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Ford President and CEO Jim Farley was in such a good mood at the reveal of the new seventh-generation Mustang he began teasing the company’s next special edition.
Standing next to the all-new Mustang Dark Horse in Detroit, Mr Farley was speaking about the brand’s planned return to the famous Le Mans 24-hour endurance sports car race in 2024 when he let slip (no doubt on purpose) that the company is planning something special to add to the road car line-up.
“To go to Le Mans, you need a road car,” Mr Farley told CarsGuide. “You should be asking what that car’s about but I couldn’t tell you. So, there’ll be more.”
CarsGuide asked anyway, trying to clarify if this new model he was now teasing would be separate from the traditional Shelby high-performance variants, but Mr Farley wasn’t giving away too much more.
“You’ll find out,” he said.
“What I’m saying is that to compete at Le Mans, we need breakthrough technology to win against Ferrari and Porsche,” he explained. “They are the established players and we are the dark horse. For us to go and win at Le Mans we have to bring something very special.”
The company has already confirmed that it will be racing in the next-generation GT3 category, which is an evolution of the specifications covering events such as the Bathurst 12-hour and Nurburgring 24-hour. Having revealed the racing version of the Mustang GT3 at the launch - albeit virtually - Mr Farley is seemingly teasing a road car based on the racing car.
The most logical assumption is something similar to the Porsche 911 GT3, a stripped-back, track-focussed special that would put a premium on handling and racetrack stamina. This would likely sit above the new Dark Horse, but could share the same 5.0-litre V8.
Ford hasn’t revealed many details about the GT3 racing car, but the images shown of the virtual version show a dramatically different body with a track-specific aerodynamic package. Beyond the obvious larger front splitter and huge rear wing, the GT3 car appears to have a different bonnet and front fenders with more aerodynamically-honed vents.
It is possible Ford Performance could use this as inspiration for a future road car, to more closely align the racing entry with the production car line-up.
For now, it’s unclear what Mr Farley was referencing but he hinted more announcements would come in the near-future. Given the car won’t hit the Le Mans grid until 2024, introducing a new model variant approximately 12 months after the new Mustang arrives in US showrooms would be in keeping with history.
During the sixth-generation lifecycle Ford created the Bullitt, California Special and Mach 1 specials, so a repeat of this format is likely.
Even if Mr Farley wasn’t teasing an all-new member of the Mustang family, at the very least Ford is likely to be planning high-performance Shelby variants of the new seventh-generation Mustang, as well as various limited editions.
Mr Farley also spoke about the decision to keep the ‘S650’ Mustang petrol-powered only, despite rumours during its development that the company was planning a hybrid powertrain. He claimed the introduction of the all-electric Mustang Mach E SUV gave the company leeway to continue with internal combustion.
“The good thing is that we are investing in the seventh-generation because we have Mustang Mach E, because we’re number-two in the US for electric, because we’re number-two in the US for hybrid. That gives us the ability to do this,” Mr Farley said.
“Other competitors are buying credits for emissions and they can’t come out with this kind of vehicle. We can. It’s so exciting that, in a way, the Mustang Mach E allowed this car to happen.”
He also credited the continued interest in the Mustang in markets outside of the US for strengthening the business case around the new model.
“What a lot of people don’t realise is that 20 percent of all Mustangs are sold outside the US or (that it is) the number-one sports coupe on the globe, and we’re now going to 140 countries so this is going to give us a big advantage because a lot of people love this kind of car,” Mr Farley said.
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