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Ford’s race to find The Way Forward will take the green flag for wont of a pace car. Ford informed employees earlier this week that as part of its restructuring plan, the GT supercar will be euthanized. With the announcement that the automaker will shutter its Wixom birthplace, the handwriting had been on the wall for the gorgeous LeMans throwback once dubbed “The Pace Car For An Entire Company.”

Ford spokesman Jim McCain maintains that the car isn’t being cancelled, instead offering that the GT has “just run its race,” noting that Dearborn was only ever planning a two-year run. And while the end of the road for the GT likely won’t have much of an impact on the company’s coffers (it is unclear whether the small-volume brawler ever made money), it does call into question the future of various spinoffs floated in recent years, like the bewitching Shelby GR-1. It, along with the questionably-received Shelby Roadster had been exhibited on the auto show circuit as possible ways to amortize the cost of the GT’s tooling, while continuing to give the manufacturer a “halo car.”

Also failing to make the cut, Lincoln’s LS, the would-be 3-Series fighter that came out of the gate strong but never managed to find the entry-level luxury ‘sweet spot;’ and the planned SVT-fettled Sport Trac Adrenaline. The former was expected (as it had been left to wither on the vine with no replacement in sight), particularly in light of the Ford Fusion-based Zephyr and pending MKS. The latter stillborn “high performance sport utility truck” likely wouldn’t have been a volume player, but had the makings of an interesting proposition regardless.

[Source: The Detroit News]