The road-going Ford GT is said to take aero inspiration from LMP1 carsThe Blue Oval schedules a major Ford Performance news announcement for Friday, heightening rumours of a sports car racing comeback
Ford has dropped a hint that it is preparing to confirm a return to motorsport in the Le Mans 24 Hours with a race-developed version of its Ford GT supercar.
The manufacturer has indicated that it will be making a “major Ford Performance news announcement” via a live-streamed global media conference at 2pm UK time on Friday 12 June.
That’s the day before this year’s running of the famous French endurance race, and traditionally a day when manufacturers reveal their big sportscar racing news.
Ford’s short bulletin about the announcement offers no details about what will be announced on Friday, but most of the Blue Oval’s top brass – including executive chairman Bill Ford, chief executive Mark Fields and product development president Raj Nair – will all participate.
A return to sports car racing in 2016 would be the perfect way for the company to both promote its new Ford Performance sub-brand and commemorate the 50th anniversary of the original GT race car placing first, second and third at the 1966 Le Mans 24 Hours.
Although the GT would seem a natural fit in the LM GTE category – where it would compete against cars such as the Ferrari 458 Italia, Porsche 911 RSR, Aston Martin Vantage V8 and Chevrolet Corvette C7R – it is also possible that Ford could unveil plans for a prototype for the top-line LMP1 class on Friday.
Interestingly, a short design video produced by Ford earlier this year features a design resembling an LMP1-style version of the GT on a designer’s mood board.
The design has a rear wing, more aggressive aerodynamics and a stabilising ’dorsal fin’ on the engine cover. The latter is a feature of cars in the LMP1 class, but not on LM GTE machines, which more closely resemble road-going machines. Watch the video here:
Entering LMP1 would put the Ford GT up against the dominant hybrids from Audi, Toyota, Porsche and Nissan but also give it a chance of adding to its four outright wins achieved with the original GT40 between 1966-69.
If Ford returns to racing, it would likely use the GT’s mid-mounted, 3.5-litre, twin-turbocharged, V6 EcoBoost engine. In road form, it develops more than 600bhp and is mated to a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox.
Although hybridisation was ruled out as a means of propulsion for the road-going GT for reasons of weight, Ford would probably have to incorporate some form of energy recuperation system into an LMP1 contender.
The Blue Oval hasn’t been shy about communicating the new Ford GT’s racetrack potential since the road-going version was unveiled at the Detroit motor show at the start of this year.
The £240,000 road car was developed in collaboration with Multimatic Motorsports, a Canadian racing team with a 30-year pedigree of working with Ford on its race programmes.
The road car has, according to its chief engineer Jamal Hameedi, a heavily tapered fuselage inspired by that of an LMP1 car.
Nissan, which is returning to Le Mans this year with its radical GT-R LM Nismo, has shown that it is possible for a manufacturer to build a racing prototype that retains links with road-going peformance models.
Asked early this year whether Ford would consider going racing with the new GT, Raj Nair said the car “clearly makes a great platform for racing" although at the time he stressed that the primary focus was on producing the road car for 2016.
If Ford does announce a Le Mans campaign on Friday, it wouldn’t be the only manufacturer looking at increasingly popular sports car racing - BMW is also believed to be interested, although our sister website Autosport reports that it might decide against the idea.
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