The Ford GT is a midengine, two-seat sports car that was designed for the 2005-2006 model years. The designers of the car took their inspiration from the 1960s GT40; it began as a concept car in tribute of the 100th anniversary of the car company. At 1995's Detroit Auto Show, the GT90 concept was displayed, and at the auto show in 2002, the GT40 concept was released. The new GT is very similar in appearance to the original, but it is wider and taller; although the two look much the same, there are no structural similarities between the two.

British company Safir Engineering continued building GT40s into the 1980s, and they at the time owned the trademark to the name. When their production run ended, they sold the extra parts, trademark, design and tooling to a company in Ohio (Safir GT40 Spares). This company in turn licensed the GT40 trademark so that Ford could use it for the 2002 show car, but when Ford decided to produce the vehicle, negotiations fell apart.

The first GT was delivered in 2004, and assembly began in Norwalk, Ohio. All vehicles were painted at Saleen Special Vehicles in Troy, Michigan, and GTs are powered by engines built at the Romeo, Michigan plant. Engine and transmission installation were done at the Wixom, Michigan SVT building. Of the original planned 4,500 GTs, 100 or so were slated to be exported to Europe. 200 were set to go to Canada; production ceased in 2006 without ever reaching these numbers. The last eleven bodies were taken apart, and sold as service parts.

The Ford GT has many state-of-the-art technologies, like formed aluminum body parts, bonded floor panels, a stir-welded center tunnel, an innovative fuel tank, capless filler system, single-piece door panels, and an aluminum engine cover. The cars are stopped by aluminum calipers from Brembo that have cross-vented and drilled rotors all the way around. The midmounted 5.4L V8 is entirely made of aluminum, and a Lysholm supercharger came installed. That supercharger has a rotating assembly in a specifically-designed aluminum block. The GT uses a dry-sump oiling system, which allows the engine to sit lower in the frame of the car. The 4-valve heads are a retooling of the SVT Cobra R heads from the 2000 Mustang, and the camshafts have more duration and lift than those of the Cobra or the GT500. The GT put out 550hp and 500 ft. lb. of torque.