GO BIG OR GO HOME! New QUICKSILVER GT LM Exhaust for the Ford GT Shmeemobile

This is kind of confusing. We're taking my Ford GT to Quicksilver Exhaust for another new exhaust. This car has had a fair few over its life so far, and it's about to embark on a big adventure outside of Europe, which I'll tell you about later on. But yeah, this is by choice rather than forced like some of the previous ones, and later on you're going to see why we're doing this. About a year ago, I was having a failure with the standard exhaust system that came on the Ford GT, so we enlisted the help of Quicksilver to create a bespoke special projects exhaust system, which has been installed on the car ever since. Sounding amazing with some beautiful details, but after this, Quicksilver had a lot of Ford GT owners hitting them up, including to build something new, to build something even better, and that's what we're going to be upgrading to today when we head down, pop this on the lift, and get the new one installed. My Ford GT is the most permanent of permanent schmiemaviles. This is me in a car, I want to say. This thing, from when I took delivery of it about five and a half years ago at the Goodwood Motor Circuit, all the way through to everything it's done since. The trip to the United States back in 2019, going plenty of times to the Nürburgring Nordschleife in Germany. I've taken it to Sardinia on an adventure to join the Pagani Raduno, also took it recently to the south of Spain to join Supercar Owners Circle, wrapped in the pop art livery by Louet, supporting CARM, charity along the way. So this thing has done so much, all the bespoke details about it, and today we're adding another one. We're adding another detail that links back to the Ford GT's history, something special about it. So we need to crack on, we're taking this over to Quicksilver, everything's going to happen today super quickly, and I can explain all, and as I mentioned, about where it's going next. Hi guys, I'm Shmee, hello, and welcome back to the channel. Today we're again upgrading my Ford GT. A bit of a backstory to the exhausts that have been worn by this car. It's about four or five now, and it's kind of complicated, but it will make some sense. Let me explain. When I ordered the Ford GT, I ordered it with the regular standard European exhaust. It came with these amazing matte black tailpipes, they had fins inside, kind of matching with the tail lamps, looking like something off a fighter jet. That was the standard system because at the point I ordered, you couldn't upgrade to the sports system. However, when the car was in the United States, that regular exhaust developed a rattle, a bit of a failure, and as such I purchased an upgrade to the factory titanium sports exhaust that was installed at Galpin Ford in Los Angeles, California. Now that sounded amazing, a massive step up, but unfortunately fast forward, and it ended up failing, so we had to replace it here in Europe, which obviously meant with a European sports exhaust. A little bit quieter, but almost as soon as that was fitted, it actually had a problem as well, so temporarily we went back to the original. And in fact, come with me through here, because in the storeroom we actually have these, at the moment, the failed exhaust systems up top there. I say the failed exhaust systems because after we had swapped it back to the European system and that had failed and gone back to the American, we then got a standard European system installed on the car instead. But being a standard magic door opening, that's amazing. Being a standard European exhaust system, it was significantly quieter and just didn't really cut the biscuit for a car like this, so what we did instead was go to Quicksilver to have this bespoke system made. Now that was the first Ford GT system that Quicksilver has made with their Quicksilver Special Projects, effectively being able to make a totally bespoke exhaust from Inconel, lightest possible material, best possible sound, and some amazing details. But then, like I said, shortly after, the guys went and made something even better, which is why we're going back today to upgrade to the system you're going to see later on, which fits this car down to a T. What's next though for this car is really quite exciting, something I've actually been planning for a while. I have teased a little bit as well, but my Ford GT is going to be sailing across the oceans and going back to America. I mean, this is the American supercar. It's here because of Ford winning with the GT40 in the 60s, the American team winning at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. That's why they made this thing. I had so much fun with it back five years ago now when I flew it over to New York, started a journey, but this time around we're going to be doing things a little bit differently, and I should probably touch on more of that later, but we're going to be kickstarting in Texas, and not only in Texas, but at Circuit of the Americas for the GT1 Sports Club, which is going to be the most epic of hypercar events out on track at the home of the United States Formula One Grand Prix, and my Ford GT is going to be there. This thing is going back to America. There are so many things that make this car personal to me. It was the first factory Ford GT with custom painted stripes, tribute to the Allen Man Racing livery. We've then got the BBS wheels, the FIR wheels, which are exactly the same as the GTLM. Clue to what's coming, the GTLM, the race cars that raced at Le Mans in the south grey paintwork. We've got all of the bespoke interior details from Sparco and from ADP to make it even more bespoke, and today we're adding the icing on the cake. So let me grab the keys, let's hop in, let's get this car out, and let's get over to Quicksilver. For shipping this car to the United States, there's an interesting battery topic we're going to have to approach, but we will get to that in a week or two. For now, I do actually need to unplug the CTEK smart charger because, of course, it is time to get it started, and with the exhaust that we have on here, it does sound absolutely amazing. Newer Ford GTs actually had a 12 volt socket in the small luggage compartment at the back. The original GTs, the earlier ones, you have to do it with the clamps on here, or of course you could install something and have it done by a third-party system, and maybe that's something I should have looked into earlier in the process, but anyway, I didn't. This is where we are for the time being. Let's make sure that we're all good to go with the factory-supplied Ford Performance charger. So let me hop in, we'll get this started up. Always sounds amazing, even though it's only a V6 on the cold start, and that is thanks to Quicksilver, and that's why we have them on the car. The last time I drove this car was a couple of months ago. Obviously, I've been away a lot, taking it to GT101 for its fifth year service and running over some of the costs, and while driving like this on the M25 here in the UK in a traffic jam and slight drizzle, although I guess I should be thankful that it's not pouring with rain right now, it's not the most exciting. Where it is going is going to be epic. To be honest, the memories that I have of this car in the US back in 2019 were so epic that doing some new things is just going to add to that as well. I mean, I drag-raced Brooks at PBIR in Florida, I did some laps at Road Atlanta with this car, I took it to the Mustang GT500 original launch event before, of course, having my own that I bought out in the US and then did many miles with, and lots of different Schmiermobiles have now been over there. This was the first, the GT Black Series went out, obviously I bought the GT500 out there before that, the Zembo has been, and I have the Dark Horse out there as well, so yes, you can probably predict that this car and the Dark Horse are going to be together for a fair few things, because one of the problems I had with this when it was out there back then is that there's no luggage space. If you want to do a tour or a road trip or a rally somewhere, it's impossible. This time around, I happen to own a car that has a fairly big amount of space, so if we want to drive on a motorway like we are right now, we can take both cars, and I have some pretty awesome plans for what we're going to try and do with the two. I just need to link up all of the logistics and make that happen. For now though, this car's going, again, I know, to Quicksilver, but I mentioned the wheels earlier, and that ties into the new exhaust that we're actually coming to fit today, and this will make sense, trust me, when we get there. It's just such a special car with so many plans that I kind of want to do everything I can with it and just really enjoy this to the max. I mean, look, we've got 11,658 miles on it, not many Ford GTs have been driven like this, and actually when you consider how far it's gone to only have that mileage, it's actually kind of sensible, but when you know you're going to own a car forever, there's no rush in the same way to feel that you need to preserve the mileage, I'm not looking after it for the next guy, there's nothing like that, it would be totally, totally pointless. That is a congested bit of road up ahead of us, and obviously nobody is sitting in the left lane. I mean, look at this, welcome to England and the lane discipline here, it is not done right, it's never done right, oh well, onwards for now, and we will get this up on the ramps and hear a little bit about what's happening today and the new system that is going to be going on it. I'm all excited about putting my foot down as we join a different road, except average speed cameras, roadworks and traffic, welcome to the United Kingdom, we can get a little acceleration, it doesn't exactly sound bad, now today is not specifically about changing the sound of the car, it's more about changing the looks of the system, and again, when we're there, I just love driving this thing every time, even if it's sitting in a traffic jam as we have been, it looks like a UFO, a spaceship, a bizarre thing, it just doesn't make any sense, it's a weird seating position, because even though the engine is behind you, there's a lot of car in front and it's a very narrow window, it's hard to see out the mirrors, but when you do lean over and get a different view through them, you look literally straight through the buttresses behind you, there's just everything about it that's unusual, people don't know what it is, everyone wants to come and take a look at it, and admittedly that can be kind of annoying in traffic, but one good thing about what we're doing right now is that we need to get the fuel down, because to ship this thing out, it can't go with, it had about three quarters of a tank when we started, it needs to be emptied, you can't ship or fly or sail a car at all unless it has basically a nearly empty fuel tank, so this is a helpful step right now, there is a McLaren, that is a 750s Spyder, I think that's the first one I've actually seen on the road, follow up to the 720, we are pulling in to grab some sandwiches though, but anyway, we're in the McLaren region of the country, although that must be a customer car because it's got a private registration on it, which is kind of fun, go on a drive, see a supercar, I mean some people have seen a 4GT on the road today, which is also very cool, forget your GR Yarises, we've got lunch from GR Eggs, Greggs, has to be done, I was going to try and leave, but this is absolute pandemonium, how on earth are we going to squeeze through here, not with ease, I think it's completely blocked, I've just got to basically wait, that's a mess, that's gone completely wrong, I've got to wait for this guy who's reversing so we can get out of here, yeah, that's not helping our journey to Quicksilver right now, not at all, maybe we can go around the outside, can we go around there, maybe, maybe not, maybe, this is chaos, a few moments later, we are arriving, right there's a speed bump here, lift system up and somewhere through here is the workshop of Quicksilver, where over the years I have been to visit quite a few times in fact, going back to the first exhaust I had on my Audi R8, oh nice, pair of 812 GTSs, lovely, where are we going to park this, right behind them for the moment, and we'll go in and say hello and figure out what is what before we go into the workshop. That is what it sounds like currently and now inside in the workshop, in fact this is where the original system was developed and where this one was actually installed, but what we're doing today is not so much about changing the sound, it's about changing the look, the new exhaust system is awaiting us right there, one minute on that, because story time again, the Ford GT was introduced in the first place to be a rerun at Le Mans, 50 years after 1966, in 2016 they made a new race car to go win, they won the GTE Pro Class, the road car is the homologation version, Inno then made a very limited run set of these FIR wheels, effectively the wheel in the colour of the GT LM race cars, there were not a lot of these, they weigh about the same in a total of four as the carbon fibre wheel option for the GT, so I ordered it with the standard ones, we fitted these, the gold BBS centre caps to match with the gold stripes as well, but the LM theme is so much of what this is about, the Alan Mann racing motorsport heritage livery, the LM wheels, and now an exhaust system with a nod to this as well, let's go grab Matt to show us what this is all about. The car is up on the lift, we will be taking a better look at this, but before removing the current exhaust, let's head over here because we've got something cool to take a look at. Hello and welcome, we've got something really special for you today Tim, but I think you've got some questions for me first. I think there's going to be quite a few, we've got two systems, these look amazing and need some explaining, but I think my car was the first new GT you guys have had in? Yep, so about a year ago now I think we had you in and you must have done how many miles now? Something like 4,000. Just insane, I love it and it's so good and it still sounds as good today, so this is sort of version one and then I want to introduce you to version two and we'll talk in more detail about that further down the line. The company's changed a lot. Massively, yeah, so recently we've just bought a merge with our sister company, so we've quadrupled factory output, we've got such amazing technological advancements that it was the right time for this to happen. To do something like this. So rewind, the one on the left, familiar tips, this is akin to what's on my car at the moment? Yes, ever so slightly different because this is a GPF car system, so you'll notice it's ever so slightly wider and you've got the bungs here of course and a shallower bend line, but the V1 tips as we now call it, remain and is what's on your car now. So this is the handholding canal with 3D titanium insert on there. Which looks amazing, with the addition of heat shielding. Yes, so you'll notice that's new, so your system was previously a ceramic heat coating. The reason for the cladding, it came around a bit of a funny way really. We were approached by a mutual friend and a dealership, where in certain countries it helps that it has a similar texture to the factory system. And not only that, it wasn't necessary, but we've actually won about 40 degree temperature reduction with these as well. So it's a really special thing as well. Yeah, so massively advantageous. Because the system itself, you'll have to correct me on the numbers, it's about five and a bit kilos? Yeah correct, so your stock system was nine, and now we've got this down to 5.4. So you're losing like half the weight from the back. It looks mega, and it sounds mega. Yeah, why wouldn't you do it? And now it's even more mega. So I'm really pleased to introduce you V2. Yeah, this is incredible. Two main differences of course. The big one is the, it was internally known as Cyclonic from Ford. Yeah. But these are a functioning Venturi tailpipe, okay. Really, really special. So you still have your handholding canal, okay. This is a 3D printed functional insert. And if you do the famous YouTube get your hand inside, you can actually feel the gap there, where we've allowed air to come through here, and air to come through here, and it creates a pulse scavenging effect. Okay, so you get a pocket of high pressure, pocket of low pressure. That effect almost is like a vacuum, yanking the exhaust gases out the car even more efficiently than it would typically. Because your car is such a motorsport derived vehicle, it links back to your sort of Ferrari versus Ford in the 60s. These Venturi style tips were sort of pioneered by Ferrari almost. So it's really nice we compare the two together, and you get the function, and you get the beauty of them. I mean, look at them. Because there's the other link as well. Ford made a GTLM edition, which came with an exhaust tip styled like this, but not in Europe. Correct, yeah. So everyone ordered it, saw the US cars getting delivered with this tailpipe style, and then obviously was slightly disappointed when it came to the EU and never got them. Yeah, exactly. So it was important that we did that. And it's just a really fantastic system. And what I think is important to say as well is, with that pulse scavenging effect, you get a pocket of cold air here. So you actually get a temperature reduction too, along with the cladding that we'll get onto in a minute. Okay. Yeah, so you get beauty and function. And badge. Shmeety LM. Shmeety LM, the quicksilver sound architects. I mean, we couldn't miss that out, could we? No, no, I appreciate that. Because obviously we did some unique touches like that before. Yes. I see this as kind of thermal benefits, looks, visual benefits. Exactly. And we've technically already had the sound benefits that come from... Yeah, correct. And it fulfills the sort of want and desire from the customer that already needs another exhaust that we've spoken about earlier in another video. You mean I've had a couple of reasons out of my control? Maybe, yeah, not from us thankfully. But yeah, I mean, you get function, you get beauty, and you fulfill the need for the customer that expected their LM, which is a super special car, but they'd never got the tips in the EU because Ford just pulled the plug on that. Yeah, no homologation or that, right? Exactly. The beauty of this. So this, I guess I can probably Yeah, of course, yeah. 5.4kg. Not too bad. Maybe I'm going to safely give that to you so I don't drop it. Absolutely no, that's okay. But not too bad. So I suppose step one is getting the undertrays off the car. Yep. Get the current one off. Correct. And then get ready to put this on. Exactly, yeah. So I can't wait to hear it. I bet you can't either. Let's go. Look the part and sound the part. Can't wait. Here we go. Diffuser coming out. Large carbon piece. Not the easiest. You got it. Perfect. Let me have a look at what we've got going on under here. Obviously, engine gearbox and the exhaust that was installed before with the ceramic coating, as we were talking about, and the branding installed on there as well. But that is what's going to be coming out now. It's amazing how much there is by way of openings in here to swap these over. Out comes the previous system we've had installed. There we go. Nice and easy. Protected to make sure when removing it from here, it does the job properly. Now the new and improved. Even better. While I'm underneath the car here, for the brake cooling, you've got these carbon pipes and then the orange hoses that go inside there. But what's actually quite interesting about this is just for the brake cooling, if I come round to the outside of these scoops here in the lower sides, those are literally just going through to the brakes. There are also some knacker ducts underneath for airflow into the whole diffuser area. But this is just for the cooling, I think, back towards the rear brakes. I love looking at this stuff and starting to take it all in. I mean, look at the openings through the front. That's always just nuts. The way you've got this T-shaped floor pan down there and then the view through towards the control arms. Mega stuff, this car. The engineering is crazy. The moment of the new one going in. This is the carefully does it, kind of twisting it into the bodywork up here. Got that. Offer it up. Nice and easy. Looks super smart and looks very OEM, which is kind of half the point of this. Subtle. Discreet. There's something different about this to last time. Yeah, so when we were stood at this angle about a year ago, keen viewers will notice that I'm not Ollie and I don't have luscious locks and I don't have my boffins clipboard. So we're going to do this quick fire round of technical knowledge. So if you join me under here, you'll notice this is the brand new cladding that we spoke about earlier there. Basically, what we've done, two reasons. One, it marries up really nicely with the OE textures under the car. And that's really important in pretty much all car markets now. Obviously, some are more strict than others. Now, typically, what you get is you get this stainless cladding just sort of tacked on, which is okay, but we haven't, we don't just do just okay here. So basically what we've done is we've got an Inconel retaining ring and we've done a sandwich layer of silicon and depleted carbon. So you get a sort of a wadding because you have to separate this from the Inconel tubing, of course. And then you get this welded on with the Inconel retaining ring. Beautiful finish, beautiful OE look to it, still with the amazing quick silver sound. Yeah, it looks stunning. I mean, I've only seen the tips from down below like this, but I'll pull it down when the diffuser's on and have a proper look at it. Absolutely. Right now it looks mega. The slightly tricky bit, sliding the diffuser in, all of the connections and cables in the way. But to be honest, because race car, not too complicated, just lots of bolts to hold it in place. And the view through the back of the new system that now features in there. Down we come, which means seeing how these stack up in the car. The way this was designed to have those central exhaust tips is obviously to get the air out straight away from the engine, but just happens to look fantastically cool in the middle of the teardrop cabin, the open buttresses, the airflow that goes through the taillights as well. And now check that out. If you kind of look down a little bit on them, that is such an amazing design. What a result. We are about to have a startup. I'm not sure if it would be a full cold start because the swap has been very, very quick. But regardless, let's take a listen to the new sound. Yes, it is still warm. Sounds mega. Anybody who says the Ford GT doesn't sound good with a V6 is just wrong. But the look of this, if I stand back and look at it, the design is really, really cool. That is very, very nice. I like it a lot. I love this car. Such a special car to have all of these extra details, just even more so. If it rolls on out, we'll get it warmed up properly and then have a little sound check before we head out from here. As you heard, that sounds mega. The snap that you get. And I think it was like that before, but you don't really hear it inside. Having now heard it from the outside myself. Epic. One more thing to show you, though, come have a closer look. They're actually handed left and right because of the way the 3D printed parts are made. You can see the way they're shaped for each side of the exhaust tips, which is very cool as well. The design, I think this is going to be a big thing for the future with regulations and sound and stuff. It's going to be much more about what an exhaust kind of looks like and the visual appeal of it. And that is a massive step change. That looks so good on this car. Anyway, time to hop in. Time to get back on the road. Time to go sit in a horrendous traffic jam. The navigation is not looking good right now. Not the best car for it, but we can't change it. Let's go enjoy it. Get back to the museum. Back on the road. And it is fun that this car can make such a good sound. Of course, we're just on the highways here at the moment. It's going to sound way better at Circuit of the Americas for the GT1 Sports Club than it could possibly do here. But we will make the most of the last bit before we arrive at the killer traffic jams ahead of us, because this is a nasty, nasty journey coming up. Unfortunately, it is what it is, and it's always fun to be in the GT. Just even if I drop it down to first gear, it just sounds nice. Yeah, very cool noise. Very, very cool noise. But alas, speed limits are speed limits. Hopefully, we get an opportunity up here for plenty more of that as we turn onto the main highway. But the A3 here. Oh, RS6 went the other way. I'm stuck behind the transporter when I want my clear, open run. But it is what it is. Let's see. Are there two lanes? It's just one lane, one lane. Okay, wait a second. Hold back, hold back, hold back. Sounds absolutely mega, this thing. Like, the noise at the top end is so much more lively and exciting than it ever was before. A little bit random. We're on a cross-country route to try and avoid some of the traffic. But where we are right now, on the left here, might be familiar. Certainly a place I have been many a time. This is the entrance to McLaren, the McLaren Technology Centre, McLaren Production Centre, and everything they have going on on their site here in Woking, England. But we're definitely not going 50 miles an hour, the speed limit here. Just one of those days, it's going to take a long time to get back and be a very, very, very, very silly route to make our way around. Random fun thing. Have a look at this sign on the left. Not sure if you can see that. My GT8 is up there. Petrolheadenism Underground sign, which is kind of cool as you go around the M25. Love it. Nice work, Giro. It's going to be a little bit strange when we don't have this here for a while, because when you factor in shipping times, it will go for a fair stretch. As I mentioned, though, when we get to that, there is still going to be one thing that's a little bit complicated, to ship it, which we're going to focus on that when it's ready to actually be sent off and onwards to America. But beforehand, oh my gosh, coming around towards the back, this just looks so good. Those exhaust tailpipes look mega. I'm going to say small detail. It's obviously not a small detail because it's a lot of work that goes into those, but it's a small detail compared to the scale of the car, yet it's such a good one. It looks absolutely brilliant. I am really quite pleased with this. Of course, it brings the sound that we know from before that we've been enjoying and will continue to enjoy with the Ford GT, but now with the extra benefits for heat, which considering we're going to some pretty hot places along the way with the journeys ahead is always beneficial, and looking absolutely perfect for this thing. I wouldn't be surprised if other people see a picture of that with Ford GTs and need to have those exhaust pipes on the back of it because it just suits the car very, very well. I guess though that's pretty much it for today. I don't really know what else we need to do with this car. It's pretty much as it needs to be ready to sail on out. I thought it was going to get a bit dirtier today than it has, get a quick rinse down probably. I like to get to the other end and it still be clean, so not like the just splatters from the rain that we had earlier this morning up the sides of it, but not doing too badly. It's an epic thing. It's five and a half years old. It's not really cost me all that much along the way. I've got to tie up all of the customs paperwork for shipping it over and insurance for the US, but that's all in motion already, which is very helpful. And yeah, I'll update you on that when we're ready for this to get on the way, and we are boxing it up to send it to the United States to go to the Circuit of the Americas for the GT1 Sports Club weekend. That is going to be unreal. For now though, a big thank you to everyone at Quicksilver, to Nat for joining me on the video earlier on to explain the new exhaust system, and to Ollie and everyone else who's set up all of this, because it's just really cool, and this guy's just really, really, really cool. That's how I'm going to summarize the new exhaust. That's it for now though. Thank you very much as always to you guys. I appreciate your support an awful lot. That's it for now though, and I'll see you again very soon. Cheers!