Meet The Man Who Designed The Ford GT

Camile Pardo, the designer of Ford’s supercar, the Ford GT, put his background in pop art and a passion for cars into his timeless design. In his Petrolicious feature, Camile gives us insights into the design process of the Ford GT that came full circle.

Car design is an emotional marathon. Projects that you wake up every morning excited to pursue can be canceled at a moment’s notice. Although we miss out on many cars designed by passionate people, the Ford GT was not one of them.

When Ford started the design process for the GT, they planned to go straight into production. During the process, Ford ordered a concept car and canceled the production car. In an effort to coax Ford into producing the GT Camile made sure to build a concept that was very close to the production car. Camile was never sure if his creation would reach production. “It’s something you have to take day by day”, he explained.

Luckily, the positive response to the concept car was able to justify the production car. Now the car received input from automotive legends like Carol Shelby, Jackie Stewart, and Jay Leno. Test mules were abused, scrutinized, and developed in order to build the best GT possible. These raw mules were distilled down into the production car we know and love today.

Of course the designer of the Ford GT, Camile has owned 6 different examples. “There’s nothing like driving a car you put a lot of time into”, Camile explains. He started with a no option plain white GT and has since moved on to his current custom painted GT. The man who designed the GT continues work on his canvas adding new paint jobs and personal touches. Today, his painting background can be expressed on the very canvas he designed.