Ford is engaged on returning to the more and more widespread realm of prototype racing.
After launching its new Mustang GT3 mannequin final 12 months with Multimatic in IMSA’s WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and with the privateer Proton Competitors squad within the FIA World Endurance Championship, RACER understands Ford is actively exploring the formation of one other sports activities automobile engagement with a manufacturing unit prototype initiative that may adjust to LMDh rules.
Inside IMSA’s GTP class, vehicles constructed to LMDh guidelines are fielded by Acura, BMW, Cadillac, Lamborghini, and Porsche, and by Alpine, BMW, Cadillac, and Porsche within the WEC’s Hypercar class. Hyundai’s Genesis effort, due in 2026 in WEC and 2027 in GTP, can be being designed to LMDh requirements.
Three sources have informed RACER that Ford is in superior conversations with chassis constructors, together with making outreaches to potential companion groups. Though it’s unclear whether or not Ford would focus solely on a home effort in IMSA, or run twin applications with one on house soil and a world WEC marketing campaign, its most up-to-date full-factory initiative, the place the Ford GT was represented in each championships, might function a information for the place a GTP/Hypercar challenge is headed.
Requested in regards to the model’s return to prototype competitors, a Ford spokesperson informed RACER, “We are able to’t touch upon any hypothesis.”
Ford’s first international prototype marketing campaign was with the famed GT40 program that raced within the U.S. and went overseas and received the 24 Hours of Le Mans 4 consecutive occasions from 1966-1969. The Ford C100 prototype, conceived and centered on European endurance racing, debuted in 1981, and on the home entrance, a pair of memorable manufacturing unit applications sprang forth within the Nineteen Eighties as effectively, beginning with Bob Riley’s front-engine Mustang GTP in 1981, which received on its debut, and it was adopted in 1985 with the Ford Probe GTP penned by Paul Brown, each who had been early adopters of carbon fiber in prototype chassis design.
Though it stepped away from constructing full prototypes that wore its title, Ford’s V8 engines had been a preferred and extremely profitable engine selection within the Nineties inside IMSA’s World Sports activities Automotive components — its successor to GTP – and the pattern continued within the 2000s within the Grand-Am Rolex Collection, the place Ford V8s powered a spread of first-generation Daytona Prototypes.
Its most up-to-date foray into prototype racing got here through the second DP period within the 2010s, when Chip Ganassi Racing and Meyer Shank Racing ran Riley-built vehicles wearing custom-made Ford-commissioned bodywork that utilized Ford’s twin-turbo V6 EcoBoost motors.
The Michigan-based auto producer, which additionally has a significant presence in NASCAR, the NHRA, and can enter Formulation 1 as an engine provider in 2026, additionally earned notable victories with its Ford GT effort that ran from 2016-2019 with the Ganassi group in IMSA and WEC, underscored by a category win on its return to Le Mans in 2016 and back-to-back class wins on the Rolex 24 At Daytona from 2017-2018.
Ford had two GTP manufacturing unit applications through the Nineteen Eighties, together with one in direction of the tip of the last decade with the Probe. Marshall Pruett Archives
Amongst Ford’s choices in selecting a chassis companion, Italy’s Dallara is answerable for constructing LMDh fashions for BMW with its M Hybrid V8 and Cadillac with its V-Collection.R. Dallara can be believed to have one other producer’s LMDh automobile within the works. France is closely represented by Ligier, which manufactures Lamborghini’s SC63, and ORECA, which builds Acura’s ARX-06, Alpine’s A424, and Hyundai’s upcoming Genesis GMR 001. Canada’s Multimatic, a longtime companion of Ford, builds Porsche’s 963.
Combining the quite a few producers who’re coming to or have been racing in GTP/Hypercar since with LMDh vehicles, and the handful who’ve chosen the extra adventurous LMH guidelines (Aston Martin with the Valkyrie AMR-LMH, Ferrari with its 499P, Isotta Fraschini’s Tipo 6-C, the 9X8 from Peugeot, and Toyota’s GR010, plus the previous LMH entries from Glickenhaus and Vanwall), the launch of the LMDh/LMH rules in 2023 has seen 14 auto manufacturers take part to create a brand new golden period of prototype racing.
On the engine entrance, all LMDh vehicles are required to run as hybrids and are capped at 680 hosepower. The premise of the LMDh guidelines includes pairing a spec power restoration system made by Bosch and Fortescue WAE with an inner combustion engine that meets every model’s wants.
To this point in LMDh, twin-turbo V6s (Acura, Alpine) like Ford’s current EcoBoost that powered its DPs and GTs, and twin-turbo V8s (BMW, Lamborghini, Porsche) have been the most well-liked selections. Hyundai plans to energy its Genesis mannequin with the mating of two turbo four-cylinder WRC motors, which might add one other TTV8 to the sector.
Solely Cadillac, with its naturally-aspirated 5.5-liter V8, has opted in opposition to pressured induction. Ford’s Mustang GT3s depend on the model’s well-known 5.4-liter Coyote V8s.
If the Ford prototype challenge strikes ahead, it could match its in-state rival by racing in opposition to GM/Cadillac with hybrids in F1 and GTP/Hypercar within the coming years. With the onset of the 2025 season approaching, making the grid on the Rolex 24 At Daytona in January of 2026 can be formidable. A begin later within the 12 months, or in 2027, is the extra probably situation.
