In the basement of Ford's Product Development Center in Dearborn, in a room formally used to store foam, the Ford GT super car grew from sketches to clay models to prototypes now being tested on the track in preparation for sale in the second half of 2016.
Ford allowed reporters into the secret lair Monday. Down dingy stairs and into long-forgotten hallways that saw little life before the project pulled together a few select executives, designers and engineers to build the automaker's most expensive car.
"We needed a small barricaded space, away from traffic," said Moray Callum, Ford's head of design.
The team was small and handpicked to include a mix of young talent with fresh ideas and seasoned employees with the experience needed to pull off a new GT in a record 14 months.