Forty years ago Ford tried to buy Ferrari and failed. This might have amounted to no more than a footnote in history had Henry Ford II not left the negotiations feeling that he’d been led up the garden path by Enzo Ferrari.

So Ford decided he’d repay Ferrari’s discourtesy by hitting Enzo where it hurt him most: on the track. Ford produced the GT40 and pitched it against Ferrari at the toughest race of all, the Le Mans 24-Hours. By the time they lined up for the 1966 race, Ferrari had won six times in succession. But not this time: the Fords came first, second and third and then won the next three Le Mans on the trot. Ferrari, by contrast, never won the race again.

Now, a generation later, Ferrari is once more squarely in Ford’s sights but this time the battleground is the public road. Looking at the GT it would appear that Ford has once again wheeled out its old warhorse, but despite the resemblance this new model and the old GT40 don’t have a component or dimension in common.

Moreover, the GT has not been born because Ford is once more piqued with Ferrari — its purpose now is to put some shine back into Ford’s blue oval where, in the US at least, its cars are being increasingly perceived as out of date and off the pace.

So it created one of the best- looking cars I have ever seen. Its body, chassis and engine are all aluminium, the latter putting out 500bhp thanks to its supercharged 5.4 litre displacement, giving a 0-60mph time of 3.8sec and a 0-100mph time of 8.3sec.

The project was completed in just 15 months, so short a period that nobody has yet found out how fast it will ultimately go. Ford says it’s hoping for the far side of 190mph, but judging by the way it was still accelerating at 150mph I’ll eat this laptop if it’s not a 200mph machine.

The car it is gunning for is Ferrari’s 360 Modena, and so confident are its engineers that when I went to drive the GT they rented a Modena for me to test alongside it.

The Ford is slightly heavier than the Ferrari but, with 500bhp opposed to 400bhp and what feels like more torque at idle than the Ferrari has at its peak, it can afford to be. The limited-edition Enzo aside, the 360 is Ferrari’s fastest-accelerating car and the Ford murders it.

It’s quicker outright but, more important, it is quicker still in the real world: come up behind a slower car in the Ferrari and, while you’re deciding how many gears to change down, the GT has already gone in one flex of its driver’s foot. Any speed, any gear, it just flies.

But while this Ford can outpower a Ferrari in a straight line, you’d expect Italy’s finest to win it all back in the turns. And you’d be wrong. The Ford is so reassuring on the limit and the Ferrari so twitchy, the GT is quicker here too. And it’s got better brakes.

In fact, the only environment where the Ferrari can even begin to get back on terms is on the racetrack. Here you can always keep its peaky engine on the boil and, if you’re sufficiently skilled, turn its desire to change direction very swiftly to your advantage, realising an agility the heavier, softer, more friendly Ford can’t counter. But it’s still slower.

But Ford does not have it all its own way. The Ferrari has an infinitely more classy cabin than the spartan mess that passes for the Ford’s interior; it has a more rewarding gearbox, an engine noise to die for and the most coveted badge of any car. To me, however, it’s not enough. In all those areas where you’d expect a Ferrari to be inviolate, be it speed, looks or the entire on-road driving experience, this Ford outclasses it. And so far as image is concerned, the successor to the GT40 is never going to suffer on that score.

The Ford GT is a car I ache to own but as only 25 from an annual production of 1,500 will come to the UK, complete with a price tag of around £100,000, I’m going to have to put up with the pain.

Just before I drove the GT Christie’s auctioned the first production car, with all monies raised above its $150,000 sticker price going to charity. Its new owner paid $500,000 for it, before commission. At the time I thought he was nuts. Now I’ve driven it, I suspect he bought a bargain.

VITAL STATISTICS

Model: Ford GT
Engine type: V8, supercharged, 5409cc
Power: 500bhp @ 6000rpm
Torque: 500 lb ft @ 4500rpm
Transmission: Six-speed manual
Suspension: Double wishbones, coil springs, anti-roll bar
Fuel/CO2: n/a / n/a
Acceleration: 0 to 60mph: 3.8sec
Top speed: 190mph plus
Price: £100,000 (approx)
Verdict: Forty years on, Ford slays Ferrari once again