Ford Mustang to Return to Le Mans in 2024

Ford's Mustang has been transforming from a boulevard cruiser to a bona fide sports car over the past few generations, but the seventh-generation Stang, unveiled Wednesday at the 2022 Detroit Auto Show, will be joined by an extensive racing program that includes a return to the Le Mans 24-hour race This appears to be the final solidification of this.

The new Mustang will compete in a wide range of racing series, including NASCAR, the IMSA Sports Car Championship, the Australian Supercar Series, and various GT3 and GT4 competitions around the world. With the Mustang's confirmation to compete in Le Mans, the World Endurance Championship will join that list. Le Mans is the premier event on the WEC calendar, as well as the 24 Hours of Daytona on the sports car championship calendar, where Mustangs competed in 1967 and 1997.

The new Mustang GT3 is being developed and will be ready to compete in the WEC's GT class as early as 2024, so the Mustang will not be aiming for outright victory in the hypercar class. The Mustang GT3 will also serve as the basis for a race car that will compete in the GT class of the Sports Car Championship. This means that it will compete against racing cars based on the Aston Martin Vantage, Chevrolet Corvette, Mercedes-Benz AMG GT, and Porsche 911.

Ford has not indicated whether it plans to field a car directly at Le Mans or whether it will partner with a race team, as it has done with Chip Ganassi Racing in its recent GT Supercar success at Le Mans. The company will operate a factory team that will field two Mustang GT3s in the GTD Pro class of the sports car championship.

Ford also plans to offer the Mustang GT3 to customer teams, which may compete in other GT3 competitions around the world.

The racecar is being developed in conjunction with Multimatic, a Canadian motorsports engineering firm that has built GTs and the recent Bronco DR racer for Ford. It will be powered by its own version of the familiar 5.0-liter V-8 engine. The engine was developed by Ford Performance and will be supplied by M-Sport, the British motorsports engineering firm responsible for Ford's recent rally cars, including the Ford Puma-based car that will compete in the 2022 World Rally Championship.

The Mustang GT3 also features unequal-length double wishbone suspension front and rear, a rear-mounted transaxle gearbox, carbon fiber body panels, and of course an aero package developed to meet the GT3 rules

Ford's new car is a "GT3" car.

Joey Hand, one of the class-winning drivers in Ford's 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans campaign, will serve as test and development driver for the program alongside his current NASCAR duties.

The Mustang GT3 is not the only new Mustang racer. Ford has also announced the Mustang Dark Horse R, which could compete in a new one-make series.