(Photos: Ford) We knew it was coming, and it is everything we hoped it would be and then some. At a press conference this morning at LeMans, Ford unveiled the racing variation of the upcoming GT supercar at a press conference, with Ford Excecutive Chairman Bill Ford, Ford President and CEO Mark Fields, Ford’s VP of Global Marketing Raj Nair, and Chip Ganassi himself on the board and plenty of press in the background waiting to get their first shot at the new race car.
“When the GT40 competed at Le Mans in the 1960s, Henry Ford II sought to prove Ford could beat endurance racing’s most legendary manufacturers,” said Ford. “We are still extremely proud of having won this iconic race four times in a row, and that same spirit that drove the innovation behind the first Ford GT still drives us today.” Without doubt, innovation exists with the GT. Eschewing the traditional V8 for a twin-turbocharged V6 has certainly been an eye-raiser for fans of the car, a significant portion of which have been crying foul over. But with Ganassi Racing fielding the same EcoBoost engines in race cars for the past two years, there isn’t a question on the engine’s durability…there has been plenty of time to work out any issues that could have arisen with the 3.5L engine.
In addition to FIA World Endurance Championship racing, the GT racer will also compete in Tudor United SportsCar Championship, and will make an on-track racing debut at the 24 Hours of Daytona January 30-31, 2016. Ganassi noted that no drivers have been selected for the car yet, but that there were plenty of racers waiting in the wings for their opportunity to get behind the wheel. In addition, a host of companies have joined Ford to assist with the GT LM project, including Multimatic Motorsports, Roush Yates Engines, Castrol, Michelin, Forza Motorsport, Sparco, Brembo and CGRFS.
The original GT40’s story is now legend: Henry Ford II’s anger at being rebuffed by Enzo Ferrari turned into a blank-check racing program designed from the start to embarrass the legion of the Cavallino Rampante. And with four years of victories, including the 1-2-3 win in 1966, the GT40 itself became legendary, so much so that Ford brought the concept back for their centennial celebration as the 2005 Ford GT. Now, with Ford Performance’s war cry of new models and renewed racing involvement, it seems that the company has cracked it’s neck and knuckles in preparation for a world-class grudge match on the track. Come January, we will see just how capable Ford Performance’s new wild child actually is.
Nice touch at 1:40 in the video. 🙂
I might actually have to pay attention to Le Mans and Daytona this year.
Yes of course they’ll be there in 2016 . Complete with CGI’d imagery [ what this whole damn video is ] ..vaporware content , hype and hyperbole by the truckload and enough fertilizer to bury the entire midwest .
But more importantly …. with a line of semi’s full of false expectations , broken promises and shattered dreams
All to enter a race no one’s given a damn about in the slightest for over a decade … not to mention trying in vain to compete with the likes of Acura – Audi(R8 V10 ) – Ferrari – McLaren – Porsche both in price and performance during the midst of what promises to be another worldwide economic recession of epic proportions . Brilliant
And to think I used to support Ford claiming they were the last of the US automakers seeing the world around them for what it is .. not to mention playing it reasonably straight with their customers
All that shattered in one fell swoop , first with the not ready for prime time [ or much of anything else ] EcoSnooze engines … then with the bs aluminum F150’s ..
…. and now with the vaporware , pie in the sky , absolute abject hyperbole to the extreme new EcoSnooze GT … which will get its pretentious head handed to it by each and every one of its direct competitors and a few well underneath its price range as well .
What a pant load ! The only thing worse than Ford spreading this around is the media lapping it up like the bunch of desperate vultures they’ve become …….. god forbid journalists should dare to attempt a bit of genuine Investigative Journalism rather than regurgitating what the corporations hand them verbatim
Journalism . The new advertising medium
The sad thing is you when you are proven to be wrong and all mouth, you will never admit it.
Let me guess, Colorado waste of oxygen…you’d LS swap it….
Go buy a Scooby Doo…after all they are love. You are just a ray of sunshine beaming from the Ganja state!!! Is there anything you like? Clearly it isn’t automotive stuff you enjoy.
Sigh, such an ass. Not a shred of evidence for any drivel coming out of that little brain. Kudos to Ford, Porsche 123 in qualifying, should be a great race. LMP racing is the only racing this year with any excitement. Indy wasn’t too bad.
A GT40 without a V8?
What a travesty – it should be called a GT10
Somebody should die for this…
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr……
Just like The Porsche guys whining about water cooled, look at them now
Here is reason why Ford dropped their support of NHRA racers.
Curious…I thought that the big NHRA money left to go to sportsman racers…Someone seen that to not be the case?
It looks nice and it’ll be fast I’m sure, but it sounds like an asthmatic playing a kazoo. Can we get a different exhuast note guys?
If that clowns brain worked half as well as his typing fingers, maybe, just maybe he would have a clue. What the hell is in the water in Colorado anyway?
What is any manufacturers reason for sponsoring a body only in funny car? Engine is not brand specific, you can’t tell them apart unless they paint their name in big letters on them, minor aero gains maybe? No real world gains for production cars