As of now we actually know extremely little about the incoming S650 Ford Mustang Dark Horse GT3 race car, aside from Ford’s intention to field the car in numerous marquee international races like the Rolex 24 at Daytona Speedway, the iconic 24 Hours of Le Mans, the exciting Bathurst 12 Hour, and potentially even the Nürburgring 24. We also know that the 2024 Ford Mustang Dark Horse GT3 will be built by longtime Ford collaborator, Multimatic, and the car will make its official debut in March during the chaos of Super Sebring when both IMSA and WEC converge in the small inland Florida town, at a track that used to be a bomber base.
According to Sportscar365, track testing of the S650 Ford Mustang GT3 will also begin in March. Ford Performance global motorsports director Mark Rushbrook confirmed to the outlet the first of two test car chassis is nearing completion.
“We’ll test throughout the program before homologation,” Rushbook was quoted saying. “We’ll have two cars. We will test in North America and in Europe. [Multimatic’s] got a great footprint in the UK with their shop there and everything.”
It’s believed Ford will predominately focus on IMSA and WEC in 2024, the car’s first full year. “We will have a priority to have the factory cars in IMSA,” Rushbrook added. But he also stressed having customer cars in the FIA World Endurance Championship’s new LMGT3 category is also an absolute priority for 2024.
A tweet that was issued last week was presumed to be a Mustang Dark Horse GT3 teaser, but with Ford’s 2026 Formula 1 announcement with Red Bull Racing happening the following day, it’s more evident that the cryptic image of a car’s wing sticking out from a plume of tire smoke had more to do with the Red Bull-liveried Mustang Mach-E that Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez piloted around Road Atlanta than it did the incoming S650 Mustang race car.
Image via Ford.
Rushbook also makes mention of the global SRO rules that underpin the Intercontinental GT Challenge which includes the recently contested LiquiMoly 12 Hours of Bathurst and the Crowdstrike 24 Hours of Spa. SRO Motorsports is the global leader in GT racing with many of the car’s customer teams expected to come from SRO-run series in America, Europe, and Asia.
“That is important to us and we couldn’t do that before with the GT. Now we can with this Mustang.”
While he was at it, Rushbrook also confirmed the new Mustang GT4, based on the S650 Mustang, will become available later this year, shortly after the production car hits dealerships this summer. GT4 production will also be handled by Multimatic and it’s expected 30-50 cars will be produced during the initial production run.
GT4 homologation is expected to occur in the third quarter of this year, which means we could hopefully see Multimatic show up with a Mustang GT4 for the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge race at their home track, Canadian Tire Motorsports Park, just outside Toronto, Canada.
Along with FIA GT3 and GT4 class racing, Ford will also field the Mustang Dark Horse in Australian Supercars, NASCAR, the NHRA, and will offer weekend warrior Dark Horse S and Dark Horse R track packages for customers.
Image via Ford Performance.
