch remains a jewel, easy to engage slickly and remarkably light in effort—a real achievement given the 500 pound-feet thundering through the driveline. Over bumps at speed, we noted the same small vertical chassis movements Herta had mentioned; they're no doubt partly attributable to the fact that the GT wears slightly taller-sidewall tires than the Ferrari or the Porsche. The GT’s fine ride quality, we think, is worth that minor tradeoff, especially since stability isn’t affected.

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Despite being the heaviest (3468 pounds) and, even with 550 horsepower, the least-potent car in the trio, on the nearby vehicle dynamics area the GT left our test equipment gasping to Keep up. It blitzed from 0 to 60 mph in just 3.7 seconds, the lavish torque, superb clutch, and positive shifter making the GT the easiest car of the three to launch from a standstill. The quarter mile was a stunner: 11.2 seconds at 131.2 mph (for comparison, the last Dodge Viper we tested (January 2004) ran the quarter in 11.8 seconds at 123.6 mph).

The GT’s aluminum control-arm suspension is a worthy complement to the rippling V-8. Flying through the cones at 71.8 mph, the GT notched a second-place score (ahead of the Enzo) in our slalom test, the chassis responding with the same inspiring, predictable feel we've experienced in sports cars like the Corvette Z06. You can slide the GT and rein it back in without ever feeling like it’s about to bite you, a real achievement for such a high-performance mid-engined machine. Brakes are third-best but still outstanding, the GT stopping from 60 mph in just 110 feet.

By the way, did we mention that we think the GT is one of the most beautiful sports cars we've ever seen?

Compared with the Ferrari and the Porsche, the Ford feels a bit old-school. And, indeed, it doesn’t use carbon fiber and lacks computerized stability control and exotic brakes. Yet the GT’s track numbers speak for themselves: It’s just a whisker shy of the Porsche in top speed and runs just a tick behind the two Europeans on the dragstrip. Add in the GT’s beauty and exceptional poise, and the $150K sticker begins to look like it belongs on a discount rack in Filene’s Basement.

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This particular GT was due in Dallas for another event the day after our test. Did Ford swathe its baby in Bubble Wrap and roll it onto a trailer full of lab coats for the ride? Nope. At day’s end, the car’s handler simply topped off the tank, tossed the keys to a driver, and told him to have a nice trip. Just like that, Ford’s white-striped, 200-mph Le Mans-inspired masterpiece rumbled out of the APG gates and back into the real world of left-lane bandits, instant-on radar, and bad road food.

Our Take: Ford GT

Don't Miss: Beautiful nighttime lighting around center console buttons

Bottom Line: A bargain-priced supercar with performance worthy of its famous looks

Porsche Carrera GT Top Speed: 201.5 MPH

Holeeeee Zuffenhausen. Did Porsche really build this thing, or did a comet crash into the back of a red 911?

On our first lap out in the Carrera GT, we knew the double-century mark was going down big-time. The digital speedo was showing 186 mph on the back straight, and the Carrera GT was still accelerating like it had fallen off a cliff. What kind of velocities was Herta going to reach in this animal?

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We didn’t wait long, Herta went out immediately clocked two awesome laps, then returned to the pits to announce he d gone as fast as he could go. "Really nice," he beamed. "Very quick and stable in the corners, the steering is tight, my comfort level was really high. Driving this one fast was casy." The computers backed up Hertas confidence level, revealing that hed sailed through the banking at more than 185 mph before topping out at 201.5 mph at the end of the straightaway. "On a longer straight, I'm sure the Porsche would ve given us a bit more," Herta added. "It was still climbing ever so slightly." Asked how close he'd come to the corner before hed hinally had to hit the brakes, Herta laughed. "I shut down when I got scared."

In many ways steering precision, chassis composure, braking power, build quality—the Carrera GT is pure Porsche. In others, though, this flamboyant, two-seat targa (two roof panels pop out and stow under the front hood) feels decidedly un-German. Maybe even—dare we say it?—Italian.

There’s that electrifying V-10 engine, for instance. When have we ever heard such wild, searing screams from a Porsche powerplant before? Built with a 68-degree angle, the all-aluminum V-10 displaces 5.7 liters, breathes through four valves per cylinder, and pressurizes the fuel and air in its cylinders like a highoctane espresso machine (compression ratio is a race car-like 12.0:1). A large bore/short stroke design helps the engine spin to a sizzling 8,400-rpm redline. All this mechanical wonderfulness produces an astounding 605 naturally aspirated horsepower at 8000 rpm. With 435 pound-feet, the Porsche trails the group in torque output.

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The engine mates with a conventional six-speed manual transmission, and it’s here that the Carrera GT’s only weak link materializes. The car’s tiny carbon-ceramic clutch allows almost no slip—because there’s little flywheel effect, it’s off or on like a light switch. All of us—even Herta—stalled the car a few times, a fact that won't thrill buyers hoping to flaunt their Carrera GTs along Sunset Boulevard for some low-speed/high-profile café fly-bys.

You'd have to dig to find much else about the Carrera GT that isn’t thoroughly wonderful. The Porsche proved even quicker than the Ford GT. After getting used to the tricky clutch action, our test driver cracked off a run to 60 mph in Just 3.6 seconds and an incredible quarter-mile sprint of 11.1 seconds at 133.4 mph. In fact, the V-10 proved so potent, so cammy, our man had to shift into second gear early just to keep the rear tires from breaking loose as the screaming engine soared into the meat of its power curve. “Absolutely the wildest stock engine I’ve ever driven,” was his breathless assertion.

The Carrera GT proved equally audacious in our suite of handling tests. Slalom speed was a phenomenal (and group-high) 73.2 mph, our driver adding that the Porsche was also the easiest of the three cars to hurl through the cones. The brakes—giant composite-ceramic discs with ABS—were simply astounding. The more we used them, the better they worked (apparently, there is no German word for “fade”). The Carrera GT slammed to a stop from 100 mph in only 277 feet. Only one production car we've ever tested, the Dodge Viper at 275 feet, has pulled up shorter. With so much power, grip, balance, and stopping prowess, it’s no surprise the Carrera GT also posted the group’s quickest time in our figure eight test.

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At 3,258 pounds, the carbon-fiber, magnesium-wheeled Carrera GT is just 178 pounds heavier than the last Boxster S we tested (August 2004)—despite being more than 11 inches longer and more than five inches wider. The Carrera GT feels light, too—not rattly or insubstantial, but quick, responsive, delightfully immune to inertia. Yet little has been jettisoned to make the weight. The Carrera GT has power windows, A/C, leather seats, a nice stereo, and a nav system. The car even offers a set of luxurious fitted luggage.

Is the Carrera GT beautiful? Our editors were mixed in their opinions, agreeing only that the exterior is loaded with interesting shapes (including a large rear wing that automatically deploys above 75 mph). Our view from the driver’s seat, however, was unanimous: We've driven few cars so utterly dazzling.

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Our Take: Porsche Carrera GT

Don’t Miss: Stability-control system allows a welcome amount of tail-out cornering

Bottom Line: One of the most awesome all-around performance cars we've ever driven

Ferrari Enzo Top Speed: 211.0 MPH

You don’t call Ferrari public relations and say, “I'd like an Enzo to test, please.” All 399 have been sold. The cars are in private hands, and 99 percent of Enzo owners will hang up the phone immediately when you tell them, “Why do I want to borrow your rare, million-dollar exoticar? Uh, so I can drive the living capellini out of it for an entire day."

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Than we called Preston Henn. The founder the hugely successful (and huge) Swap Shop flea market/circus/drive-in theater complex in Ft. Lauderdale, a long-time campaigner of top endurance racers (fielding cars for drivers like A.J. Foyt), and a seasoned big game racer himself, Henn had only one question when we asked for the keys to his Enzo. “Yucca—that’s a real short Lear Vegas, isn’t it?”

And so it was that we got our hands on perhaps the most outrageous production street car ever built. The Enzo just reeks speed. The doors scissor upward-tres Le Mans. Thr nose bears the front wing shape of an F1 Ferrari. The barebones cabin includes a steering wheel crowded with buttons, shift oaddles, and even tiny shift lights to warn you of the approaching redline—just like Schumacher’s. And, oh yes, there’s that engine under the clear rear cover a magisterial V-12 delivering a staggering 108.5 horsepower per liter.

When Herta finally wheeled the Enzo onto APG’s high-banked oval, even the prairie dogs came out to watch. From the first flying lap, the Enzo was visably faster than the other two cars. You could the Ferrari coming a fearsome crescendo of shredding air and wailing twincam aluminum. And then is was gone, in its wake a piercing purebred howl straight off a Formula One circuit.

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By the time of the Enzo's runs, the on-site weather station was reporting a light breeze, so to negate any wind effects, we asked Herta to go for top speed on both straightaways (the front straight had a bump at its start that made it tricker to negotiate). The resulting two-way average left everyone's jaws on the asphalt: 211 mph flat. We've never tested a faster production automobile, Herta wore his biggest post-laps grin "The speedo said I was carrying 200 comfortably in the corners. Very nice chassis, Extermely stable. You could tell this one was the fastest the moment the cylinders started lighting up. The steering is lightest of the three; I'd prefer a little more weight. Really like the paddle shifters. Just dynamite to drive.”

Not content simply to walk away with highest top speed, the Enzo also proved the quickest car of the trio in our acceleration tests (it carries just five pounds per horsepower—the bantamweight Lotus Elise, for comparison, carries 10.4). Though the car’s standard launch-control system supposedly makes max-accel standing starts a no-brainer, the system never seemed to deliver the ideal amount of wheelspin. Still, we recorded a 0-to-60-mph time of just 3.4 seconds and a quarter mile of 11 seconds flat at 133.9 mph. That latter performance may well stand in the MT record books for a long time to come.

Though its brakes are brilliant (stops were only slightly longer than the Porsche’s) and its ride-height-adjustable suspension churns out tons of grip (0.96 g), the Enzo proved the most nervous of the trio in our handling tests. Slaloming the car was particularly difficult; once the Enzo starts to slide, it’s difficult to catch. Its overall balance is quite neutral—usually a plus—but even Herta said he preferred the reassuring trace of understeer built into the Porsche.

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To our eyes, the Enzo isn’t the prettiest of Ferraris (trying to be charitable, one of our team said it reminds him of an origami swan), but there’s no denying its purposefulness and incredible sex appeal. “If you offered me one of these cars, I'd probably take the Ferrari,” said Herta as he gave the Enzo a covetous pat. “Mostly because, well, it’s a Ferrari. It has that mystique.”

Like the Ford and the Porsche, the Enzo never stumbled, never got overly warm, never ran rough—even as we continued our handling runs into the 100-degree afternoon heat. Which was perhaps the most eye-opening aspect of our top-speed flog: Today, you can actually own and enjoy a bona-fide, 200-mph supercar without being a contortionist or having to keep a staff of mechanics on your payroll.

“I drive my Enzo around town all the time,” said Henn proudly. “I once got stuck in traffic in it for over an hour and it just purred right along, the A/C keeping me cool the whole time. I tell you, the thing is even easier to drive than my 360 Modena.”

Yes, dear readers, the rich are different from you and me. They have more money. And they can drive at Le Mans any damn time they want.

Our Take: Ferrari Enzo

Don’t Miss: Digital speedo in lower dash automatically remembers maximum speed

Bottom Line: Quite simply, the fastest production car MT has ever tested