With car makers looking to reduce the weight of vehicles to cut emissions, the use of new generation metals has now become commonplace. Building on this, Ford has now turned its attention to vehicle glass and is using light and strong Gorilla Glass in its 2016 Ford GT.

While the GT will have a limited production run, thought to be less than 1000 globally, it does showcase many new technologies which will filter down to everyday cars.

Gorilla Glass is already in common use on hand held touchscreen devices such as phones and tablets, but this will be the first time the material will be used as part of a vehicle structure. Its strength, scratch and shatter resistance, make it attractive to designers, but the main benefit is that it is much lighter than conventional glass material. Ford says this can cut the overall weight of the glass by about 30 percent, or 5.4 kg.

The new GT windscreen and engine cover will have an outer layer of conventional automotive glass, with a special acoustic layer sandwiched in the middle, and an inner layer of the bespoke Gorilla Glass. This new glass composition will also improve aspects of the head up display.