Ford is going back to Le Mans. It unveiled its seventh generation Mustang at mid September’s Detroit Auto Show, in the process confirming a GT4 version and that the previously announced GT3 version will contest the 2024 Le Mans 24 Hours. The Blue Oval had already stated that the forthcoming GT3 car will make its racing debut in the 2024 Daytona 24 Hours.
Surprisingly this is the first GT3 car ever developed by Ford. The Mustang GT3 and GT4 cars are both being developed in conjunction with Multimatic. Track testing of the GT3 contender will commence either later this year or early next prior to homologation in the autumn of 2023.
The GT3 car has a naturally aspirated 330 cubic inch (5.4 litre) Coyote V8. The Coyote is a version of Ford’s ‘Modular’ V8, an overhead camshaft successor to previous Ford pushrod Small Block engines. The Modular family, all members sharing a 90 degree bank angle and a 100 mm bore spacing was launched in 1990 initially with a single overhead camshaft engine.
Developed for the contemporary Mustang, the Coyote version came along in 2010, featuring double overhead camshafts operating four valves per cylinder and initially with a 5.0 litre displacement. Direct injection came along in 2018.
Ford has not yet revealed details of the GT3 race engine, which will be developed and built by M-Sport in the UK and is subject to homologation and performance balancing. M-Sport previously developed a 4.0 litre V8 turbo for the Bentley GT3 programme. At the Detroit Auto Show Ford executive chair William Clay Ford Junior remarked: “there is no race or track that means more to our history than Le Mans… Mustang will go back to Le Mans [in 2024]. Once again we will ‘go like hell’”.