Against the backdrop of the world’s most famous endurance race, Ford Performance today fully unveiled the highly anticipated Mustang GT3 annual since the company’s return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
“Ford and Le Mans are bound together by history,” said Ford Motor Company CEO Jim Farley. “And now we return to the most dramatic, most rewarding and most important race in the world. It’s not Ford vs. Ferrari anymore. It’s Ford vs. everyone. Returning to Le Mans is the beginning of building a global motorsports company with the Mustang, just as we do with the off-road Bronco and Raptor.” .
While Ford is eager to repeat past success at Le Mans, seen as recently as 2016 with the GT but return to its winning streak in the late 1960s with the GT40, this convergence of GT sports car racing under the GT3 platform in 2024 – where GT3 cars can compete at Le Mans and in The World Endurance Championship, the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, SRO’s GT Challenge World Series around the world and many other championships and races – all of which prompted Ford to jump into the ever-growing GT3 pool.
“It happened for many different reasons,” Mark Rushbrook, global director at Ford Performance Motorsports, explained before the unveiling of this car. “Part of it is internal to our company, and the way we can value motorsport in new and different ways than before. But also, there is a lot that has happened in the racing world, especially in sports car racing. And with the convergence of the GT classes, we can with one car, one Designed and identical one, race globally.
“In factory races, at IMSA, where it’s appropriate to do it, but all over the world—in series like WEC, including Le Mans, SRO—we can race real customer races, and get Mustangs out there for customer teams to compete with. This It’s great for us, because the Mustang is one of our icons. It’s our aura in so many ways. And since we’re committed to the seventh-generation Mustang for the road with a full lineup of vehicles, we’re doing the same on the racetrack.”
Based on the Mustang Dark Horse, the pinnacle of performance in the 2024 Mustang lineup, the Mustang GT3 was developed in conjunction with Multimatic, which will run the car in IMSA GTD PRO competition while Proton Competition campaigns the car at WEC. The 5.4-liter Coyote V8 was developed by M-Sport, Ford’s partner in the World Rally Championship. The Mustang GT3 features improved engine placement, custom short long-arm suspension, rear shifter, carbon fiber body panels and a unique aero package. One notable element of this aero package is the swan-neck mount for the rear spoiler that mounts to the car midway between the rear and the roof.
“It’s very good from a functional point of view, linking up with some good bodywork and providing clean airflow. But it’s also absolutely stunning from a visual perspective,” Rushbrook told RACER, adding to some of the car’s other technical elements.
“The air vents, the way air is directed to flow—not just over the car and under the car, but through the car to efficiently get the drag targets and downforce we need to hit, but also the cooling requirements. And then he took the Coyote’s gorgeous naturally aspirated V8, and got to work. With M-Sport as a great engine partner to develop that and meet the power targets we need to compete in the class.
“We are able to lower the engine in the race car a little bit, a little further back to give it better idle characteristics, a lower center of gravity, and less yaw inertia as well. So it really works with Multimatic as a great partner in vehicle engineering to optimize every system and every component in the car for optimal performance.” on the ring.”
The Mustang GT3 is offered in a bright colored Troy Lee design, complete with new Ford Performance badging that will be featured on all of the company’s race cars. Rushbrook says that while Ford Performance doesn’t expect teams to copy paint, they’d love to take some common elements from it.
In addition to Proton and Multimatic running the car in their respective championships, Ford Performance hopes to see the car in the hands of customers competing around the world, and the company has sent out inquiries from teams wanting to run the car in a variety of championships and races. Rushbrook said the intent is to supply as many cars as possible on demand.
Joining the Mustang GT3, which will debut at the Rolex 24 at Daytona 2024, the Dark Horse Mustang will also form the basis of the new GT4 as well as two other track-only versions, the R and S.
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