The Corvette Racing team might have some hurt feelings if they start losing to Ford Mustangs. Announced this week during the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, Ford Performance and Multimatic Motorsports will enter a new Mustang GT3 race car that will compete in the GTD Pro class of IMSA competition, starting with the 2024 racing season. By then, the S650 Ford Mustang will be on the market, so it only makes sense that this was Ford’s first official teaser of the upcoming muscle car.
The factory-backed team will feature to two cars, and will be managed by Multimatic Motorsports. Additionally, Ford and Multimatic will be offering privateer GTD Class Mustang GT3 race cars for customers.
S650 Ford Mustang GT3 Race Car: Details
Powering the Ford Mustang GT3 race car will be a 5.0L Coyote-based V8 engine developed by Ford Performance, and built by long-time racing collaborator and world championship winning team, M-Sport of Cumbria, England. Ford and M-Sport currently enjoy a fruitful rally racing partnership, with the Ford Puma Hybrid Rally1, which finished 1-3-5 in its debut race at the Monte Carlo Rally this past weekend.
Naturally, the Coyote-based V8 in the S650 Mustang GT3 race car will have some have performance and packaging modifications, where the car will move the gearbox to the back of the car, likely to push the 5.0L V8 closer to the center of the car. This would make it more of a “mid-engine” orientation, with better balance and weight distribution compared to otherwise leaving the gearbox up front. It’s too early to tell if this modification will make it to the production 2023 Ford Mustang GT. The race car will also feature bespoke Short-Long Arm suspension front and rear, rear-mounted transaxle gearbox, carbon fiber body panels, as well as a unique aero package developed to meet GT3 targets.
Joey Hand, one of the winning drivers in the 2016 Le Mans 24 Hours GTE Pro class in the Ford GT, is going to be one of the test drivers for the new program, as well as continuing on in his role as a development driver and coach for Ford Performance.
Ford Mustang GT4 Race Car Also Confirmed
Ford Performance and Multimatic Motorsports have also confirmed that the Mustang GT4 customer race program will continue into the future, with a new Mustang GT4 expected to debut in the 2023 season. Again, it’s extremely likely that this new race car is based on the new S650 Mustang.
In other Ford Racing news, the Next Gen Mustang NASCAR Cup Series racecar will debut in the NASCAR Cup series on February 6 at the LA Coliseum, and then at the Daytona 500 two weeks later. Ford Performance is also developing its new Gen 3 Mustang for Australia’s Supercars Series that will debut at the start of 2023.
Multimatic is about to get very busy.
Image via Ford Performance
