All-American Icon: Throtl’s Carbon-Bodied Ford GT

There’s something about the Ford GT that sets it apart from other supercars, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. The Throtl GT takes that and turns it up to 11.

I’m not talking about the obvious, either. Sure, you can’t ignore the stars-and-stripes, apple pie, and baseball-ness of it; an American thoroughbred designed for peak performance from one of the most recognisable brands in the world. But that’s not what I’m talking about.

Just take a look at Ford’s other high-performance hits to see what I mean. The ultra-futuristic GT90 and the V6, twin-turbocharged 2015 GT don’t have quite the same legacy as the 2005 GT, even though they’re technically far superior. No, it’s the down-to-earth, honest-to-god, blue-collar-ness of the V8, manual-equipped GT that does it for me.

I’m not alone in that thought, because Erik and Rick Beckerman and the team at Throtl have taken a totalled, written-off wreck of a 2005 Ford GT  – their childhood poster car – and turned it into a carbon fibre, GT2-bodied, balls-to-the-wall build from the ground up. And I do mean from the ground up, because what you’re looking at is the result of two Ford GTs, with the best parts of both salvaged into one.

“I think all of us would agree the first chassis was pretty far gone. The Tungsten Grey chassis, on the other hand, was stripped down to nothing, so it really felt like we had a clean slate to work with,” says Mitch Veil, Throtl’s project manager. “In a way, it felt like we were able to take two cars that were basically left for dead and bring them together into one finished piece. It wasn’t so much about saving one or the other; it was about building something better out of both.”

Finding a donor chassis to replace the unrepairable shell was the lynchpin on which to build, and the team complemented it with a whole host of new, OEM suspension parts, including wheel hubs, control arms, tie rods, and anti-roll bars.

The Ford sits low on a Reid Performance/Fortune Auto 510 Series coilover suspension, featuring custom spring rates and valving to achieve the race-car-like ride height. Mitch explains: “We had a constant back-and-forth between getting the stance exactly where we wanted it and still making the car usable on San Diego roads. Nick Reid and the team at Fortune Auto really helped dial that in with us. We actually went through two different front coilover height setups to get the fitment right.”

At the end of the assemblies are Wilwood six-piston front and four-piston rear callipers, poking behind the gorgeous HRE Classic 305 wheels. These measure 20×10-inch at the front and 21×13-inch at the rear, wrapped in 265/35 and monster 335/30 Michelin Cup 2 R tyres. “Something a lot of people don’t realize, we’re running a GT3 RS factory tire size all around, and it ended up working out perfectly for what we needed,” Mitch laughs.

With 550hp from the factory thanks to a 5.4-litre, supercharged V8 engine, the team’s priority was easy, hassle-free, and reliable performance. That’s why you’ll find a comprehensive CSF Race three-piece cooling package underneath the GT’s low, carbon fibre bodywork. The CSF solution consists of a two-row radiator, an intercooler heat exchanger, and a transaxle cooler. With the addition of a CSF Race oil cooler, the upgrades ensure cool running under the San Diego sun.

A custom x-pipe exhaust, fabricated from Vibrant Performance tubing, lets the Modular V8 sing, while the polished supercharger sits pretty under the enormous rear clamshell.

It’s the Ford GT’s bodywork – and the WD40 livery – that really turns heads. A Doran GT2 body kit, fully carbon fibre, takes the already wide Blue Oval and gives it a serious motorsports pedigree.

“As a team, we realized that we had to think outside the box to get this build done right,” says Mitch. “Restoring the car to OEM just isn’t in our DNA, and thankfully, Mickey [Andrade] had some connections from his time at Falken Tire, which led to us sourcing an authentic Doran body kit. It wasn’t the easy route, but it was the right one to get the car where it needed to be.”

It wasn’t a straight fit, though, as the team found a one-inch misalignment when trying to fit the front floor to the donor chassis. This required cutting and shifting some of the front chassis points back for clearance, but you would never tell.

Even with its tight wheel arch radiuses, ruler-straight side skirts, custom front canards, and Doran wing on custom billet uprights, it’s the headlights that are the most striking feature.

“The Doran race cars run a standard dual headlight setup in the buckets, which is cool, but for this build, it just didn’t feel special enough. We explored a ton of different options,” recalls Mitch. “At one point, we even pulled apart a set of G80 M3 headlights to try and retrofit the projectors into our buckets. In the end, we decided to go with a cleaner, more simplified approach, something that felt like a subtle facelift rather than a full redesign…which led us to the 3D-printed units we’re running now.”

Look past the WD40 livery, and you’ll see the smaller details, with quick-release catches, billet vents, a Sparco fuel door, and even underglow. Yes, really.

All of the work came together for a grand reveal at the 2025 SEMA Show, and the public reception to the car spoke volumes about how impressive the build is.

“SEMA was unreal. That was the first time we really got to step back and see the car the way everyone else does, finished, under the lights, surrounded by a crowd. It’s a completely different feeling from seeing it in the shop,” says Mitch. “The cool part was the reaction across the board, but the everyday SEMA crowd probably hit harder. When people who don’t know the full story still stop and get excited about it, you know you did something right. SEMA is like the Super Bowl, and we definitely celebrated the win!”

That sums up the blue-collar character of the Ford perfectly. It’s the most aspirational car from a brand for everyday, salt-of-the-Earth people. The Throtl team may spend some of their days building top-shelf, high-end supercars and German performance icons, but they’re car enthusiasts through and through, just like you and I.

“At the end of the day, all cars are just cars, but the GT is different,” Mitch says. “It’s one of those icons you grow up looking at, so getting to tear into it, cut it apart, and rebuild it from the ground up doesn’t take away from that; if anything, it makes you appreciate it more.”

The GT, alongside the Porsche Carrera GT and Pagani Zonda C12 S, is peak performance in a mechanical package. Throtl’s one is that same recipe, kicked into overdrive.