With just shy of 400 ponies under the hood, this new Ford is more than capable at the traffic light Grands Prix. Darren Cottingham inflicts pain on the tarmac.

It’s the bonnet. Take it off and you could use it as a Crusty Demons freestyle motocross ramp. Looking out the windscreen of Ford’s new 'lion tamer’ is like looking out of a WRX. Only it’s not a scoop to suck in air and small birds for the gigantic forced induction system — the small hill in front is there purely to clear the hulking 5.4-litre V8. With 390bhp (290kW) and enough torque to pull a sumo wrestler convention, Ford Performance Vehicles’ GT takes off like a Kawasaki 250 on a dirt ramp.

The engine was developed for the Ford Expedition — a wallowing SUV so huge it probably needs 520 Newton-metres of torque just to get it moving. Put it in something a bit more lithe though, and you start moving quickly.

GT stands for Grand Tourer. A Grand Tourer should be able to cruise effortlessly and serenely at autobahn speeds, but when you want to disturb some wildlife it should bellow fire when you step on the gas. Welcome, then, to a proper GT. Or is it? Shouldn’t a GT have just two doors? Probably, but you can forgive it for its practicality and its pub-geek statistics.

I was expecting to turn more heads driving down the street, but the GT, despite looking all muscular when stood still, only attracts attention with traction control turned off and the loud pedal buried into the carpet. Maybe I need to educate the masses on the exact power figures this vehicle has, or perhaps 18-inch mags, a large chrome exhaust and angular spoiler are becoming 'the norm’ for cars these days.

The body kit blends in perfectly with its V8 Supercar-inspired lower front intake and side skirts that lead to the diffuser-style rear. The spoiler is prominent, but way more subtle than a proper V8 Supercar version.

Sizable Dunlop 245-width tyres grasp the tarmac like a rock climber on dry a cliff, though you would have to be insane to turn traction control off in the wet — it’s more of a handful than a pair of greased jubblies.

So, the Ozzies (in their infinite wisdom) challenged our masculinity by placing the traction control switch closer to you than even the volume knob for the stereo!

“Come on you blokes, don’t be Sheilas, turn me off,” it beckons. So I did, and mashed the throttle for some glorious noise.

Creating the din is the hand-assembled Boss V8 engine with an air filter the size of a bucket of KFC hanging off the side. You can’t see much of the engine because of the plenum cover, but it has race-bred quad-cam multi-valve technology combined with high-compression V8 grunt. It was developed in Australia, so it knows how to drink.

Expect to become friendly with your local petrol station. Double overhead camshafts and 32 valves work together to form a wall of torque from around 1700rpm up to the 6000rpm redline. Keeping the camshafts hollow has reduced weight and gives a faster response due to less inertia.

The block is cast iron — strong and heavy, and it’s what’s used in V8 Supercars — while the heads are cast in aluminium alloy to minimise weight and to reach the optimum operating temperature faster. A forged steel crankshaft maintains strength under the high power and torque loads, each one having undergone a special balancing process at Ford Performance Vehicles to match the piston and conrod combination.

Inside the car you get extremely comfortable and supportive seats, a chunky steering wheel with cruise control and stereo controls attached, and drilled aluminium pedals. You also get some nasty looking plastic in places, but overall, it has a good ambience. Housed in the central console is the air conditioning and 100-watt single-CD stereo. A large screen shows you what’s going on sound-wise, but it has a hideous-looking interface harking back to Microsoft Windows 3.1.

The great thing about this car is that as long as you don’t use the horrible automatic mode (Ford didn’t have a manual version for me to try), and keep it in sequential gear change mode, you can easily explore the limits. Don’t even try to explore the limits using the auto mode as it has a violent kick-down when you plant the accelerator. This is a nightmare mid-corner and can lead to an undesired tank-slap. Normally, though, it gives a slight bit of understeer, then four-wheel drift, then a reasonably progressive breakaway at the rear. The trick LSD and V8 Supercar-derived suspension give you a lot of feeling, and the enormous grooved and ventilated disks with their blue callipers put you well into the negative g-forces when you need to stop. The national speed limit comes up in about 5.8 seconds consistently (one thing auto boxes are good for), and if you need a quick blast past an old geezer towing a caravan; 80-120 (the Time Exposed to Danger measure) takes just 3.6 seconds. You’ll need just short of 35 metres to stop from 100kph.

So, should you buy this?

Well, if you have to tow a race car, or you’ve got jet skis and a squad of chubby PlayStation kids you need to move around, then the GT is a sensible choice. Expect to pay around $75,500 for the base model GT, which is considerably cheaper than an equivalently specced HSV. And, if 520Nm of torque isn’t enough for you, Ford even has a turbo V6 coming with 30Nm more, and it’s cheaper!

SPECS

Vehicle: Ford Performance Vehicles FPV-GT

Engine: 5.4-litre Boss V8, twin overhead camshafts with four valves per cylinder (32-valve), Mustang air filter, 10.5:1 compression ratio, hollow camshafts, 75mm throttle body with drive-by-wire linkage

Driveline: Rear-wheel drive with four-speed automatic transmission, sequential gear change mode (5-speed manual available as well), Traction control.

Suspension: FPV, tuned by V8-ace John Bowe. Front — double wishbone with coil springs; rear — independent multi-link with coil springs. Stabiliser bars.

Brakes: ABS. FPV twin-piston caliper front, single-piston rear, grooved and ventilated disks. Brembo upgrade with four-pot calipers and cross-drilled disks available

Wheels/tyres: 5-spoke, 18-inch alloys with Dunlop 245/40ZR18 Sport 9000.

Exterior: Factory body kit, fog lights, side skirts

Interior: A starter button, leather seats with built-in curtain airbags, FPV scuff plate inserts, drilled pedals, driver and passenger airbags

ICE: 100W, single-CD

Performance: 290kW at 5500rpm, 520Nm at 4250rpm, 0-100: 5.8s; 80-120 (TED): 3.6s; 100-0: 35 metres.