Second gen Ford GT "flying buttresses"

📸: Photo courtesy Ford.com

Ford's newest rendition of its GT supercar features some absolutely thrilling styling choices, and our favorite of all are the "flying buttresses" used to help channel air past the passenger compartment and the shrink-wrapped engine cover. This design element greatly aids the profile of the car, as it ties the sloping roofline to the massive rear fenders. But is it a functional necessity or just show?

📸: Photo courtesy Ford.com

One could certainly make the argument that these supports are superfluous. From this angle, we could see how the rear fender could certainly stand alone without help from the top, kind of like the Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus' SCG1 fenders are designed. So we tend to think this is just Ford's way of adding a little extra zing to the styling of the GT. And we are not mad at them for that!

📸: Photo courtesy Roadkill.com

Certainly, the flying buttresses did nothing to slow down the racing versions of the GT, which won its class at the 2016 24 Hours of LeMans in convincing fashion.