Ford has a long and illustrious history in top-level motorsport, and after backing out of the GTE class at the end of the 2019 season, the Blue Oval has now announced its return to global racing competition with an all-new Mustang GT3 IMSA racecar that’s slated to make its debut in 2024.
To bring this ambitious project to fruition, Ford Performance has once again partnered with Multimatic, harnessing the pair’s ample experience in endurance racing to deliver what they hope will be an extremely competitive IMSA racer platform. Powering the new Mustang GT3 racer will be a 5.0-liter Coyote-based V8 which was developed by Ford Performance and will be built by Cumbria, England’s M-Sport, a world championship-winning team and a long-time race partner of Ford. The eight-cylinder lump at the heart of the racecar will be paired with a rear-mounted transaxle manual gearbox.
To keep everything stable and planted, Ford Performance and Multimatic have opted to bestow the GT3-spec Mustang with race-grade braking hardware, and a top-of-the-line suspension setup with bespoke short-long arm pieces fore and aft. The IMSA racer also hugely benefits from a custom-designed body with a wind tunnel-tested aero kit — an ultra-slippery setup that’s built to meet GT3 targets and is crafted entirely from carbon fiber. This competition-grade version of the iconic American pony car will participate in part of a two-car factory-backed IMSA GTD Pro works team that will be managed and overseen by Multimatic — who has previously collaborated with Ford Performance on a myriad of customer Mustang programs, as well as helping FP to develop its recently-released Bronco DR racer.
Ford Performance’s Mustang GT3 IMSA Racer will make its global competition debut at the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2024, at which time the factory-built GT3 racer will become available to privateer teams. What’s more, the Michigan marque will be debuting the 2022 Next-Gen Ford Mustang in the NASCAR Cup series on February 6th at the LA Coliseum, and will also be rolling out a new Gen 3 Mustang for the Supercars Series that’s slated to break cover in early 2023.
