Le Mans: The Mustang GT 3

When it came to choosing the vehicle for Ford’s return to global sportscar racing, there was no contest. Nothing else delivers the power, the sound and the emotion of a Mustang.

First revealed at Le Mans in the summer of 2023, the all-new Ford Mustang GT3 is the American performance icon primed to take on European challengers such as Ferrari, Porsche and Aston Martin on the biggest battleground in sportscar racing.

Created by Ford Performance and Multimatic Motorsports with a 5.4-litre Coyote-based V8 engine developed by Ford Performance and built by World Rally Championship partners M-Sport, the Mustang GT3 is spearheading Ford’s charge and will make its Le Mans debut this summer.

Multimatic Motorsports was chosen as the partner on this project after working on numerous customer Mustang programs in the past. As Ford’s partner in the Ford GT and the new Bronco DR race programs, they have proven success in contributing to championship-level race programs for Ford and its customers.

A two-car “Ford Multimatic Motorsports” factory effort is currently competing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and a developing customer program has seen the Mustang GT3 compete in GT World Challenge Europe and the FIA World Endurance Championship, which includes the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The new race car is eligible to compete at some of the world’s most iconic races, including Le Mans, the Nürburgring 24 Hours, the 24 Hours of Spa and the Bathurst 12 Hour. Ford’s bold vision is to have Mustangs competing across the globe every weekend, thrilling race fans all over the world with Mustang’s on track presence and the unmistakable sound of its V8 engine.

Mustang GT3 made its competition debut at the Rolex 24 at Daytona in January this year, the year that the Mustang brand celebrates its 60th birthday and six decades of racing success not only in sportscar racing, but also in stock car racing, drag racing, rallying and drifting.

Based on the 2024 Mustang Dark Horse, the Mustang GT3 features a bespoke short-long arm suspension, rear-mounted transaxle gearbox, carbon fiber body panels, and a unique aero package developed to meet GT3 targets. Development focused on creating an affordable, durable race car that is simple to maintain and run by customer teams and vitally easy to drive for amateur racers.

Technological advancement is the reason d’être for motorsport and races like Le Mans create a stimulus for innovation. The principles of road-to-race and race-to-road are a perfect fit for the Mustang programme. The Mustang Dark Horse is the base car for the Mustang GT3, which in turn is the base car for the hotly-anticipated road-going Mustang GTD. GT3 cars are by regulation as close to production cars as race track safety and also the “need for speed” allows. The GTD, unfettered by racing regulations, then takes a further technological step.

The Ford Mustang GT3 has been bred to race and on 15-16 June, it will compete at the greatest race of them all: the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

DID YOU KNOW?

Ford CEO Jim Farley recently told Top Gear that Ford’s return to Le Mans in 2016 was originally planned to be with Mustang. 

“When we decided to make Mustang global – to sell it around the world in left- and right-hand drive – for the previous generation, we knew the 50th anniversary of the Le Mans win was coming up,” said Farley.

“We started to talk inside the company about winning Le Mans with the Mustang. Larry Holt and Multimatic were the easy choice for us. And we went around talking to the sanctioning bodies like IMSA about what it would take for a Mustang to win. Multimatic started doing a lot of simulation, and it became clear that we couldn't really win with the silhouette of a Mustang. We would be too dependent on the ACO and the French regulators.”

“We decided at that time to take a totally left turn with Multimatic and Larry's technical leadership,” admits Farley. “And we designed the Ford GT. But the original idea was never to have a new GT. We wanted to win Le Mans with the Mustang.”