The Kuttner - Doran Ford GT-R
On Thursday morning at the Petit Le Mans meeting this autumn, Kevin Doran used these carefully chosen words:

“I may be back with a GT2 car: we’ve got a customer who has signed up with us for 2007, for us to design and build the cars – although not necessarily for us to enter them for the races, although we hope to be running them. It looks as though IMSA and the ACO are happy for us to be running these cars for the first time….”

That customer is Oliver Kuttner, who was last seen racing in the final event of the 2006 Grand-Am series, at Miller Motorsports Park. He raced a Doran Daytona prototype, with James Gue and Tony Ave, and they finished 19th overall.

The target that day was a finish, and as Oliver Kuttner has since said, “we were practising for next year’s Ford programme.”

He used those words in a series of fascinating short films – here.

Despite Kevin Doran suggesting that the Ford GT would be a GT2 car, the films contain expressions that clearly indicate that it’s destined for GT1. If you have time, click the link: the films are well worth a look.

Of his NPTI Nissan GTP, Oliver Kuttner says “we’re going to sell it and part of the funds are going to pay for the Ford GT-R.”

Some of the film is shot in the Doran workshops, and Kuttner points out that “we are going to use a lot of parts from this car (the Doran that raced in Utah).”

Kuttner took delivery of a bare Ford GT chassis nine months ago: we’ll try and follow this project in the coming weeks and months.